The Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, Attorney-at-Law
Namal Rajapaksa criticised the Government for moving electricity generation toward higher-cost sources and transport back toward petrol and diesel, saying this would raise tariffs and burden households. Marking War Heroes Day, he argued that military veterans from all communities who sacrificed for the country should be recognised as heroes, not treated as ordinary citizens or compared favourably with terrorists. He also referred to the Batalanda Commission Report, warning that accusations against former President Ranil Wickremesinghe could implicate others, and affirmed his support for war veterans.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.
¶ 02 You are converting generation to higher-cost sources and pushing transport back to petrol and diesel, raising electricity tariffs on one hand and directly burdening household economies on the other.
¶ 03 Finally, on War Heroes Day: some who never even use a poppy show up here and in local bodies. War heroes are not such people. They are those—Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, Malay—who sacrificed to protect this nation. Today, many veterans confined to beds must wonder whether in our country a terrorist is considered a hero while our leaders view our soldiers as ordinary. Perhaps you do not feel it because your forces have often been anti-soldier. Read the Batalanda Commission Report properly: the accusations you level at President Ranil Wickremesinghe can rebound on you as well. Even if you see a soldier as ordinary, to me, he is always a hero. We will stand for them.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 ·No. 1749010823009957 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 May 2025. No. 1749010823009957. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/25888