Bandula’s bittersweet lamentation about former President Gotabaya
Speaking during the debate on the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill and the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill on Friday, Transport and Media Minister Bandula Gunawardena expressed his continued frustration over politicians being solely blamed for the country’s economic crisis.
Mr Gunawardena has continually pushed back at what he calls a false narrative being pushed by interested elements, including the media, which lay the blame for the economic crisis at the feet of politicians.
Anyone listening to his lengthy, and at times, rambling speeches during the weekly Cabinet media briefings knows he never misses an opportunity to push back at claims that politicians were mainly responsible for the crisis. Instead, he has accused a cabal of senior officials, mainly based at the Finance Ministry and unnamed advisors of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, of misleading the Cabinet and the President towards taking decisions that worsened the crisis.
He recounted that the now infamous reduction of the tax on sugar to 25 cents happened when he was in charge of the subject as Trade Minister.
“I only learned of the tax reduction through a news bulletin I saw while I was at the Abhayaramaya Temple,” he said.
Mr Gunawardena said he clashed repeatedly with then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Cabinet, arguing that the reduction was wrong.
“However, the President’s advisors told him to stand firm, insisting this was the correct decision,” he said, noting that the President chose to listen to these advisors.
“You think that in any country a Cabinet can do whatever it wants. That is not the case. There were others who took the decisions. There was a cabal of officials. The Parliament needs to understand this. Even the people do not know the truth,” the minister claimed.
You think that in any country a Cabinet can do whatever it wants. That is not the case. There were others who took the decisions. There was a cabal of officials. The Parliament needs to understand this.