Sobitha Thera blasts move to form jumbo Cabinet

 

National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Leader the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera today severely criticized the move to appoint a large number of ministers for the purpose of accommodating a ‘National Government’.

“Appointing a large number of ministers has become a joke and a farce.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government had appointed an unreasonable number of ministers. Nobody protested then. I am optimistic that President Maithripala Sirisena will not continue the mistakes committed by that regime,” he stated.

Sobitha Thera said that when considering this trend, it won’t be a surprise if all 225 parliamentarians are appointed ministers.

He said the 19th Amendment had not specified the exact number of ministers in case of a ‘National Government’ and as such it had to be decided by the decision makers of both parties. The Thera criticized the move to form a ‘National Government’ and warned that such a move might lead to a crisis between the legislature and the executive.

“Even the beginning of the new government is in a mess. Some of the SLFP parliamentarians are describing the recently signed MoU as a move towards the formation of national government and some of them who have opposed such an agreement had decided to sit in the Opposition while the JVP and the TNA have not so far supported the proposal. In such a scenario, how can it be called a national government,” the Thera said.

He said in the wake of the UNP winning the most number of seats in parliament Prime Minister and UNP Leader Ranil Wicremesinghe should have formed a UNP-led government by inviting those who were willing to work with his government and thus secure at least a simple majority.

The Thera said if the Prime Minister had done this then there would be no stalemate as what was happening now.