Hon. [Name not clearly identified in OCR]

¶ 01 Hon. Ananda Wijepala, Minister, you gave an answer. If what I say is false, ask the police officers and see. The police officers know this story I am telling. Many police officers who, due to disability, had been allowed for a considerable period to serve at police stations near their homes, are now being transferred. Now they are unable to adjust their lives. The routines they were used to have been completely changed. We do not obstruct what you do as a matter of official duty. However, if someone has become disabled, anyone should be allowed to remain there because of that circumstance. Why was that facility given for so long? If you are now trying to change what had been allowed, that is a serious wrong. Some officers became disabled while on duty. Some became disabled naturally due to health reasons. But you are imposing this situation even on those who became disabled while on duty.

¶ 02 Why are you trying to do these transfers? Even when we go to the villages these days to form Civil Security Committees, we receive messages from the OIC saying “include these names.” Is this not being done to create that situation? When village Civil Security Committees are formed, messages come telling us to appoint certain people, and asking us to agree to them. Only in very limited places will someone stand up when the OIC says so and say “No, we do not agree.” Only a very small group dares to challenge that. Villagers are afraid of the OIC. Why? Because cases and property are in their hands. Until a matter goes to court, the police are in charge; when it goes to court, they even know how to dress it up.

¶ 03 You recently said you seized so many kilos of drugs. But you know very well — and the police know — what happens. I am not saying I see it all wrongly; perhaps this is an attempt to curb those groups. When ice is seized, they add monosodium glutamate; the real quantity caught is only milligrams. But to present it as trafficking, they add MSG and present it to court as trafficking. Fine. If our police officers do this in good faith, we respect it, because if that helps keep those people in prison and away from society for some time, that is fine. But the same mechanism also gives the police the ability to take revenge on someone. There is no obstacle to that.

¶ 04 Therefore, remember this: by pressuring and intimidating the police to take control, what you are trying to do is to protect your diminishing public mandate and public opinion through the police. But you will never be able to preserve yourselves that way through the police. That time is over; the world has come to a place where democratic struggles arise.

¶ 05 Today, the majority of people are citizen journalists. Everyone has a mobile phone in their hand. People stand up today, not like before. Everyone is now a citizen journalist. Therefore, trying to control the police, subjugate people through the OIC, and safeguard your electoral base through that, is a very low-level effort by the Government.

¶ 06 On the other hand, you said, “We did not exert pressure anywhere. We do not know about the arrest of Ranil Wickremesinghe.” But we saw on YouTube people beating the drum excitedly, saying, “Now it is like this, like this,” and then later saying, “Bail! Bail! Bail!” First they loudly and assertively say “He will definitely be arrested; if not, I will resign,” and the second time, more meekly, “Yes, yes, bail!” If you claim there is independence, how did that person get appointed to that place? If you do not know how that happened, how does a YouTuber speak like that? Do you say there is rule-of-law independence and no political interference? Do not try to lie, Minister. You cannot swallow medicine secretly. Everything you do is felt by the people of this country. Therefore, we respectfully ask the officials appointed to the independent commissions to act independently.

¶ 07 Likewise, there is something for you in the Government to do. When you were in the Opposition, you established independent commissions and raised your voice in this Parliament for democracy. Especially Hon. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Hon. Bimal Ratnayake, Hon. Vijitha Herath, and others played a great role, raised their voices and established the pillars to protect democracy. After coming to power for a few months or a year, you forget those pillars. Do not go to a place where you forget them. The saying “When you gain political power, you lose your brain” is being confirmed. You say, “We have brains.” In reality, your heads have swelled with power; your brains have been subjugated and destroyed. Check if you even still have your heads on straight. Therefore, we ask you to check yourselves properly. That is the condition of the politician: “When you have a brain, you do not have power; when you have power, you do not have a brain.” That is not just an empty saying. Whoever coined it, it remains a truth visible in the world, and you are proving it well today. Looking at the situation you are in and what you are saying now, it is clear that what you said then is now changed.