Political leadership needed to eradicate drugs, but not for national security? - Nalinda
July 3, 2019 11:31 am
JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa questions as to how political leadership is deemed important to eradicate the drug menace in the country, but when it comes to national security the responsibility solely falls on the officials.
Expressing views during the ‘Derana Wada Pitiya’ programme last night, he said that the President has once again started speaking linking the Easter Sunday attacks to the illicit drug rackets.
And now the former Defence Secretary and the IGP have been arrested and remanded in connection with the attacks on April 21, he said. Meanwhile the President is saying that he has received death threats, the MP said.
Jayatissa stated that he would think that if the President has threats to his life, it has to be because of the actions taken by him to eradicate the drug rackets.
Explaining further, he said that if there is a threat to the President’s life due to anti-drug operations it would mean that not only the intelligence units, the police and armed forces, but the political leadership has also been important in this process.
“That is why he’s receiving threats right? If not it would be the Police Chief or the head of the STF who receives the threats,” he said.
“Now when you apply the same logic to the Easter Sunday attacks. In addition to the police or the STF or the armed forces operating on the information provided by the intelligence units, was there no responsibility for the political leadership then?”
The theory cannot completely turn upside down within 2 months, he questioned.
“If political leadership is important to eradicate drugs, when it comes to the security of the country’s people does it only rest on officials and does the political leadership have absolutely no responsibility for that?”
The JVP Parliamentarian said that there are two sections responsible for Easter Sunday attacks; and those are the individuals who carried out the suicide blasts and the others are those who failed to prevent the attacks despite having received information in advance.
“None of them can be allowed to escape because public security is number one in our country,” he added.
