The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, we need to adjourn the House at 5.00 p.m. You gave a ruling.

¶ 02 Give him a minute.

¶ 03 Do not turn this into a circus. The Hon. Deputy Minister is replying on behalf of the President. This is his reply speech. We have to adjourn the House. You were given time for a point of order. Not because your name was mentioned. Hon. Chief Organizer of the Opposition, please remember, if you proceed this way, we too will raise everything.

¶ 04 Remember, you do not have any special privilege. Even if you have been in Parliament for 25 years, it is the same. You have been here for only 10 years. If everyone works according to their years, then I too would be here for 168 years. Is that how we conduct business?

¶ 05 It is the task of the Chair to give you the floor, not mine. You raised a point of order very importantly. We saw the Secretariat advising the Presiding Member. He gave a ruling. As it was not resolved, I too inquired from the Office of the Leader of the House. Then the Deputy Secretary-General also explained to me. That is the position. Let us proceed with some consensus. If further clarification is needed, tomorrow you can meet the Speaker and the Secretariat and discuss. Otherwise, you cannot speak your reply every time. This is the practice. Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka knows this well. Numerous Deputy Ministers of Defence have replied in such debates.