Sri Lanka's Opposition leader calls for abolishing Executive Presidential system

Amid the unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka the leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa has called for abolishing the Executive Presidential systemFor nearly 20 years every leader promised to abolish the Executive Presidency but only strengthened it Premadasa said in a stronglyworded speech in parliament on Tuesday reminding the Parliamentarians about the necessity to introduce a new electoral systemSri Lanka must abolish the allpowerful executive presidency and strengthen Parliament without paving the way to a similarly dictatorial premiership while ensuring adequate checks and balances opposition leader Sajith Premadasa saidIt is pertinent to mention that since the introduction of the presidential system in 1978 every election which ensued was fought on the promise to abolish the presidency However once elected all presidents chose to ignore the election promiseBut as the nationwide protests gripped the island nation due to the severe economic crisis President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Saturday imposed a State of emergencyReiterating his demand he said but this time its different it seems the people of Sri Lanka will make sure that it gets doneEarlier he said that the country is calling for wholesale change Its a melodrama that is being enacted to dupe the people of our country Its not a genuine effort towards bringing some sort of relief to the people of our country Its an exercise in fooling the people Premadasa saidWhole country is calling for wholesale change What we ask for is a pathbreaking wholesale change that brings about relief to the country not relief to politicians not a game of musical chairs where politicians exchange their position he addedMeanwhile newlyappointed Finance Minister Ali Sabry has resigned on TuesdayIn a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa he wrote After much reflection and deliberation and taking into consideration the current situation I am now of the view for your Excellency to make suitable interim arrangement to navigate this unprecedented crisisHe said that when he resigned as Minister of Justice on April 3 it was not his intention to take up any post thereafterSabry along with three others was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on MondayAli Sabry was sworn in as the Minister of Finance Dinesh Gunawardena was sworn in as the Minister of Education Prof GL Peiris was sworn in as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Johnston Fernando was sworn in as the Minister of HighwaysHe said that he joined as Finance Minister to maintain parliamentary democracy and the stability of the system He said he became a minister after the requests made by the business communitySri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation The economy has been in a freefall since the onset of the Covid19 pandemicSri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage which has incidentally affected its capacity to import food and fuel leading to the power cuts in the country The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countriesOn Sunday 26member Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers submitted resignations amid rising public anger against the government over the economic crisisMeanwhile the 36hour long curfew that was imposed on Sri Lanka on Saturday evening at 6 pm was lifted on Monday morning at 6 am but the country is still under a state of emergencyEarlier on Saturday India delivered 40000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka to help ease the power crisis in the island country As part of the US 500 million oil line of credit LoC extended by India to Sri Lanka this was the fourth consignment of fuel delivered to ColomboFurther India has supplied around 200000 MT of fuel to the island nation over the last 50 daysThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever