The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member. Today we discuss critical education matters. When the previous Government meddled with agriculture, the people threw them out. This Government is inviting similar chaos in education by pushing abrupt changes. Yesterday, an adjournment debate on education was held while the Education Minister was abroad, and another Minister replied—indicating poor handling of a vital sector.

¶ 02 This Government is racist in practice. The Eastern Province is majority Tamil. At the Eastern University, previously there were eight Tamils, five Muslims and two Sinhalese on the Council—13 Tamil-speaking members appointed by prior administrations. After the NPP Government took office, there are now five Tamils, three Muslims and seven Sinhalese appointed. We raised this with the Prime Minister, who said all universities are “Sri Lankan universities.” I challenged her: if so, appoint a Tamil majority to the Council of Rajarata University, or to the Council of the University of Kelaniya, or to Ruhuna. If you cannot, do not justify altering the ethnic balance only in the Eastern University.

¶ 03 Every university has a Council. In the Eastern University, a person named Nesakkumaran Vimalarajah filed a court case against the new Council appointments. The court has delivered judgment: appointing new Council members before the end of the previous Council’s term was wrong; if such an injustice occurred, the period during which they were removed must be restored to them. I table the order.

¶ 04 As with Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s chaos in agriculture, this Government is creating chaos in education. Yesterday I did not get a chance to speak in the education debate. On history: post-Independence, there were Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam and Dudley Senanayake–Chelvanayakam pacts—both torn up; estate Tamils’ citizenship rights were stripped. Such history is not taught. Though our party, ITAK, did not sign the recent No-Confidence Motion, in the future, when one comes, we will decide whether to support it—we have told the Prime Minister this. Institutions like the Eastern University face many issues; as the main party representing the North and East, we must raise them.