Professionals clamour for people’s power

United Professional’s Movement (UPM), a group representing Sri Lankan professionals and which is opposed to bilateral agreements, is set to secure its future as a mainstream political party.

Aimed at drafting policy through the establishment of clusters of the different professionals, the new political movement also hopes to become a think tank.

UPM will establish a political party and put forward candidates representing the views of the professionals that would guide the state to take the right decision to overcome corruption, its officials announced at a meeting of the Colombo District members held to discuss their way forward at the Royal College hall in Colombo on Thursday. The UPM is part of the umbrella Organisation of Professionals Association (OPA) but its new route is purely an independent initiative.

UPM Secretary Senaka Sinhalage said that a majority of the local professionals have had to maintain silence on the way forward for the country ever since it has been handed over to the politicians for over 70 years.

Spokesman for UPM, Gamini Nanda Gunawardena said that professionals were behind the various issues that came up over the years and raised a voice against bilateral agreements.

He explained that while they were not against such agreements it was the content and context in which they would be implemented that would have an impact on the country that they were against. “We were concerned in the way in which they were trying to enter into these agreements and not the agreement itself,” he said.

UPM already has district level members in Colombo, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Badulla, Ratnapura and Galle. He pointed out that it was important to establish themselves as a think tank for drafting policy with a wider participation from the youth. (SD)