The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 This is a serious crisis. Please understand this carefully. I have consistently said so.

¶ 02 We are asking Hon. Harini Amarasuriya to act according to her own Report. You brought this to improve education in this country. What has been done now? You are bringing an amendment to give deanships and department head posts to political henchmen. When FUTA is asked, some in FUTA agree because if positions come to those in their own union, they are happy. They say seniority and juniority are irrelevant to us. Remember the consequences: in the 2025 QS World University Rankings, the University of Colombo is within the top 1,000. By 2026, it drops to around 1,200. Jayewardenepura was below the 1,500 band; now it slides to 1,400 plus. Not only that, in South Asia, where is Colombo? Forty-two Indian universities are ranked above Colombo; 15 in Pakistan; five in Bangladesh. We are going backwards. When we go backwards, you accuse us of politicizing, not yourselves. Therefore, please understand this properly and act. What should be done is not this. From the outset I said: amend the Universities Act—comprehensively. Do not take pieces of the Act and amend them in fragments. That is how you create this destruction. If we properly reform the Universities Act, we can have Deputy Vice-Chancellors—for Research and Development, for Academic and Student Affairs, for International Affairs—as is done globally. Similarly, there are Deans aligned to those functions. These people, together, build a university. You are trying to hand control to juniors and thereby completely destroy the system.

¶ 03 Hon. Presiding Member, I wish to raise an issue regarding the Judiciary. Our Judicial Service Association has issued a statement, and we welcome it. They say there are attempts through false and malicious criticism to erode public confidence in judicial appointments. We clearly state that action must be taken against those who insult judges. It is our duty to protect the judiciary. But what has happened now? Something unprecedented in Sri Lanka: a High Court Judge, Mr. O.M. P.M.T. Bandara, has been appointed as Additional Secretary (Judicial Services) to the Ministry of Justice. The Judicial Service Commission has told judges to contact him. Article 52 of the Constitution clearly sets out who is responsible within a ministry. An Additional Secretary is someone directly accountable. Yet he goes and hears the Keheliya Rambukwella case; he hears the Mahindananda Aluthgamage case. He hears both. Meanwhile, at the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute, Mr. Priyantha Liyanage serves. I have no personal issue with him; he is a respected gentleman. I do not allege wrongdoing by him. But what happens to justice and fairness in this country? From here it looks as if Keheliya Rambukwella’s culpability is already proven.

¶ 04 Please stop this. This is how the Judicial Service Commission has been politicized today. The procedures required for justice to function are not being implemented.

¶ 05 The other day Minister Lal Kantha said he saw that even after taking government power, state power has not been taken. To take state power, he says you must have 1.3 million public servants as your members. What does that mean? You want a preferred Attorney-General appointed. For nearly two months there was no Auditor-General. COPE did not meet. Do you need “state power” to appoint someone you like?

¶ 06 Do you want to remove the Chief Justice and bring in another six? Does the Chief Justice want to appoint those he prefers, and place them where he prefers, so they will then hear such cases? Is that what you now want?

¶ 07 It is not only that. I also wish to say—