Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says that politicians have now started to say things which should be said by the IGP or Attorney General and that politicians are the ones announcing who will be remanded, who will be arrested and within how many days.

“If this is good governance, then god bless to this country,” he said, speaking to reporters during a visit to the Mihintale Raja Maha Viharaya this morning.

Rajapaksa also objected to the new government decision to halt certain development projects launched under his administration, specifically the Chinese funded $1.5 billion port city project.

“All development activities have stopped. I don’t know why. There is no reason,” he said.

Rajapksa charged that the halting of development projects means that the Sri Lankan workers and engineers working on them will lose their jobs and thereby the cash flowing to villagers has stopped.

Rajapaksa stated that projects such as the Colombo Port City cannot be built for another 100-200 years and that the development in the country will go backwards by 200 years if they are stopped now.

He emphasized that development activities should be continued. “If the administration is not good then the ruler should be removed. That’s correct. That’s a decision by the people.”