The Hon. Dilith Jayaweera

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, much has been said about women in this debate. I now understand how the Government views women from its policy and campaign narratives. The perspective is imported—largely from the West. Our woman is not the Western archetype. Our woman is our mother. Though described as patriarchal, in lived reality our society is matri-centric; the mother is central.

¶ 02 How we, as a society, treat our mother determines our direction. In some strands of feminism, that central figure becomes invisible. It is no surprise that political doctrines which ignore our own civilizational fabric fail to see this.

¶ 03 Even as “Mawbima” was about to close, I saw Shyama Basnayake—who coined your “Gähenu Api” campaign line—oppose using that tag against Sri Lankan women. That itself should make you reflect.

¶ 04 How is the mother being pushed out of the family today? A child cannot take schoolbooks home; the mother cannot check or help with homework. This government has effectively prevented that. Why? Because of an imported ideological lens. Our mother is the queen of this society; she decides the country’s trajectory. Hollow slogans of “feminist struggle” do not serve her.

¶ 05 The present reality is severe economic hardship. Sri Lankan women are straining their motherhood under immense pressure, fighting daily battles. Your duty is to deliver what you promised. At minimum, economically empower her—not with trinkets, but with real, ground-level change: pathways to self-employment, entrepreneurship, knowledge, creativity and access to capital.

¶ 06 Abandon this imported, performative feminism. In the name of your own parents—especially your mother—stop these empty exercises and do real work on the ground.

¶ 07 Further, geopolitically, without a clear foreign policy and strategy, our national security is vulnerable. Street theatrics are not strategy. We must build trust with nations in our region through a coherent geostrategic approach.