On January 24, 2022, Daily Mirror newspaper carried a front-page story on a statement made by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa with the headline; “An elected dictatorship with democratic structures is needed”. This statement was reportedly made during the “Medahath Mawatha” meeting which was held on January 22 in Colombo.
He has further said,
“I won’t say elections should be scrapped but only suggest that an approach similar to the Margaret Thatcher government in the UK be implemented.
We should make the media and civil society strong.
Sri Lanka also should follow strategic thinking like Prime Minister Oshida who led Japan after the Second World War.
Mr.Oshida focused on foreign direct investments.”
However during our fact investigation conducted to check whether Sajith Premadasa has made the above statement, we were able to find the complete speech made by Sajith Premadasa at the “Medahath Mawatha” meeting.
When referring the video it was clear that Sajith Premadasa hasn’t said that Sri Lanka wanted an elected dictatorship in the particular speech. He has mentioned that currently there is an elected dictatorship in the country, and that we need an era, in which there wouldn’t be any dictatorship. Moreover, he didn’t suggest that we should follow the former PM of UK, Margaret Thatcher and said that Thatcher was also called an elected dictator.
When we contacted the media secretary of Sajith Premadasa, he also said that Sajith has not made such a statement and it is fake.
Meanwhile, we noticed that the Daily Mirror newspaper published a clarification letter by SJB on January 25, 2022.
Accordingly, we found out that Sajith Premadasa didn’t make any statement to the effect that an “elected dictatorship” is needed for the country at “Medahath Mawatha” meeting which was held on January 22, in Colombo. He also say that Margaret Thatcher’s path should be followed. Instead, he suggested avoiding any type of dictatorship from the country while balancing the three main pillars, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary and strengthening the other two pillars- media and civil society.