The Hon. Dilith Jayaweera

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, Minister Lal Kantha said many lies were told about them—petrol queues, no food, no alms to monks, no peraheras. I never said those; I read their policy book and said if people read it, they won’t vote for them, because it charts a socialist–Marxist path. Today, however, they are implementing it fully, including on territorial integrity and unitary state—this explains their current stance.

¶ 02 I am saddened by the Foreign Minister’s statement today that at the 60th HRC session we did not call a vote on A/HRC/60/L.1/Rev.1 because there was no point. But our Representative Himali Arunathilake described it as a grave situation and said we opposed it. If so, why not call for a vote, even if only to register our position, when China and Cuba spoke for us?

¶ 03 Worse, the Minister said they would allow an Independent Prosecutor’s Office. Why? Do we not trust the Attorney General’s Department or our legal system? I appeal to Government members’ conscience—we all came through free education, elected by village people. Realize the gravity of the trajectory we are on and the potential future for our war heroes and their families if this proceeds. We have surrendered our identity, creating a puppet regime under global “regime change.” We skipped BRICS and Shanghai, lost friends, and our national stature. This is tragic.

¶ 04 Finally, I quote our Cardinal’s homily this morning: progress must walk hand-in-hand with our culture and civilization; do not become vassals of the IMF; our people’s deep poverty is not understood by them; we must not borrow to become vassals to rich nations’ banks; we too have national dignity. I table the full text for the Library.