MP Champika Ranawaka claims govt misleading public

Samagi Jana Balawegaya Member of Parliament Champika Ranwaka has called the public not to fall to attempts by the government to mislead them by diverting from the current national issues.

“The dramas staged by the government has become a boomerang to the government itself and the government has now started to stage new dramas to cover them up”, Mr Ranawaka told a news conference.

He said the country is facing several economic woes and issues due to the pandemic and also has collapsed in the international front and now the government is attempting to divert the repulsion of the people by staging cheap dramas again.

Commenting on a video aired by certain government and private media claiming to be a conspiracy by himself and Catholic priests, MP Ranawaka said that the video which was published on his own Facebook page was a discussion between him and Catholic priests and there was no conspiracy in that. "If it was a conspiracy why would I publish it on online?" he questioned.

That process was a political witch hunt against some priests, he said.

Commenting on the Easter Sunday attacks he said there is no need to express different opinions separately to priests, society and Buddhist monks.

“I was the first to author a book in 2001 warning that such a religious extremism was in operation with Wahabism. That means, I have warned about that. We all admit it. We all know that there are people with such extremist ideologies in this larger Muslim society and the majority of that Muslim society do not endorse that. So that, we have absolutely no need to cover that up.

“Thowheed Jamaath is a minority group in the Muslim society of Sri Lanka. They promoted extremism and even acted violently on certain occasions. According to the report of the Judge Janak De Silva-led Commission on the Easter attacks the 20-member group led by Zahran is a group linked to Thowheed Jamaath movement. Zahran embarked on a separate journey from Thowheed Jamaath in around 2018.”

He charged that the government is on one hand carrying out a process which would instigate hatred of the Buddhists against the Catholics including the Archbishop and on the other hand spread rumours that there is an internal conflict in the Catholic Church. Also some form of a suppression is also underway aiming young Catholic activists and priests.

He further urged the government to stop such efforts and to embark on a journey with the support of everyone to resolve the economic and international problems facing the country.