The Hon. S.M. Marikkar

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, first, on the Middle East: We condemn the US, like a village bully, attacking Iran; we also condemn Iran striking Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and others. Many Sri Lankans live there; this war affects us too. We must act responsibly.

¶ 02 I will not call the President a “pawnshop” or by other epithets—he is the President of the country I love, though from a party I oppose. But turning soldiers into mere “soldiers,” monks into “vagabonds,” and the motherland into a “pawnshop” pains me. Before elections, you said this is a country fit for a paradise.

¶ 03 An Hon. Member referred to my remarks. I did not give a cheque number; I mentioned People’s Bank. I will provide the information. But long ago, Hon. Anura Kumara said he knew the cheque number given to Mahinda Rajapaksa by China—let him table it and bring back that money from Uganda he spoke of. Also, someone once paraded with “files”—open them and tell the nation what is in them. And honour your own pledges: reduce electricity bills by one-third; make VAT zero on essentials, education, and health as promised over a year ago; import fuel by the shipload as claimed. Then question us. Some Members cited FOB but do not even know what FOB means.

¶ 04 At our Sectoral Oversight Committee today, the National Audit Office computed losses from nine coal ships at Rs. 8,497 million: Rs. 554m (1st), Rs. 362m (2nd), Rs. 1,318m (3rd), Rs. 471m (4th), Rs. 598m (5th), Rs. 1,182m (6th), Rs. 931m (7th), Rs. 1,588m (8th), Rs. 1,493m (9th), totalling Rs. 8,497m. The Bid Bond...