The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Please speak after my speech, Hon. Chanaka Madugoda. Hon. Presiding Member, please ask him to take his seat. Please allow me to continue. There is no point of order. I am answering his allegations, Sir.

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, someone keeps repeating, “I am clean, I am clean.” People should understand what happens when you throw stones while living in glass houses. Regarding the so-called Office of the Secretary to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, they tried to act through a certain “commission” — they even gave it a strange name — which I call the Political Revenge Commission. They dragged our comrade Ananda Wijepala and our Party Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake before it. For what? To deprive them of their civic rights. That was exactly the core in the charge sheet — to strip civic rights and end our politics.

¶ 03 What happened next? Hon. Presiding Member, the Court of Appeal nullified it; it rendered that commission inoperative. The name given to that commission is difficult to repeat here. Afterwards, Comrade Ananda Wijepala challenged that commission before the Supreme Court as well. Under those two petitions, the commission was made inoperative and declared unlawful. That was their attempt at vengeance. Our Party Leader and Ananda Wijepala were both vindicated regarding that revenge commission.

¶ 04 In such a context, they now bring this challenge. That is why I said, do not throw stones from glass houses.

¶ 05 Ask what amount of money was recovered to the Treasury from the Rajapaksa family on the basis of the Bribery Commission’s investigations. Hear this, Hon. Chanaka Madugoda — perhaps you cannot bear to listen. Do not eat someone else’s lentils, Hon. Member. Understood? Whose channel is CSN?