Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson, based on the Trincomalee incident—

¶ 02 Madam, please allow me to continue.

¶ 03 Based on the incident that occurred in Trincomalee, two or three statements were made here. It was said that we are trying to act on a religious, nationalist basis. There has been an incident there, Madam Deputy Chairperson. The Police have intervened. Under Section 106 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, matters have been reported to the Hon. Magistrate’s Court. Then it is a function of the court. Where is the political interference? Show where we, the Government, interfered and spread communalism. But here it is being spoken as if we created a big religious issue. The Hon. Sajith Premadasa referred to a chapter of the Constitution, saying Buddhism should be given the foremost place.

¶ 04 Are we, as a Government, ignoring Buddhism? Are we disregarding religion? But here, taking some incident, they try to twist it the other way. Therefore, we tell the Leader of the Opposition that what he is saying is at a very low level. Do not try to convert an incident into a communal or religious form.

¶ 05 I did not say this to insult the Hon. Members I mentioned. I presented counter-arguments to their arguments. On judicial independence, I must necessarily draw your attention, Madam, to the fact that this is a Government that has preserved judicial independence to a very high degree.