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First Cabinet briefing upstaged
By Harinda Vidanage
The United People's Freedom Alliance had to abandon its first Cabinet briefing last Thursday due to lack of coordination. The inaugural briefing with Media Minister Reginold Cooray was to have been held last Thursday at 4 p.m at the Information Department.

At the last minute, even after media and press releases had been sent to media organizations the event had to be cancelled. According to sources from the FA, the first full Cabinet of the Freedom Alliance which met last Wednesday after the JVP members were sworn in had decided to hold its Cabinet briefing the next day.

The People's Alliance government from 1994 had a tradition where the Media Minister acts as the government spokesman at Cabinet briefings and this time the Cabinet had requested Minister Reginold Cooray to do so.

But former Opposition spokesman Dr. Sarath Amunugama and now Finance Minister had decided to hold a separate press briefing just after the first Cabinet meeting.

The important item in the planned Cabinet briefing agenda had been the new government's decision to provide 27,000 jobs for unemployed graduates. But according to FA sources Minister Amunugama revealed this at his own press briefing. Thus the Freedom Alliance was forced to cancel its own press briefing.

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