The Hon. Sunil Rathnasiri

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, during this debate on the Samurdhi (Amendment) Bill, Rubber Control (Amendment) Bill, regulations under the Sports Act, and rules under the Judicature Act, I first wish to extend best wishes to the Sri Lankan weightlifting team departing to represent Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship to be held in Gujarat, India, from 24th to 30th August 2025. Of the 30-member squad, 11 are from my Polonnaruwa District, which has shown the national and international medal-winning potential of weightlifting. I wish the athletes and coaches success.

¶ 02 Responding to the Opposition, Hon. Hesha Withanage spoke about Susanthika Jayasinghe and Sanath Jayasuriya. Twenty-five years ago, Susanthika won an Olympic medal and brought pride to Sri Lanka. He said she was seen alone at Sydney Stadium recently and that we ignore her. Let me recall that two and a half decades ago the country spoke of the “S-J era”—Sanath Jayasuriya and Susanthika Jayasinghe. When Susanthika, from Ethnawala/Warakapola, returned with the silver medal, we—even as university students—wrote a poem for her as she paraded past Kelaniya University. We wrote of her struggle against undue political interference faced by athletes then, asking her to run and escape the Ministers’ grasp. That was the Ministry of Sports then. Today such a situation does not exist.

¶ 03 Another Member lamented that judicial independence is gone. I must remind him: it is because of judicial independence that he is in Parliament today; otherwise he might still be inside as he was in April. The National People’s Power has protected judicial independence to the utmost. Those who were silent when a Chief Justice was unethically removed now claim the judiciary is not independent. We are ashamed of such statements.

¶ 04 From 1970 to 1989 we had the food stamp program, then Janasaviya (1989–1994), Samurdhi (1995–2019), and since 2019 Aswesuma. None of these eliminated poverty; instead, inequality widened. The richest 20% enjoy around 55% of total income, while the poorest 20% receive around 5%. From 2019 to 2023, 37,399 graduates left the country—costing us roughly Rs. 935 billion. As we tackle rural poverty, roads, schools, and hospitals, a key challenge is staff shortages. The President decided to recruit 30,000 to the public service, but that is insufficient. Therefore, we plan to recruit at least 62,000 more to strengthen services to lift people out of poverty over the next four years. That is our message to the Opposition and the country.

¶ 05 Thank you, Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees.