The Hon. Shantha Padmakumara Subasingha

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am glad to see you presiding while representing my district.

¶ 02 The need to extend the emergency was proved again recently. In Ratnapura District, Opatha DS Division, at Asamana Kanda reserve, a landslide endangered 30 families. Hon. Upul Wasantha Kumara and officials moved them; 11 high-risk families (17 persons) are now sheltered at Opatha Mattihakkawala Temple with necessities provided. This underscores the need to extend the emergency.

¶ 03 Opposition Members keep to their usual pattern. Have we ever, in our history, heard of such comprehensive relief packages? In developed countries like Australia, governments provide broad emergency relief. For the first time in Sri Lanka, under President Anura Dissanayake’s government, everyone learned what a real relief package is — a Rs. 5,000 billion package proposed for Ditha-related measures. The moment the Gazette was issued, the next day Sajith Premadasa asked people, “Did you get it?” In 2017, when his government was in power and Ratnapura was affected, 1,724 families still had not been resettled. Did they resolve things within two or three months then?

¶ 04 Now they speak with great sensitivity about Kahawatta, Neelagama, Nuwara Eliya, and hill-country people. The reason is May Day. The NPP, with President Anura Dissanayake, held a massive May Day in Nuwara Eliya. The Opposition had long misled hill-country people with false promises, but now people are gradually — indeed, rapidly — rallying around the NPP government. Hence their sudden outcry.

¶ 05 Kahawatta incident: Private security at Neelagama estate was present due to illegal mining and land encroachments. But assaulting innocent hill-country residents is unacceptable. Our Deputy Minister Sundaralingam Pradeep and Hon. Sunil Rajapakse intervened; within six hours, 12 suspects were arrested, and the estate company was warned. The ministry is working to provide land and houses to 22 affected families. Contrast this with Wevalwatta in 1992, when houses of hill-country Tamils were burned under the Premadasa government; justice was never delivered, and interventions were halted.

¶ 06 We maintain Nuwara Eliya as a city of peace where Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim communities live harmoniously. The opposition seeks to inflame it. Recall 1983: under JR, R. Premadasa, Cyril and Nanda Mathew, the Black July pogrom began, leading to 30 years of war. Now they cry crocodile tears over isolated incidents to gain political mileage as the hill-country people understand the truth and rally around us.

¶ 07 On wages, after 200 years we increased estate wages by Rs. 400 — Rs. 200 by government and Rs. 200 by companies — despite attempts to block it in court. You boasted of your May Day; we held 21 rallies in 21 districts. Even combining all yours, the crowd was smaller than ours. Some who came to see “AI Sajith” — as your own MP joked — walked out once they heard the “real Sajith” speak.

¶ 08 Before we took office, you said peraheras would vanish, temples would be burned, alms stopped, and the economy would collapse; none happened. The rupee did not hit 600 to the dollar. Now, boxed in by your own falsehoods, you keep shifting to new ones — containers, then coal. A full-powered commission headed by a Supreme Court Justice is appointed; go give evidence — even about the “aunt’s account.”

¶ 09 Disasters will come — the Ditha cyclone, Middle East conflict impacts — but under President Anura Dissanayake, we are managing methodically. If you want to be a responsible opposition, act with decorum and stop lying.