The Hon. S.M. Marikkar
Hon. S.M. Marikkar raised a privilege issue concerning a 31 October 2025 discussion chaired by the Speaker on Opposition MPs’ security, attended only by Opposition Members. He alleged that MP Samantha Viddyarathna, who was not present, made public media remarks about the discussion, including sensitive security-related matters, thereby undermining parliamentary freedom of speech under the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act and affecting his personal safety. He requested an inquiry and appropriate action for the alleged breach of privilege, including clarification on claims implying the Speaker had briefed the MP.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on 31.10.2025, under your chairmanship, a discussion was held regarding the security of Opposition MPs of the 10th Parliament. Only Opposition MPs participated besides you. However, an MP from Badulla District, Mr. Samantha Viddyarathna—who did not attend—made a media statement about our views. This undermines the freedom of speech guaranteed by Section 3 of the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act. Publicizing sensitive matters on MPs’ security has adversely impacted my safety. I request appropriate action for this breach of privilege. He even said, “If you want, go and ask the Speaker,” as if you had briefed him. I request you to inquire.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 13 November 2025 ·No. 22816 ·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/26979
Cite as: The Hon. S.M. Marikkar. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 13 November 2025. No. 22816. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/26979