The Hon. (Ms.) Lakmali Hemachandra, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, it seems the biggest problem for the Opposition is that our President comes to Parliament. He comes to make nationally important clarifications. When he speaks here, the Opposition Leader and others sit quietly listening — “Yes, Mr. President.” Only after he leaves do the “lions” appear. Now they complain that the President comes to Parliament. He has every right to come and to address Parliament on matters of national importance. Do not spin tales; listen then as you did.

¶ 02 Second, from morning they mock the “I did not taste and see” remark. They heard only that line, not the rest. The President clearly said a ship is rejected based on two reports: one at the loading port and one at the discharge port. Payment is 80% against the load port report and 20% against the discharge port report. The question of whether the incoming coal is below standard cannot be decided by our whim; it must be determined by a standards authority. If standards are low, they are low — we don’t deny it. If the discharge port report, the load port report, or even the Norochcholai plant’s own analysis says so, we accept it. The issue then is: what to do next? That is the real question.

¶ 03 The Opposition is constructing tall tales. They are not a constructive Opposition; they merely want to show the Government erred. We ask you to be more disciplined than us — but you are not interested in that. They ask whether we “tasted” the “waste” ship. Was there not a waste ship that came to Sri Lanka before? Members of the SJB suggest that during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s time no such corrupt deals happened; Pohottuwa MPs imply Ranil Wickremesinghe did not break the Central Bank. What are you trying to say? You craft narratives not to expose corruption, but to claim none occurred before — no waste ship, no Central Bank scam, no corruption. The public understands.

¶ 04 Who speaks thus? Those from parties whose members are named in corruption, faced cases, even went to jail. They accuse us of corruption. Someone today called the President a liar — the same lot who once unleashed dogs on the country. Do not descend to such behaviour here. We, as a Government, participate with decorum.

¶ 05 Another matter: the Easter Sunday attacks. Did they not happen? What is the SJB’s position? Under whose Government did they occur? What did your side do then? Now the Opposition Leader attends the launch of a book written by parties accused regarding those attacks. Those who were in power then have no shame. Here they act as if nothing happened, while asking whether we tasted coal. Is this your politics?

¶ 06 Madam Deputy Chair, last night there was some success towards peace talks between Iran and America. As a nation and as people of the world, we welcome it. Ending war is best for all. The present difficulties in energy and food are arising within a global context. Though we are not a party to the war, we are affected — as is all of Asia and indeed the world. We must consider how, as a country, we face this. That is why the President came yesterday.

¶ 07 With rising fuel and electricity prices, people face difficulties. As a Government, we accept this. We do not pass the entire burden to the people. That is the essence of the relief package. We have allocated funds for production subsidies. Our main issues are energy and food security. For energy security, we have allocated Rs. 60 billion to provide a fuel subsidy to the people — to all our people. In addition, for the fisheries sector we provide extra relief: Rs. 31,250 per craft, and Rs. 150,000 for multi-day vessels — because it is productive work. For electricity bills, for those consuming less than 90 units, we are allocating Rs. 15 billion for these three months. This is a massive package addressing electricity, fuel and food. We give fertilizer subsidies to farmers and fuel subsidies to fishers—