The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, yesterday the President announced a so-called relief package. I will make brief remarks during this debate on suspending today’s sittings.

¶ 02 For decades, you claimed Sri Lanka had only capitalist governments and that now, at last, there is a government of the oppressed. You told the oppressed to rise—that their era had come—spreading hate that eclipsed the development people saw with their own eyes. Yet under this claimed “government of the oppressed,” the burden on the oppressed has grown heaviest.

¶ 03 As Sinhala New Year approaches, consider: keeri samba rice is Rs. 380–400 per kg, often unavailable even at Rs. 400. Mung beans exceed Rs. 1,000 per kg. Good dhal is Rs. 400–500 per kg—people say they have never eaten such expensive dhal. From lunch packets to bus tickets, everything has skyrocketed. No so-called capitalist government did to the oppressed what you have managed to do. School supplies—pencils, erasers, geometry boxes—have all surged. As a former teacher, you know the prices when you took office versus now, which the oppressed must pay.