Govt is bad, is opposition better, asks daily

Colombo, June 22 (UNI) Sri Lanka’s beleaguered government is proving incapable of resolving the country’s worst economic crisis, a leading newspaper said on Wednesday, but pulled up the opposition too for resorting to “gimmicks” at a time when the country is battling an unprecedented economic meltdown.
In an editorial, The Island pulled up two main opposition parties for beginning a boycott of Parliament starting from Wednesday to protest against the government’s failure to resolve the crisis that has seen Colombo pleading for international economic support to survive.
“The incumbent government has manifestly failed to prove that it is equal to the task of managing the present crisis. It is groping in the dark apparently in the hope that the crisis will resolve itself with the passage of time!” the editorial said.
“The present cabinet consists of a bunch of incompetent politicians who are also responsible for the failure of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government… So, one cannot but agree with the opposition that nothing is stupider than to expect the current administration full of failures to succeed in overcoming the economic crisis.”
At the same, the Island said that the opposition was not full of mavens adept at crisis management and capable of delivering the people from suffering in case of being given a mandate to govern the country.
“On the one hand, they call the government an abject failure, and on the other, they ask it to deliver! How could anyone with an iota of intelligence expect a failed government to reveal, within one week, how it proposes to resolve an economic crisis?
“Thus, the opposition’s protest smacks of self-contradiction, and amounts to an exercise in futility.”
The daily also ridiculed opposition demands for an early election, saying Sri Lanka simply cannot afford to spend a huge amount of money on balloting now.
In any case, such is the fuel shortage in the country that candidates will not be able to campaign, it pointed out.
Hence, the need for all the political parties was to join forces now to contain the economic crisis and prepare the ground for a general election which, it said, can be held next year.
“What needs to be done, at this hour, for want of a better alternative, is to pick the best of a bad lot from both the SLPP and the opposition and get them to form an interim government and facilitate the ongoing efforts to resolve the economic crisis with the help of the IMF and friendly nations.”