The Hon. E.M. Basnayaka

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, this is a remarkable, strong, and comprehensive Budget. Looking at it, all communities have been engaged and all will benefit. It covers every social group, every sector—even animals and the environment.

¶ 02 Yet the Opposition talks about page counts and says “there is nothing.” Every line and figure in these 57 pages has been studied and presented by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. We in Government stand by the data and proposals herein.

¶ 03 After presentation on the 7th, we saw some in the Opposition panic and get disheartened. Some who did not understand are now flailing in debate. We ask you to re-read and understand the Budget.

¶ 04 What was the state on 7 November, or on 21 September 2024 when we took office? Then, politics was unstable, the economy was wrecked, and society torn. Today, politics is stable with 159 democratic rulers in this House, and the people’s blessings are with us. The economy is strengthening, as affirmed by the World Bank, lenders, the Governor of the Central Bank, and economists. It is clear as we are prepared to spend over a trillion rupees—not to keep in banks but to meet people’s needs. The rupee is strengthening against the dollar. Society is also strengthening with values restored through equal application of the rule of law. The people recognize and bless this Government.

¶ 05 To the Opposition: for years you have split into Government and Opposition and repeated the same chant. Let me give an analogy: if you do not put the right ingredients in the pot and apply proper heat, the rice turns to grit—it is neither rice nor edible. Likewise, the common Opposition—SJB, Pohottuwa, UNP—has turned to grit; you neither understand nor can be made whole. We can only extend sympathy.

¶ 06 I must also correct a falsehood spreading on social media: that we are carpeting the road up to Corbett’s Gap in the Knuckles World Heritage area. As the MP for Theldeniya, I invite the so-called environmentalist making this claim to come and see. Do not spread blatant lies like the common Opposition.

¶ 07 I also ask the Opposition: to whom did the Malaiyaha Tamils give their franchise for decades? To you. Two hundred years after being housed by lines and common latrines, today 3–4 families still live in a single room in poverty, without food, clothes, or shelter. Aren’t you ashamed to oppose giving them Rs. 200 a day? Filing cases against it is shameful. Their lives are lives too; are their votes all that matter to you? We will not stop at Rs. 200 or Rs. 1,750 monthly increases. We will move them out of line rooms, give them ten perches, build houses, and free them from your grasp and captivity.

¶ 08 Let me end with a verse I recently saw:

¶ 09 “Be a moon to curse the jackals devouring my land, A thunderbolt to those who soil the Motherland, A shelter to those who suffer in pain, A light to the children yet to be born.”