Gotabaya Drops Brother, 4 Ministers Sworn In
Colombo, April 4: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday dropped his controversial brother as the Finance Minister and instead four Ministers were sworn in with new portfolios after all Ministers resigned in a bid to overcome the country’s worst financial crisis since independence.
“Four Ministers were appointed to ensure Parliament and other tasks can be conducted in a lawful manner until a full Cabinet can be sworn in,” Rajapaksa’s media office said in a statement after 26 Cabinet Ministers resigned en masse.
The announcement said Justice Minister Ali Sabry would be the new Finance Minister, replacing Basil Rajapaksa, who was due to visit Washington this month for talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure an emergency loan. Previous Ministers of Foreign Affairs (G L Peiris), Education (Dinesh Gunawardena) and Highways (Johnston Fernando) got to keep their positions.
Officials said more Ministers would be sworn in if the opposition parties respond to the President’s appeal and agree to join an all-party government to find solutions to a dragging economic crisis that has led to unprecedented fuel shortages and prolonged power cuts, a sharp hike in food prices as well as paucity of medicines and other essential commodities.
The new development came hours after the embattled President, who in 2009 presided over the war that crushed the Tamil Tiger separatists, called on all parties to join a new government amid escalating public protests. The street protests against the government continued on Monday with crowds gathering in several towns. The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, also resigned on Monday.
Udaya Gammanpila, the chief of one of the 11 political parties comprising the ruling coalition, rejected President Rajapaksa’s move, calling the new cabinet “old wine in a new bottle”, media reports said.
“Our demand is for an all-party interim government to restore essential services and to hold a parliamentary election”, Gammanpila of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party wrote on Twitter. “People should decide their next leaders, not anybody else”.
