The Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen

¶ 01 Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, we debate an important Motion. First, all 225 MPs, including Hon. Shritharan, must acknowledge that Sri Lanka is home to Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malaiyaha (Indian Tamils), and others.

¶ 03 Recently, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi organized a hartal with the slogan “North and East are the Tamil homeland.” This country belongs to all— Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese, Malays— and we cannot forget that. All communities fought for independence. Due to mistakes by majority leaders, an armed struggle emerged, causing devastation. The Muslim community never asked to divide the country nor fought for that, yet we suffered: worshippers at Kattankudy were massacred; Hajj returnees were killed; families still do not know where their loved ones are buried. Chemmani too was a grave injustice; whoever is guilty must be punished. But we must move away from the mindset of “our mother is mother; others’ mothers are nothing.” Think collectively: if we see this as “our country,” even if we do not, our children will live here in peace.

¶ 04 Among the hartal demands were “Tamil homeland” and “remove the military from North and East.” Is it right then to ask Muslim communities and parties to support such a hartal? Before organizing, you should have consulted other parties and collectively urged the President to act on wrongs, and if not, then all could have organized together. This is a fragmented country— everyone blames everyone; we have done this for 75 years, including the last 10 months. If this continues, no investment will come; our mothers toil abroad as domestic workers to send remittances, yet the trade deficit persists. People entrusted five years to the NPP. We are not a party seeking to grab power; if the Government does right, we support; if wrong, we point it out.

¶ 05 Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure saw severe human rights violations. During COVID-19, Muslim burials were denied; bodies were cremated despite our pleas. I myself was arrested under the PTA at 3 a.m., taken to detention though I was an MP, and later acquitted. Under his rule, the 100-year-old Mahara Mosque was shut after the Easter bombings— with no prior issues for a century. What did the mosque have to do with Zaharan’s crimes? The Justice Minister is a decent man but reads what is placed before him; prison officers claimed problems only after the bombings. I requested action.

¶ 06 About 70 percent of Muslims voted for Anura Kumara Dissanayake; in the North and East 40–50 percent of Muslims voted for you. Those 6.9 million votes are not all NPP votes— many voted for you out of trust in you and rejection of others. Safeguard that trust. If we have erred, punish us— but in every case against me I was acquitted. I was jailed for months on false allegations— by Wimal Weerawansa, a bigot— and was acquitted. Cases were filed against me in Mannar while I was in Colombo— again I was acquitted. I was detained over the Easter attacks— acquitted. We suffered, my people suffered— over a hundred thousand became displaced; I too was displaced. When I resettled them in Mannar and Marichchukkaddi as a minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa incited Gnanasara Thera and elements in the military to block Muslim resettlement. That case remains in court.

¶ 07 The historic Mannar–Puttalam road, closed for about 15 years, I reopened as Minister. An extremist took it to court; the Supreme Court has now ordered it closed permanently. Is that not a human rights violation? In Mahara, a 100-year-old mosque remains closed; 300 families have no place of worship and suffer— is that not a human rights violation?

¶ 08 As Minister I built six schools; works were halted by Gotabaya though they were funded by the State. I built a cultural centre in Chilaw and another building in Mannar— these too were stopped. These, too, are violations affecting our people.