The Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, I believe the Motion moved today by Hon. Asitha Niroshan Egodawithana to adjourn this debate is a significant one that will decide the country’s future. In 2022 there was a great people’s struggle in this country. Its main theme was to change the system.

¶ 02 Changing rulers alone does not change a system. To transform the entire social system requires a massive project. Therefore, the present National People’s Power Government brought the Clean Sri Lanka program to transform the prevailing corrupt social system into a humanist and developed social system. This program did not appear out of thin air, as some in the Opposition claimed. There is a vision, a process, activities, funding, and a mechanism being established.

¶ 03 The work began on January 1; today is January 21. The program is progressing. When a child is born, all organs are not fully formed — likewise, you have not yet seen the end of this program. The Government has prepared all plans and mechanisms. There is a Presidential Task Force, office facilities, and funds; Clean Sri Lanka committees have been set up in District Secretariats; public councils are established; Grama Niladhari divisions are forming committees. The machinery is being formed and the process set. Therefore, it is wrong to say there is no plan.

¶ 04 In a debate like this, it is also customary to clean up misconceptions. Some Opposition Members tried to misinterpret the Hon. Prime Minister’s points. The nation is watching; if you present wrong ideas, we must correct them. This is a broad program. We must respond to the issues raised.

¶ 05 Let me remind you: before the people made this Government, they first made the initial changes necessary for Clean Sri Lanka by cleaning this very Parliament of 225 Members — during the great shramadana on November 21, 157 waste items here were removed. Not on vehicles or three-wheelers, but 157 corrupt politicians here were removed. Even in the cleanest water, impurities can remain. There are still more to remove. Action will proceed lawfully. Unlike in your time, we are not ready to tamper with the law or the Police.

¶ 06 To those who made much noise here: you are not clean enough to comment on Clean Sri Lanka. In our Uva Province, a former Chief Minister made a principal kneel. The Hon. Prime Minister also mentioned this. I have the Sinhala version of the principal’s complaint. It is by the Principal of Badulla Tamil Girls’ High School, Ms. J. Bhavani Raghunadan. She states that on 2018.01.03 she was summoned to the Provincial Secretary, then to the Chief Minister’s official residence, where in the presence of senior education officials, the Chief Minister shouted, abused, and pressured her. Overwhelmed with fear and shock, she knelt and said, “Very sorry, Sir,” to escape the situation. This is recorded in the Police book and in the school logs. That same group grabbed workers by the throat at the Eppawala Phosphate Company. Such disgraceful acts are not part of Clean Sri Lanka; they fall under the law and will proceed accordingly.

¶ 07 The Provincial Education Secretary then was sent to Eppawala Phosphate and later made Chairman — a place of a massive financial fraud. We have referred these for investigation. I have the file. A fundamental rights judgment recognized Eppawala phosphate as a national resource, not to be exported as done illegally by those Ministers. They ignored the judgment, exported without tenders to favored businessmen. Audit reports show the loss: selling at USD 138 per metric ton while the world price was USD 340, and later even at USD 1700, they still exported at USD 138 — a loss of Rs. 786 million. Those former Ministers now come here and lecture us on Clean Sri Lanka. Though not yet fully cleaned, these matters will be investigated and decisions made.

¶ 08 It is good that Hon. Namal Rajapaksa publicly accepted today that mistakes were made. But let me say to all of you: the NPP is not ready to accept wrongdoing. We did not come to admit guilt. You now say to clean Sri Lanka like Singapore did — you had 76 years to clean it. You ruled, broke the country, turned it into a failed state, brought it down to zero. As we rebuild, show us the path; that is fine — do the duty of the Opposition. But if you accuse us of hypocrisy or jealousy, what do we have to be jealous about? We have a strong Government; it takes decisions; those decisions hurt because truths are coming out — that is the real issue. Since this Government came, you have had a problem — fears have arisen: the fear of your great crimes being exposed; the fear that as the country is rebuilt systematically, you will not regain power.

¶ 09 After I became Minister of Plantation Industries about a month ago, I received an anonymous letter saying several plantation bungalows in my district, belonging to my Ministry, were forcibly occupied by politicians; it challenged me to act if I had a backbone. I inquired — some locals claimed those bungalows belonged to those persons. Still, due to the doubt and the challenge, I sent an investigation team. They checked, took photos, obtained all documents from the District Secretariat and Lands Registry. The report confirmed the anonymous petition was true: two bungalows were forcibly occupied — “Deensland” in Dikvella Estate, Etampitiya, Badulla, by former Eastern Province Governor Sendil Thondaman for 13 years; and another at Unagolla Estate, Hali Ela, by former Minister Vadiwel Suresh for 19 years. I summoned the Ministry’s Legal Division and directed that within a week, if the bungalows are not vacated, we will cancel agreements and take them back. The letters went to the companies. Sendil said this Government is not good, so he would vacate — and within a week, he left. Vadiwel Suresh sought a week to show documents; he could not — and after 19 years, he too was evicted. That is how we recovered them. We will implement every promise. The President said so. You feel pain and come here to say all sorts — but we will deliver.

¶ 10 Clean Sri Lanka’s aim is to create a new human being. That cannot be done without cleaning all this. We will clean them all. You will suffer like the crane who got burnt trying to play in the fire — keep flailing. We will enforce the law. We will implement Clean Sri Lanka, unite Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, Malay communities, and realize the vision “A Prosperous Country — A Beautiful Life” for our children. Thank you for the time, Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees.