The Hon. Ruwan Mapalagama

¶ 01 Thank you, Mr. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 The National People’s Power achieved a historic mandate in Gampaha, with over 150,000 preferences for a single candidate and electing 16 MPs. I thank our district and invite all, including those few who did not join us, to come together.

¶ 03 Across world history, peoples have risen against oppressive regimes—from France to Russia. What is unique in Sri Lanka is that the people overturned a corrupt, anti‑people order not through bloodshed, but at the ballot box—at both the presidential and parliamentary elections. They sent home the “hyena rulers” who ravaged the country. This will be remembered in our history books, just as we read of 1956; our children will one day study the political transformation of 2024.

¶ 04 The mandate we received was not only a rejection of old regimes and hereditary entitlement, but an affirmation of justice. As the President said: within this mandate is the grief of families of the murdered, the anguish of their friends. If we do not deliver justice, who will? If we fail, how can the people maintain hopes for justice?

¶ 05 This mandate was won for our program “A Prosperous Country – A Beautiful Life.” Prosperity is not merely rupees and cents; we need a country rich in virtue, intellect, and humanity—culturally rich, as Hon. (Dr.) Sunil Senevi emphasized. Those who boast of experience administered the first delays in school examinations due to lack of paper; electricity bills could not be printed due to shortages; today even national IDs for O/L students require temporary measures. That is their experience.

¶ 06 The votes given for change place a heavy responsibility upon every NPP MP. None of us will betray that mandate. As the poet Rathna Sri Wijesinghe wrote, adapted: “Sri Lankan citizens, fear not—we shall show not how to die, but how to live; not how to be born, but how to build the country.” Thank you.