President Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government will not give into the demands of protesters. He noted that just, because certain groups strike demanding the removal of certain officials, the government will not remove anyone arbitrarily as there is a procedure that has to be followed and the government will follow the rules and act accordingly. He was addressing at the launching of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy (C-GaPP)
at the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC) Research University at the Trace City in Colombo yesterday (15).
He said that the responsibility to address such issues rests to a large extent with the Universities.The President noted that even at the point of the new Centre for Governance and Public Policy (C-GaPP) being inaugurated at the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC) Research University, two strikes were in progress. One was staged at the Ruhuna University demanding the removal of the Vice Chancellor and another one demanded the removal of the General Manager of a Corporation.
President Wickremesinghe further stated that the removal of the General Manager is a matter of the government. “Just, because there is a strike we will not remove him. There’s a procedure that has to be followed if they think there are any shortcomings of serious nature against him. As far as the Vice Chancellors are concerned, there is a procedure that has to be followed. Just because people go on strike, whether it’s in a corporation or in a university, this government will not change. We will follow the rules and we will act accordingly, because if I give into this now, next time they will want to remove the Deans and thereafter the heads of department. And then we will be told that we can’t appoint a professor without their consent.
I think we have to seriously look at what is going to happen in the universities. The country has a right to know what is happening. We are paying money to educate our people. So we want the universities to function properly. And I am sad that this strike is taking place at the Ruhuna University,” the President said.
The Vice Chancellor of the SLTC Research University Ranjith G. Rubasinghe presented a memento to the President.
Higher Education State Minister Dr. Suren Raghavan, Associate Professor at the Social Studies, The Hague Prof. Howard Nicolas, the Vice Chancellor and the President of the SLTC Research University Ranjith G.Rubasinghe, scholars and other officials attended at this event.
Meanwhile, addressing the inauguration of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy (C-GaPP), Prof. Howard Nicolas said that currently there is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to attract foreign investments. “We can attract these, but it requires us to embark on an export-oriented industrialisation strategy. I turned to the right honourable president because he was the minister of industries in Sri Lanka’s most successful policy regime during the tenure of then-President Premadasa. President Wickremesinghe was, I believe, one of the major architects of that export-oriented industrialisation strategy. Don’t forget that we were in the middle of two civil wars and yet Sri Lanka had growth rates of 7 and 8% as a result of that strategy. Now in my view, this global crisis affords us a major opportunity. We have to seize that opportunity because if we don’t there are other countries lined up and waiting to grab that opportunity.”
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