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Sirisena is a habitual liar: Malik Samarawickrama

24 Jan 2022

Responding to statements made by former President Maithripala Sirisena during an exclusive interview with The Sunday Morning which was published yesterday (23), former Minister Malik Samarawickrama slammed certain statements made by Sirisena over the Singapore Free Trade Agreement and the Hambantota Port agreement, claiming that they were untrue. During the interview, Sirisena stated that Ranil Wickremesinghe and the United National Party (UNP) had discussed the Singapore agreement in secret and it had been approved by the Cabinet.  “I think Malik Samarawickrama and someone else had signed it. Only when it became operational did they realise that anything in Sri Lanka – from sand, soil, and cow dung – can be shipped to Singapore,” he said. To this, Samarawickrama explained that many rounds of negotiations were carried out between the two countries and the negotiating team which was approved by the Cabinet.  “The cabinet was periodically informed of the progress. Finally, the agreement was signed in front of the President and the Prime Minister of Singapore at the President’s office. Sirisena is a habitual liar,” Samarawickrama told The Morning. In terms of the Hambantota agreement, Sirisena said that attempts were made to hold the event at the Presidential Secretariat.  “I told my Secretary not to let them come in sight of the Secretariat. It was later signed at Temple Trees. The event held in Hambantota to celebrate the signing was stoned by some disgruntled youth; the former PM was on stage and that was the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that a serving PM had stones thrown at them. That agreement was concluded to get $ 480 million,” the former President stated. However, Samarawickrama explained that the Hambantota port agreement was not signed at Temple Trees. “It was signed at the Ministry of Ports and Shipping when Mahinda Samarasinghe was the Minister, after many rounds of discussions and after obtaining Cabinet approval. Sirisena seems to conveniently forget,” Samarawickrama said.


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