The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva

¶ 01 Hon. Chairman, I am pleased to have ten minutes on a very important Ministry. I will be brief.

¶ 02 I refer to “Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2025 – Technology for Change: Driving the Digital Economy” by IPS, which outlines how to build the needed infrastructure for a digital economy. It is an important report that can inform many of your programmes. We are 100% in agreement on building digital public infrastructure; it is central to our Economic Blueprint as well. But in doing so, we must also safeguard democracy and human rights. Some countries digitized without regard to these and slid into authoritarianism.

¶ 03 Recently at the “Common Edge” event, Saritha Irugalbandara, Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa, Dr. Saranee Gunathilaka and attorney Benislos Thushan presented the other side of this coin. I table those documents.

¶ 04 Dr. Hattotuwa flags five concerns. First, lack of contextual understanding: we must consider Sri Lanka’s political-democratic context, accountability and transparency, and how the private sector has behaved in past digitalization. Are we designing a digital Sri Lanka for a hypothetical country or for our real post-war context—considering issues in the North and East, phone restrictions etc.? Context matters.

¶ 05 Second, absence of public dialogue: “There is virtually no public or media discussion regarding this critical project.” True. On the unique ID and Digital Sri Lanka, where is the public consultation? Other than one day of briefings to MPs with Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, nothing else. I believe we need a Parliamentary Select Committee for a change of this magnitude, to gather views of the Opposition, public and civil society—especially on human rights, democracy and issues in the North and East.

¶ 06 Digital economy on one hand; on the other, the Online Safety Act and, separately, the Personal Data Protection Act. There are tensions: what OSA seeks to do versus what Data Protection aims to secure—how will these reconcile within the digital architecture?

¶ 07 Third, he discusses a “Hans Wijayasuriya case study” about corporate conduct in phone disconnections and accountability. Let me be clear: we respect Dr. Hans leading this effort. But civil society questions need answers, and beyond lectures we need discourse. This cannot be entrusted to one team alone; it needs inclusive engagement.

¶ 08 Fourth and finally: vapourware and lack of documentation. “Because there are no publicly available policy documents in Sinhala or Tamil...” I checked your Ministry website, ICTA, 1919—nowhere is there Sinhala or Tamil documentation on “Digital Sri Lanka.” Globally, no major transformation is done without multilingual socialization and debate.

¶ 09 On your website, large photos of you and the President and coverage of conferences—but nothing in Sinhala or Tamil explaining the transformation. By law, Government websites must be in three languages. People in Tamil and Sinhala must be able to understand what is being done, or you will not get buy-in.

¶ 10 We fought together against authoritarianism; digital phone blocking, tapping, disconnections are possible—we have even heard a Police Media Spokesman speak on such matters. Please be cautious.

¶ 11 One more point: yesterday the bid reportedly closed for 15,000,000 pre-printed polycarbonate cards. If a bid for 15 million cards closed, this should have been explained in your speech. There is a big question whether we need 15 million polycarbonate cards if we are moving to a digital system. We discussed this here; when asked at COPA, Dr. Hans said cards were not essential, but that people are used to having something in their pocket, so perhaps for a short time a card could be issued. Fine. But do we need polycarbonate? Some countries use hybrids. If we are following Aadhaar-type approaches, they do not freshly emboss physical cards in that way.

¶ 12 What is the number really needed? Do we need 15 million? Earlier we discussed issuing a smaller number temporarily for those without smartphones and for inclusion. If the plan is a DigiWallet or a Super App carrying authentication and a unique twelve-digit ID, then what is the necessity for massive polycarbonate card quantities?

¶ 13 We are not against this at all; we are supportive. But as Chair of COPA and an MP, I ask you to justify such expenditures and to continue this discussion.