The Hon. Nalinda Jayatissa – Minister of Health and Mass Media and Chief Government Whip

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I wish to express a few views regarding the motion presented by Hon. Rauff Hakeem. The global COVID-19 pandemic reached Sri Lanka during the tenure of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa—the most short-sighted, unscientific, and arrogant governance in our recent history. He claimed no one could question their methods and that they did the best. Although there were many measures available to prevent 69,086 infections and deaths, they were not taken. Former Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe has spoken on this.

¶ 02 About 16,800 people died. Due to decisions taken regarding last rites, approximately 13,100 were cremated and around 3,600 were buried. Not only did they fail to properly face the pandemic, but political decisions also prevented people from conducting last rites according to their religions and beliefs. We must state clearly that political decisions created a great mess during the pandemic.

¶ 03 Nevertheless, even amidst such unscientific, arbitrary political decisions, our Health Ministry at that time managed to a certain extent to control and respond to the pandemic, thereby minimizing deaths to the extent possible.

¶ 04 I am well aware of the pain caused to the Islamic faithful and their families due to the decision to cremate. For many, that suffering can be more shaking than death itself. The people rejected those rulers who trampled on the beliefs of the people for political decisions—just as they rejected those who caused the economic crisis—and brought about a new government.

¶ 05 Therefore, as we did in Opposition and now in government, we have a strong opposition to the political decisions taken during the pandemic, especially the decision to cremate without any scientific basis. Under our government, such unscientific actions will not occur. We will act in line with expert guidance and will not attempt to override expert opinion with political dictates. No community in this country will be deprived of their religious, national freedoms, or beliefs.

¶ 06 As Minister of Health, I note: officials within the Ministry may previously have taken steps under political pressure; however, now they are working with our programme to take the country forward. If there are still such aims at play, we will defeat them as well. As a nation, on our journey to unite our people and strengthen the country, we will not allow such incidents to happen again.

¶ 07 We need not repeat all of this, but once again, I express our condolences and regrets to all families who suffered due to those short-sighted, arbitrary political decisions. Thank you.