The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, with respect, I request three minutes, without interruption, to present an issue.

¶ 02 Hon. Minister, this is not sabotage, nor is it false. You yourself said this is the best place to speak; so I will speak. The source here is Sajith Premadasa. The Hon. Minister of Public Security said—yesterday or the day before, I do not recall the exact date—that to obtain a police character certificate, the recommendation of the Community Police Committee Chairman is needed.

¶ 03 Hon. Speaker, let me table details. In the Kirinda-Puhulwella DS Division, Kumbalgoda GN Division, a private-sector job applicant, Kankaanam Pathirana Anuradha Madushanka, when seeking a police character report from Hakmana Police, was instructed that, in addition to the GN’s report, a character certificate from the Community Police Committee Chairman was required. The Chairman’s name is P. Ramawickrama. Only after that certificate was produced was the police report issued. That is the first example.

¶ 04 Second, relating to Kamburupitiya Police: In the Lenabatuwa GN Division, a resident of 317 ‘C’, D.G. Deneth, when applying for a police report, was asked to produce a character certificate from the Community Police Committee Chairman, Mr. Sampath Wickramasinghe. He is the NPP representative in that village and the Committee Chairman. Even with his certificate produced, the police certificate has still not been issued. I provide names of individuals, police stations, GNs, and villages.

¶ 05 I raise this here because Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said this is the best place to present facts. Are we laying the groundwork for institutionalized autocracy or a police state—linking every community position (funeral, caste, farmer, fisherman, women’s, community development, village development committees) to one party—