The Hon. S.M. Marikkar
Hon. S.M. Marikkar suggested that wildlife tourism could quickly generate revenue by renovating facilities, launching an online booking platform, and listing them on commercial travel sites. He questioned the Government’s claims on rule of law and public security, citing killings and shootings, the removal of MPs’ security, and alleging that the Minister in charge of Police continues to use STF and backup security. He also criticized public displays of drug seizures, calling for transparency on the destruction of seized drugs and for enforcement to be carried out properly rather than as publicity.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Fine.
¶ 02 While the Minister is here, there is a lot more to say, Madam Deputy Chairperson. We do not get to say these every day.
¶ 03 Hon. Minister, wildlife tourism can be transformed into immediate revenue without much expense. Renovate, launch the website the next day, put it on Booking.com and the revenue will come. These are the areas where you can find more income.
¶ 04 Since my time is over, one more thing. This Government is claimed to be a rule-of-law Government. Our Deputy Minister Watagala – my friend from Colombo District – says that no one is as fair as they are. But since this rule-of-law Government came to power, there have been dozens of killings and around a hundred shootings. Yet they claim public security exists and have removed MPs’ security, saying if MPs are given security, public security will decline. The Minister in charge of Police comes to this Parliament with the STF, and as backup in plain clothes. In this photo, vehicle KX-5289 – last Thursday at 2.39 p.m., when he was leaving Parliament, the backup came and took him. I took a photo.
¶ 05 It is fine for him to go with the STF. But if public security exists, the Minister in charge of Police should not need the STF. You have not even given that to the Madam. If so, she too should go with police drivers in plain clothes. But she has not been given that. Yet they go with backup. They show off and say this exists. These are fraudulent police works. I even said the vehicle number.
¶ 06 You are very good at working with words – theoretically or practically – very good with words.
¶ 07 Madam Deputy Chairperson, my time is up. I will conclude.
¶ 08 You show exhibits saying you seize drugs. But you do not show when those drugs are destroyed, Madam. Then people get doubts whether these are brown sugar or bread flour. Because with the way you seize, there should be drug shortages and addicts would be on syringes; but we do not see such users anywhere. Therefore, stop this exhibition mafia and do the job properly. Thank you.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Monday, 17 November 2025 ·No. 22912 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/2586
Cite as: The Hon. S.M. Marikkar. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 November 2025. No. 22912. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/2586