The Hon. J.C. Alawathuwala

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, looking at the points made by the Hon. Deputy Minister of Defence in support of extending the emergency, they are not satisfactory. He did not present concrete reasons for why an extension is necessary. He simply said the Security Council met yesterday and the day before. One does not need an emergency for that.

¶ 02 Let me be clear. Before coming to power, your party had long periods in government. Even during war, the JVP opposed emergency regulations and protested outside. But once you took power, you abandoned what you said for years. The Deputy Minister said there were fuel queues, and sometimes needs could not be met. That sounded like a justification for imposing emergency. I remember what he said during the last election—that the underworld would be finished in two days; instructing people to bring bank loans for it. Today there is no need for emergency. You came to power by blaming others for 76 years. Having taken power, you now scold the Opposition and blame officials and even come to Parliament to defame your own country.

¶ 03 You are using emergency to suppress the people’s demands in a democracy. There is no need for emergency to provide relief to the cyclone-affected or to fulfil your promises. If you intend to do what you promised, you can do it through officials. Emergency becomes necessary only if you plan to suppress public demands for unfulfilled promises. Hence we cannot accept your reasons to extend emergency. For public security there is no need for emergency. You have an Executive President, a two-thirds-like majority in Parliament with 159 MPs, and control of local bodies. You do not need emergency to work for the people. This is to suppress dissent.

¶ 04 Village-level officials, including Grama Niladharis, have informed the government—especially the Public Administration Minister—that many assigned to disaster duties after the “Dittu” cyclone have been withdrawn. Without engaging with them and addressing their legitimate demands, merely imposing emergency will not yield fair outcomes. Trade union leaders, secretaries and chairmen of certain bodies have sent us letters. I table that letter.

¶ 05 It sets out conditions for addressing issues and requests solutions. If Ministers won’t discuss and resolve these, and think emergency alone will fix everything, it will not be effective. The Deputy Minister says emergency is to get people’s work done. That can be done under normal law. The real aim is to suppress trade union action and citizens’ democratic rights.

¶ 06 It is also evident that the government’s popularity is declining—seen in co-operative society elections, where the government has suffered defeats. In this context, you are extending emergency to suppress democratic rights.

¶ 07 We, as the Opposition, oppose this motion. Instead of addressing people’s issues, you divert attention and hide the truth. For example, power generation—the Norochcholai plant—was discussed even this morning. There is a serious issue. Because of substandard coal, the country suffers massive losses and environmental damage. Hon. Hector Appuhamy said the low-grade coal causes heavy smoke in his constituency. Engineers have said the equipment is being damaged. Yet the government continues to import this coal. If the Middle East situation disrupts fuel supplies, and if the coal plant can’t operate properly, we could face a major power crisis. Please focus on this; we have raised it for months.

¶ 08 Hon. Member, your time is over.

¶ 09 Please grant me one more minute.

¶ 10 Mr. Speaker, as requested by the Chief Opposition Organizer, the Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka, I will conclude. You are not taking necessary steps to solve real issues, instead distracting the public and concealing realities. We cannot be satisfied with extending emergency; we oppose it strongly. Thank you.