The Hon. Ajith P. Perera
Hon. Ajith P. Perera argued that the emergency regulations tabled were overbroad and appeared to be copied from earlier crisis periods rather than tailored to the current situation. Citing a Supreme Court judgment on proportionality, he said emergency powers should be limited to actual necessity and noted that previous support for such regulations was based on an immediate crisis. He raised concerns about alleged selective law enforcement and political interference in policing, and called on the Government to narrow and amend the regulations to address only the present need.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, the Hon. Lakmali Hemachandra said emergency will not be misused. The initial fear of misuse arose when Hon. Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala suggested emergency could be used to deal with media, prompting the President to deny such intent. Moreover, the Regulations tabled today do not fit the present need; they appear copied from the Aragalaya and Easter periods. If you tailor regulations strictly to the current situation, we have no objection. But these are overbroad.
¶ 02 The Supreme Court, in a majority judgment led by Justice Kodagoda, held that emergency must be proportionate to circumstances. We had earlier supported emergency regulations to meet the immediate crisis, which was right. Now, what is the necessity? Overbreadth raises concern.
¶ 03 When law is not enforced—e.g., allegations involving MPs at Ranwala or Ratnapura—rule of law is questioned. In Matugama, a police OIC was transferred within 24 hours when he did not file charges desired by Government actors; interference of that nature raises fears. Such conduct justifies skepticism about extending expansive regulations and the risks posed to democracy. Therefore, narrow and amend the regulations to meet the actual need.
¶ 04 Thank you.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 6 January 2026 ·No. 23111 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/17674
Cite as: The Hon. Ajith P. Perera. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 January 2026. No. 23111. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/17674