The Hon. Mujibur Rahuman

¶ 01 [12.17 p.m.]

¶ 02 Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have no issue supporting the resolution to remove Mr. Deshabandu Tennakoon from the office of IGP. When the proposal to appoint him was placed before the Constitutional Council on 24.02.2024, both the then Opposition Leader Hon. Sajith Premadasa and Hon. Kabir Hashim voted against. After the Government improperly approved it, our party members, including former MP Hirunika Premachandra and former PC member Niroshan Padukka, secured an interim order from the Supreme Court on 24.07.2024, which disabled his functioning as IGP. It is on that correct political stance we stand today to speak.

¶ 03 But why did none of your three Opposition-then-Government-aligned MPs go to court then? Your Deputy Minister who is always at the Supreme Court steps with voice-cuts—he went to court on everything, but not on Tennakoon’s appointment. Why? Because there was a deal.

¶ 04 You list many allegations, Minister, but some key ones are missing. Who ordered the release of the lorry carrying explosives at Galenigama exit before Easter 2019 after it was stopped by security? Why is that allegation not here?

¶ 05 On the Aragalaya: you say he supported the attacks. True. But those who were charged then are still attending court. Nine months into your Government, why haven’t those cases been withdrawn?

¶ 06 What about “Operation Yuktıya”? Will you probe abuses of law during that operation?

¶ 07 Do not show us “City of Dreams.” Bring laws to prevent criminals and wrongdoers from being elevated to high office. In your Cabinet, there are persons with serious allegations, even relating to Easter. If you want rule of law, remove them.

¶ 08 On the former Speaker’s claimed doctorate: he said he would table it in six months. It has not been produced. Action?

¶ 09 There were political authorities who instructed Tennakoon. Without their will, he could not have acted as he did. Today he is the “sacrificial lamb,” while those who drove him are spared. This sends a message to public officials: regimes change; do not bend to political whims. No one stands for you when punishment comes.

¶ 10 We will vote to send him home. But the successor must not be another “Deshabandu.” This is what “system change” should mean. Yet you are appointing your party loyalists, relatives, batchmates, and former Rajapaksa associates across the State. That is not system change.

¶ 11 Where is rule of law on the 309 containers released? Where is the report to this new Parliament? Why is it hidden?

¶ 12 We saw the President’s Secretary’s vehicle used by his spouse involved in an accident. By your own standards, he should resign. He remains.

¶ 13 Hon. Deputy Speaker, that is my submission.