Sajith challenges Government to scrap MCC, ACSA, SOFA, Singapore FTA

Sajith Premadasa, who is tipped to be the Opposition leader and the UNP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, has challenged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, to implement their threat of tearing up the MCC, ACSA, SOFA and the free trade agreement with Singapore.

Addressing a public meeting in Negombo on Monday, Premadasa said that during the recent Presidential Election campaign, the Rajapaksas who had spoken as if they were the only patriots in this country, threatened to scrap the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) , Aquisition and Cross Services Agreement ( ACSA ) and Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with America and the free trade pact with Singapore, stating that they were detrimental to the country, despite ACSA and SOFA pacts being signed during their time in power.

“Now we hear a different tune being sung, saying that 70 percent of the MCC was good and we are not fools to reject everything that comes from America”, he noted, adding that the Rajapaksas should stop hoodwinking the people with their trade mark practice of saying and doing one thing while in power and another when in the Opposition, even about the projects that they had initiated.

Premadasa said that the UNP would support the government, if the policies it introduced benefited the people and the country, but would vehemently oppose any attempt to trick the masses, by eventually imposing more burdens on them, after granting a few temporary reliefs now.

(Source: The Island – By Zacki Jabbar)