No chance of good education for poor parents’ child: Ranil

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday declared that the future of every child from a working class background was being shattered because of the proposed new Grade 1 admission system for schools. Speaking at a mass rally in Matara organised jointly by the UNP and the SLFP–M, Mr. Wickremesinghe said looking at the circular it seemed that common children had no chance of entering a good school if their parents did not have a high income and were not very educated.

“Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe (Sri Lanka’s last king) destroyed the future of four innocent children. Today, Percy Rajapaksa is trying to destroy the future of an entire generation of children,” he said. Drawing parallels between the present administration and the reign of the Rajasinghes, the Opposition Leader charged that there was no limit to the abductions and killings taking place in this country.

The UN says there are human rights violations in the country and research conducted by international groups has revealed that there is no media freedom here, said Mr. Wickremesinghe.“When there were uprisings against the king, the so called outsiders living in the areas who were generally supportive of him were ordered to leave. Wives lost husbands and children lost their parents. Hasn’t the same thing happened in today’s society in the form of the removal of Colombo’s lodgers?” he asked.

Quoting from an ancient charge sheet leveled against King Rajasinghe, the Opposition Leader said that like today, there were no proper relations with close foreign countries in the days of the king.“Today the whole world is angry with our country because of human rights violations,” he said. Former Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, now the convener of the SLFP-M, said he had to swim against the tide with S. B. Dissanayake and Chandrika Kumaratunga to form the People’s Alliance (PA), adding that SLFP front liners at the time, including Mahinda Rajapaksa, opposed the formation of the PA.

In 2003 when he along with Lakshman Kadirgamar and others had discussions to form an alliance with the JVP, then Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa opposed it, but eventually they were able to form an alliance and come to power because of their efforts, Mr. Samaraweera said.“Today we have formed a much stronger alliance that has the power to serve the country better than the ones we formed before,” he said.

Mr. Samaraweera called on the JVP to join hands with the National Congress to oppose what he called the “dreaded administration of the ‘Sahodara Samaagama’”. The JVP could not distance itself from its responsibility by merely putting up posters, he said. I can’t fathom why the JVP is silent over the political misadventures of the ‘Sahodara Samaagama,’ he added. He also said the alliance was working to bring the blue-green divide to an end.

“This alliance that is coming forward to develop the country, keeping our parties’ identities intact will go down in history in golden letters,” Mr. Samaraweera said. Dismissing accusations that he had joined the UNP, he said his goal was to join forces with any political party to rescue the SLFP and the country.