The Hon. Muhammad Faizal

¶ 01 Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, Assalamu Alaikum! Ayubowan! Vanakkam!

¶ 03 First, I wish to say this. Our Hon. President, as the Minister of Finance and as the Minister of Defence, can and will come to this Parliament. The Opposition should not be afraid of the President coming to Parliament. Perhaps they are afraid.

¶ 04 They said the Government would fall in three months; then in six months; then in a year. They are still saying so. But it is the Opposition that will collapse in the street.

¶ 05 Hon. Presiding Member, I thank you for the opportunity to join the Committee Stage debate on the allocations for the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs.

¶ 06 In the past, Governments did not hold elections on time. Be it Provincial Council elections or Local Authority elections, they failed to conduct them. Later, they even jumped to hold a Presidential Election without holding the Provincial Council election. Those who claimed “good governance” did not deliver it to the people. Under the electoral system they themselves introduced, if they had held the local authority election, they feared they would lose and that the National People’s Power (NPP) would win. So they said, “No elections; no funds.”

¶ 07 However, in the last Presidential Election the NPP registered a sweeping victory, and it won the Parliamentary Election as well. Moreover, under the very electoral method they introduced, in the Local Authority elections too, the NPP won. From 2017 to 2019, even while all Provincial Councils stood dissolved, they tried to bring in an electoral method to ensure their victory—but that also failed, and they could not hold the Provincial Council elections.

¶ 08 Today, they come here and demand that Provincial Council elections be held and accuse the Government of lying for not holding them. To those who once said, “No elections; no money for elections,” we say today: the NPP Government has allocated funds in this Budget to conduct the Provincial Council elections. We are ready to hold them, and I firmly state that the NPP will win across the country.

¶ 09 On 10.08.2023, the current President addressed this Parliament on the matter of estate workers. Although many rounds of talks had been held then, wage increases for estate workers were not granted. Today, the NPP Government has granted a wage increase to estate workers. The MPs from those areas have voted for our Budget—otherwise they would not be able to go back to their electorates.