Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Dr. Harsha de Silva raised concerns in Parliament yesterday (17), accusing the government of continuing the previous administration’s economic policies and questioning its ideological consistency.
He criticized political parties that had long opposed neoliberal economic reforms, particularly the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the National People’s Power (NPP), for now endorsing policies they had previously rejected.
“They spoke in favor of neoliberal reforms today. If they now claim these reforms are beneficial, what happened to their 40 years of opposition? If they resisted these policies for decades and now accept them, it means those 40 years were in vain. That is a betrayal,” he said.
He argued that the current budget is no different from the last and questioned why, if the country had been in decline for 75 years as they claimed, no meaningful changes had been implemented.
“If their ideology is truly different, it should be reflected in their policies, but that has not happened,” he added.
The SJB MP also pointed out inconsistencies in the government’s stance, questioning why parties that now support policies such as a holding company for state-owned enterprises, fuel pricing formulas, and electricity tariff hikes had previously resisted these measures.
“The President is now calling for reducing government employees, but why wasn’t this stance acknowledged earlier? Had these policies been accepted sooner, the country could have progressed further,” he argued.
He concluded by expressing satisfaction that the government had adopted the social market economy system previously proposed by his party, calling it a significant victory for the SJB’s policy vision.
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