The Hon. Chamara Sampath Dasanayake

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, this is the best time for me to speak. This does not concern 158 out of 159 on that side, including Mr. Watagala. After the speech of the COPE Chair who protected Ranil’s files—[Expunged on the order of the Chair.]—I am happy to speak. I am not naming anyone; please be seated.

¶ 02 This Government does not shake the mileposts of Ranil Wickremesinghe. When these proposals were brought, even the President was not in favour. The head of the Passport Office, Mr. Ilukpitiya, has been on a travel ban for six months and still no bail—he is a public officer. I say to Mr. Watagala, though a State Minister and a lawyer: this is not right—[Expunged on the order of the Chair.] Ministers go to the CID and whisper; ministers are not arrested. They catch small fry, not the sharks. Among those arrested, only Chamara Sampath is someone representing people; the rest are defeated candidates—Pillayan, Mervin Silva, and they are now after our Prasanna Ranatunga too.

¶ 03 Who else has this Government arrested? If you wanted someone with at least 10% public support, it’s only Chamara Sampath. You will never touch Ranil’s clique—the Police Minister and the President won’t. Try it if you can. Why is Ilukpitiya suffering? See the injustice to that public officer.

¶ 04 You talk about Batalanda. Back then, the Defence Minister was at Pasara; Maskade; and the Beragala camp in Badulla. Beragala camp was bigger than Batalanda. Ask who the jackals there were. People will name them on Facebook. Beragala was the most brutal camp—torture beyond measure—and one of those jackals is a present Minister here. I won’t name him now; you’ll hear it soon enough.

¶ 05 You promised dry-ration parcels annually at the Budget; allocated Rs. 1,000 million and collected votes but gave nothing—only empty talk about dry rations for the New Year. If you were genuine, sue those who burnt transformers and buses under the Offences Against Public Property Act. Most cases should hit the people sitting over there. You brought Batalanda here, spending Rs. 7.5 million today, wasting public money; it brings nothing to the people. You cannot touch Ranil, Mahinda, or Chandrika. You will throw small people in for 14–15 days just to show results.

¶ 06 Eighteen of our SLFP people were killed. At the 1989 presidential poll, many boxes were denied votes; we lost. They killed Vijaya Kumaratunga; no one speaks of it now. They killed Rohana Wijeweera; his family is still ignored. Between 1988–89, because of both Government and JVP, about 60,000 youth died. This Government has been in power six months and has not even done an almsgiving to transfer merit for them, not even sent a letter to their parents. You came to power over their deaths but did nothing for their families—unlike past governments that helped JVP activists with Samurdhi and Agrarian appointments and committees under Chandrika.

¶ 07 You have created “Maalimawa,” sidelined the JVP and those who sacrificed; you ignore their families and even Rohana Wijeweera. On garments, in 1988–89 they said we were sewing underwear for whites; had Trump not rolled back tariffs for three months yesterday, all factories would have closed and innocent workers suffered; your Government gives no bonuses—any they get is because of that rollback.

¶ 08 You are a visionless, failed government. At least pay merit to J.R. Jayewardene, who built this Parliament, as you enter to destroy it—this is a government that once even bombed Parliament.

¶ 09 Thank you, Hon. Deputy Chairperson.