Reformists blast  Dr. JJ for defending Ranil

By Lal Gunesekera

 UNP reformists are of the opinion that UNP Gampaha District Parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana had no authority to defend his party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe against allegations made by Health Minister and SLFP General–Secretary Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena had alleged that the UNP Leader attempted to sabotage Gamini Dissanayake’s Presidential election campaign in 1994 by leaking information to SLFP candidate Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Spokesmen for the Movement to Protect the UNP and its Trade Unions Lal Perera told ‘The Island’ yesterday (20) that Dr. Jayawardana had come out with the argument that Minister Sirisena had not mentioned that incident in his book and thereby it never occurred, which was a flimsy excuse. He said that Wickremesinghe himself must answer the allegation and defend himself and not leave it to his cronies like UNP Chairman Gamini Jayawickreme Perera, party General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, Lakshman Kiriella and now Dr. Jayawardana.

Dr. Jayawardana was the latest to join the bandwagon of Wickremesinghe defenders and was shamelessly ruining whatever chances the UNP had of winning any election. Dr. "Jayawardana had connections with the LTTE and the Tamil Diaspora, which was a well known fact. When he was Minister of Rehabilitation, several charges were leveled against him regarding the A9 Highway and goods meant for rehabilitation work, but he never answered anyone of them and wanted only a position in the party for his own personal gain and not for the progress of the UNP. He had got himself appointed as Secretary of JSS," Perera said.

The family of the late Gamini Dissanayake, including his wife Srima, two sons Minister Navin Dissanayake and Mayantha, and also Dr. Wickrema Weerasuriya to make public next week the details of the conspiracy hatched against the late Gamini Dissanayake.

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