Hon. Chamara Sampath Dassanayake

¶ 01 If we ask how much trust people had in this Government, some graduates once said, “We do not need your jobs. Our Government is coming. When our Government comes, we will get jobs.” Today, graduates are left with a chain of problems. You say these problems will be solved — problems in the North, problems of the estate Tamil people. I accept that there are about half a million Tamil votes in the estates in Badulla and Nuwara Eliya. This time, only one from the Opposition was elected to Parliament from there — that is Mr. Thondaman. Ambika from Badulla got 6,060. Another MP also came. But people did not vote for Vadiwel Suresh, Velayutham, Aravind Kumar and others. They could not come to Parliament. Those people voted for this Government because they believed in it.

¶ 02 We have never received a decisive bloc of estate votes. In 1994, President Chandrika’s Government brought Samurdhi, gave electricity, and did many things; President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government built roads. Yet, those people did not vote for us. Even so, they voted for this Government with trust. But their daily wages could not be meaningfully increased. Their daily wage is Rs. 1,300. They still live in line rooms; it would be good to give them 5,000 houses, but we say do more, because the estate people placed great trust in this Government. From the farmer to the worker, everyone placed their trust.

¶ 03 There are about 100,000 votes in Mahiyanganaya. Anura Vidanagamage once won with 30,000 preferences at his peak. But in this General Election, the people of Mahiyanganaya gave 35,000 preferences to Samantha Vidyaratna. Yet, has justice been done to the farmer in Mahiyanganaya today? In 1994, Madam Chandrika lost almost across the country, and the Mahiyanganaya seat was won by the UNP. Mr. Gamini Dissanayake’s wife was the Presidential candidate then. The only seat she won in the country was Mahiyanganaya. But this time, from the farmer to the worker, everyone believed in this Government. Now that trust is breaking down. People are taking to the streets. State institutions are going on strike. These are not strikes organized by Chamara Sampath taking people and agitating. We in the Opposition are not behind them. Did we go for the postal strike? No. Are we in the teachers’ strikes? No. Do we go for other strikes? No. If you think you can win by beating, insulting, suppressing, intimidating, banning work, then “sorry dot com,” I remain silent.

¶ 04 Thank you very much.