The Hon. Sivagnanam Shritharan

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, as I deliver my opening remarks on the 2026 Budget debate, the usual annual ritual has taken place — but many fundamentals were left out. This Budget reveals that the President and the current leadership lack a long-term vision to resolve the protracted ethnic question or to lay the foundation for realizing the political aspirations of the Tamil people of the North and East.

¶ 02 Of total expenditure, about 15 percent is allocated to Defence and Public Security in a country not at war, while education gets only about 5 percent. How can a nation progress, develop a self-reliant economy, or secure a future for its children with such priorities? Your true face is clear in these allocations.

¶ 03 The President also said Rs. 10 billion has been set aside for Provincial Council elections, but then added, “We can talk later about whether and how to hold them.” Your party holds 159 seats — a two-thirds majority. Why then hesitate to implement the 13th Amendment, arising from the Indo-Lanka Accord, to resolve the ethnic problem? You travel abroad saying there was no genocide, no war crimes here, and plead against international investigations. If there were no war crimes, why fear an investigation? If you are honest and courageous and have done no wrong, why block it? Yet you hedge on Provincial Council elections, too.

¶ 04 The 13th Amendment, born of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord as an interim measure, led to Provincial Council administrations, including a merged North-East once. Those administrations have now lapsed for five years, yet successive governments delay elections — treating Tamils as a defeated people to be kept down. If you think you can continue dominance over Tamils, history will turn.

¶ 05 Today you may hold a majority; greater majorities have fallen — Gotabaya Rajapaksa came with a greater mandate. Majorities are not permanent. Without justice, dharma and righteousness, and without governing in line with the Buddha’s teachings you profess, the country will again drift towards ruin, not peace.

¶ 06 You claim development, but at the Kilinochchi District Coordinating Committee on 6 November, an MP spoke of mango plantations where people lack land to live — 13,000 without residential land in Jaffna; 4,000 in Kilinochchi; many in Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee. People need drinking water and livelihood support, not displacement under the guise of “production” and “FDI.”

¶ 07 Consider Kurinjathivu salt pans — famous for premium white salt in Asia. Even Rs. 1,000 million has not been allocated; with Rs. 2,000 million a phase could start. Anaikoddai salt works operate but need upgrades; no funds. The Valachchenai paper mill remains undeveloped. The Jaffna cement factory does not use local raw materials; a research trust led by Murugathas sought land rights to bag cement locally, application pending over a year with no approval — while you talk development and invite the diaspora home.

¶ 08 We asked you to develop Kankesanthurai Port with Indian grant funding to enable passenger and cargo movement between India and Sri Lanka — making Jaffna a trading hub. You show no interest because you fear Jaffna’s rise. You talk of airports: the President said Rs. 1,000 million for Sigiriya (international), plus Palaly, Trincomalee and local strips. At Palaly, passengers cannot bring over 15 kg, and planes with more than 80 seats cannot land. Expand the runway, compensate acquired lands, make it truly international. We have requested this many times.

¶ 09 True development would be: KKS Port upgraded; Palaly International expanded; Kurinjathivu and Anaikoddai salt pans developed; Valachchenai paper mill modernized. Instead, you are ready to sell resources and land, while saying tourists will bring forex. Tourism is fine, but not a permanent income. Like Japan and Singapore, we must stand on our own feet.

¶ 10 Under the LTTE’s civil administration, the “Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organization” fostered self-reliance; people bought rice at Rs. 14 per kilo, studied, travelled, and lived freely. Today, look at the prices of rice, pulses and vegetables, and how far we have fallen from past economic norms. Building facades and ceremonial acts are not development; ensure every elder can live with dignity on their own effort without obstacles.

¶ 11 First, resolve the national question. We are partners in this country. You call yourselves socialists and anti-oppression; then recognize the right to self-determination of an oppressed people. Ask JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera’s successors — including your General Secretary Tilvin Silva — what self-determination means for oppressed peoples. A people with their own language, culture, history and traditional homeland in the North and East are now subdued. No leader dares speak truthfully about their rights. We do not seek a return to arms; but if you deny a political solution and think Tamils will stop asking, that would be a grave historical mistake.

¶ 12 Budget Day is not a ritual; it is a statement of policy, economic strength, and how government will act in the coming year: how revenues and expenditures will balance, how harmony and justice among communities will be ensured, and how we move forward from past grievances. Yet at the UNHRC in Geneva, your Foreign Minister said you reject international investigation. If you bear no wounds, why fear? Victims here have not received justice through reconciliation commissions or Presidential commissions. Therefore, we insist on an international investigation. Sinhala leaders will not deliver justice to Tamils domestically; you are even unwilling to implement the basic devolution under the 13th Amendment. Hence we appeal through this House to the international community: justice for Tamils is possible only with international intervention and oversight.

¶ 13 Many global actors supported the Indo-Lanka Accord — including the US and especially India. Yet you now hesitate to implement even the Provincial Council system under the 13th Amendment — a dangerous regression against a people. We have written at least two letters to the President; no response. If you are not even ready to hold elections to obtain a mandate to constitute Provincial Councils, how will you approach a political solution?

¶ 14 Our party’s policy clearly seeks a federal (consociational) solution. Belgium and Switzerland demonstrate how such structures prevent separation and keep nations united and strong; even India and the US, with semi-federal systems, do not face separation due to those structures. Why not discuss a cooperative federal arrangement within Sri Lanka? If not federalism, what consociational mechanism will you discuss? The Tamil question is central and must be resolved.

¶ 15 We are not an ordinary people: our youth once manned air, sea and land forces; many of them still live among us today, as do those skilled in explosives. But in the last 16 years, has a single bomb gone off? Any shooting? Our people have remained peaceful. If you continue to deny a solution, thinking Tamils will stop asking, you commit a grave error.

¶ 16 Your election manifesto — the NPP’s — speaks about “political prisoners.” Yet they have not been released; my questions to the Hon. Minister of Justice remain unanswered. If you are truly against oppression and for the people, act on your promises. The current President and Prime Minister sat with us in this very row in past years; you know our realities. If this Budget and future Budgets avoid the political solution, Sri Lanka will move in the wrong direction. No Budget can truly succeed without addressing the national question, inter-ethnic harmony, and justice. I stress this again.