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President sounds red alert: JVP trying to destroy SLFP
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has lashed out at the JVP accusing it of trying to destroy the SLFP. Addressing SLFP heads of local councils, the President said she was launching a counter strategy to save the SLFP from the JVP and she expected full support from party frontliners and members.
The President said SLFP members also were aware that the fifth of the indoctrination talks of the JVP was the destruction of the SLFP so that the JVP could come to power.

She said part of the destruction of the SLFP was the destruction of the Bandaranaike family. “This is a decisive election for the SLFP. You all love the party. You have sacrificed a lot for the party, some of you have been assaulted or been jailed for the sake of the party. Today we have been forced to launch a campaign to safeguard the SLFP,” she said.

The President said that though she was launching a counter-strategy to save the SLFP, she had no intention of perpetuating the Bandaranaike dynasty. She said that for more than 70 years, her family had sacrificed much and suffered much for the party but the family had no dynastic hold on the party.

The President said she too had sacrificed and suffered much for the party but she vowed that her two children would not and never enter politics, because she feared their lives might be in danger even from within the party.
President Kumaratunga also hailed the Ceasefire Agreement. She said whatever some others might think, the ceasefire agreement despite its weaknesses had continued for more than three years prompting multinational companies and foreign governments to make huge investments here.

The President said that during the past few decades, Sri Lanka had faced a major brain drain with top intellectuals and brilliant people leaving the country. The reasons included the war, the reign of terror by the JVP and the state terrorism of the Jayewardene and Premadasa eras.

She said the three and a half years of the ceasefire had prompted some of those intellectuals to return and serve their country. But now again with uncertainty over the presidential elections, many brilliant Sri Lankans working abroad were reluctant to come back.

“Over 70 per cent of the talented persons who could have become political leaders or good administrators are today residing abroad. Some were killed . This was due to the war in the north, terror unleashed by the JVP and then Premadasa – JR era”, she said.

Kumaratunga said “however during the past three and a half years people started returning to the country due to the ceasefire. But due to uncertainty in the Presidential elections, some of them are refusing to return and some are finding jobs abroad”, she said.

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