The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law - Deputy Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs

¶ 01 [4.28 p.m.]

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, this Opposition motion is like naming a child before it is born. Yesterday, when 20 Members stood, I thought the NPC must be violating the Constitution. But even the motion acknowledges that any delegation regarding transfers must be done by Gazette under Article 155G(2). Where is the illegality? None. If the NPC delegates by Gazette, it is constitutional.

¶ 03 If the IGP effects transfers after delegation, any aggrieved officer can appeal to the NPC under Article 155G(1), and beyond that, go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and if necessary, invoke Articles 17 and 126 for fundamental rights within a month. Where is the urgency?

¶ 04 Significant national operations are underway against drugs and organized crime. A head of department must have some discretion to deploy suitable officers to execute such operations. That is why the NPC’s lawful delegation framework exists.

¶ 05 Some are waving newspaper clippings as “evidence.” Hearsay in newspapers is not proof. Their apparent target is to attack the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and the CID because those bodies, now free of political shackles, have the courage to act—even against powerful figures. When independent processes led to action involving Ranil Wickremesinghe, they panicked. That is why they rushed with this motion.

¶ 06 We even hear inflated crime statistics. They once manufactured the trope of a “shooting of the day”; now it has become “weeping of the day.” Speculation without evidence cannot guide this House.

¶ 07 Hon. Sujeewa Senasinghe, your own motion does not identify any illegality. Citing a constitutional provision and predicting a future commission or act is speculation. Do not intimidate the NPC into silence before its term ends. Constitutional acts are not automatically virtuous, but this one has a clear legal basis. Your motion has boomeranged—yesterday and today.

¶ 08 These orchestrated mud campaigns against the President and several Ministers lack any foundation. We reject them, and we reject this baseless motion. Thank you.