The Hon. Dilip Wedaarachchi

¶ 01 This year, 332 containers were brought; only two reached Hambantota District — both with precursor chemicals for cocaine and “ice” (meth). With Government facilitation, two such containers came to start three such factories in our District — this Government has fed our District with narcotics.

¶ 02 I appeal: in Hambantota’s 576 GN divisions, do not form “security committees” with only your party supporters and police. If you want to eradicate drugs, include representatives of all four parties and police officers in those committees and act decisively. Otherwise, we cannot end this scourge which is rampant in our District. Recent seizures of “ice” and heroin have not led to meaningful results; only a few were produced in court and held for inquiry, but nothing substantive happened.

¶ 03 I request a special operation in Hambantota to eradicate this drug epidemic. Some Government MPs called it “our curse.” If it were our curse, our party leaders would have been stoned for 77 years. It is the JVP’s curse we are paying for: they opposed the Mahaweli project; today 50% of our electricity depends on it. They opposed garment factories as “stitching underwear for foreigners”; today hundreds of thousands of young women live through that industry. They opposed the Ella–Wellawaya road claiming it was to land US planes; today they travel comfortably on those roads. They derided the expressway saying “even dogs can’t cross it,” yet now travel on it; they mocked Port City and Kerawalapitiya as well, but today rely on them for power and investment. They opposed FTAs with India and Singapore; they opposed private universities and hospitals; yet their children now attend them.

¶ 04 Do not lecture our parties; we are not hypocrites. The parties that carried this country for 77 years were destroyed by you in 1988–89 with violence. Thank you for the time.