![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHealth officials were holding back from expressing their genuine concerns and advice in the presence of the President, the JVP Leader said. \u201cThey are afraid that expressing such views would lead to a whole other problem,\u201d Dissanayake explained. From opening the island to deadly variants, to the disastrous Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Government had mismanaged the entire crisis, the JVP leader said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth Ministers threw pots in the river or promoted fake witch-doctor cures. This is the result of immature leadership,\u201d Dissanayake charged. At a time when senior public health officials like Dr Anil Jaasinghe, the former Director General of Health Service were needed the most, the President had permitted him to retire when his term could easily have been extended by cabinet until the corona virus crisis had passed.<\/p>\n
“Dr Jaasinghe was shunted off as Secretary to the Environment Ministry,” said Dissanayake, while other public health officials were being transferred as diplomats overseas.<\/p>\n
Gritting his teeth, Dissanayake said President Rajapaksa was a leader filled with hubris and ego, lacking compassion and political maturity that could help Sri Lanka combat the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President\u2019s arrogant, short-sighted policies have brought Sri Lanka to a dangerous point in terms of the deadly virus \u2013 for god\u2019s sake, get off your high-horse, even now,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho hands over the governance of a country of people to a cold man, a man with no feelings, no empathy, no compassion, dry shell of a man? How can such a person be an effective ruler, if to begin with, he does not feel for his people? It is this failed experiment that is before us today,\u201d Dissanayake insisted.<\/p>\n
The JVP Leader told the President to \u201clearn to listen to the experts.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cLearn to accept viewpoints that may differ from your own,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n
Dissanayake explained that he had not taken the Covid-19 vaccine event though all 225 members of Parliament were entitled to receive both jabs.<\/p>\n
\u201cVaccination against Covid-19 is the right of every citizen. As an eligible citizen, I have a right to know when I will receive the vaccine and how I am to go about getting it. I do not want to be given the vaccine because it is a privilege, I can lay claim to as an elected parliamentarian. Every citizen is entitled to it, and it is the Government\u2019s mismanagement, lousy planning and inefficiency that has left citizens high and dry about when they might be vaccinated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The JVP Leader had a sombre warning for fellow citizens.<\/p>\n
The Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Dissanayake said, had abandoned all pretense of protecting the people from this deadly virus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn no uncertain terms, the Government has told the people it does not have the means or the will to keep us safe. It has told us that it is up to us to look after our own protection, because the Government has abdicated this duty towards the people. So I urge people, please take precautions to save yourselves. There is no government here that will save you \u2013 that responsibility is now up to each one of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Watch full press conference here:<\/p>\n