While opposition leader Sajith Premadasa officially supports the government while in his leadership position, he has rejected President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal to give ministerial positions to several people with Sajith’s approval.

This has been reported in the political behind-the-scenes columns of Sunday newspapers.

Sajith Premadasa has said in internal discussions as well as in public that he will not join the government. Sajith Premadasa also said that he will not join the government if the people’s struggle is suppressed, speaking at the ‘People’s Rally Against Repression’ program, which was attended by all the opposition political parties, civil organizations, artists, and trade unions. He added that we should unite to defeat the oppression.

Ranil Wickremesinghe has made this request last week at a meeting attended by Sajith Premadasa and SJB General Secretary Ranjith Maddumabandara. This request was made because Sajith did not want to join the government.

If a party receives ministerial positions and supports a government, that party then becomes part of the government, and it would not be possible for it to act as the opposition. It was such a distortion that the joint opposition that existed during the period 2015-2019 faced. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party was on both sides at the same time. Even though the majority of the SLFP represented the opposition’s position in the country, a group of members of that party were on the government’s side. The Tamil National Alliance attained the leadership of the opposition and supported the government as well. The very definitions of ‘government’ and ‘opposition’ became unclear, and a distorted situation arose.

What Ranil is asking for now is to create such a twisted situation once again.