The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake objected to references made to JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera, stating that Wijeweera’s scholarship was funded by the Soviet Communist Party through the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, not by Sri Lankan public funds. He rejected attempts to draw Wijeweera into the exchange and urged members to give their own answers without invoking his party’s founder.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, if someone puts a veil over their face, that is their choice. But let me clarify about Rohana Wijeweera. His scholarship was not from Sri Lankan public funds; it was from scholarships given by the Soviet Communist Party to the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. He did not come from privilege. Please give your own answers and do not drag our Party’s founder into this. We strongly reject that.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 6 August 2025 ·No. 1755159820030645 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/17120
Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 August 2025. No. 1755159820030645. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/17120