New Finance Minister faces a momentous task Daily News (via HT Media Ltd.) Last week, all were talking about the arrival of the new Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who had earlier held the post of Economic Development Minister (2010–2014). The ruling party and the supporters celebrated his arrival and new post while the Opposition and their supporters started to shout from the tops of their roofs pointing out various ‘issues’ in connection with the appointment of the new Finance Minister. Social media was full of various positive and negative pictures, photos, cartoons and memes on the subject. It is interesting to see that one reason is standing behind both celebrations and criticisms pointed at the arrival of the new Finance Minister. Usually various reasons are behind celebrating something and opposing the same. But when it comes to this incident, only a single fact stands behind both celebrating and opposing his arrival on the scene. It is a historic date. This historic date is May 1, 2017. This historic date makes some extremely happy and they light crackers and eat kiribath while this same date makes some others extremely sad and encourages them to protest, criticize and even shake in fear. This is a day that patriots celebrate and traitors mourn.