NO moral right for President to stay in power: Cardinal

COLOMBO (News 1st); His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has requested the President and the Government to take responsibility for the present crisis and resign, as they have no moral right to remain in power any further.

Issuing a statement, the Archbishop of Colombo notes that the country has fallen into a state of total economic bankruptcy, and the resultant level of suffering on the people had pushed them into a dark abyss, that cannot be explained in human words. Although hopes of a better future were rekindled with the appointment of the new Prime Minister and many remained silent in order to not to be an obstacle to solutions being found for current problems, the present plight which the people are facing had become worse and unbearably painful.

The present crisis and the despondent situation that has brought about has to be directly attributed to the President and the Government of Sri Lanka for the shortsighted and arbitrary decisions made within the last two and half years.

"From the beginning we did not hesitate to condemn the stubborn and oppressive burdens that had been placed on people, fleecing them and stealing their money and assets of the country in a corrupt manner" the statement reads.

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith also calls out on the lack of an investigation or bringing to book of those who are responsible for the corrupt and dishonest practices and decisions, and the lack of a serious attempt being made or a vision to solve the problems which the country is facing.

"People are spending days in queues going through untold hardships to obtain essentials and the Government has no cohesive plan or project which could definitely free them from this situation," the statement reads.

The Archbishop of Colombo also notes that the biggest obstacle to liberating the country from its sad situation is the fact that the Rajapaksa family continues to stay in power in spite of majority of people not reposing trust in them anyway. 

"The blatant neglect of duty on the part of the ruling party of the Rajapaksas to serve them, has made it very clear to the people that this family considers their political power as being more important than the wellbeing of the people, thus proving that everything done so far amounted to only political jugglery," His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith mentions. 

Therefore, on behalf of the suffering people, the Archbishop of Colombo has requested from President and the Government of Sri Lanka to accept responsibility for the sad situation and to step down from their positions, as they have no moral right to continue office anymore under these circumstances and to hand over the power back to people without causing further suffering.