Taking stock of a desperate first year in power
January 10, 2016,
Summing up President Maithripala Sirisena’s first year in power, Minister Arjuna Ranatunga said at a Ports Authority function that he (Sirisena) formed a government and has had no peace thereafter; and that he has not seen another leader as beset by problems as President Maithripala Sirisena. Minister S.B.Dissanayake speaking at the SLFP’s first press conference for the New Year described the past one year as a period during which no decisions could be made or a proper programme of work implemented - a government in a ‘gandabba’ state. He further stated that the UNP and SLFP are two different parties with different ideologies and that they can’t run a government together for long and that if they do stay together for a long time, extremist forces will emerge as political alternatives. That was the assessment of the first year of yahapalanaya by ministers of the government.
