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The first order of business of the newly convened Second Session of the Ninth Parliament this week was to debate President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Statement of Government Policy delivered on Tuesday (18).

The three-day debate saw the Government echoing the call made by the President during his speech for the Opposition to set aside politics and support the Government’s efforts to rebound from the crippling economic crisis. Opposition parties, though, hit back that it was the Government that was playing politics, and for the large part, dismissed the President’s speech as one that failed to address the current problems faced by the people.

Opening the debate on Wednesday (19), Gampaha District Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Kokila Gunawardene insisted that the President had managed the Government skillfully during the challenging times faced by the country in the past two years. “We are a Government with a vision. We want to ensure sustainable development for the country. This is why the President introduced such projects like 100,000 km of roads, housing, electricity and drinking water for all. We speedily implemented these projects,” she remarked.

She acknowledged that the Government had to take “some unpopular decisions” owing to the dollar crisis and place certain restrictions. These include a ban on the importation of vehicles and a ban on the import of 16 crops that can be grown in the country. Nevertheless, these decisions have also brought success, she said, claiming the country is now self-sufficient in turmeric. While noting that the President’s green agriculture policy ran into some problems along the way, Ms Gunawardene praised the President for sticking with the policy. “Though certain elements are trying to sabotage this effort based on political interests, we know that the farmers are ultimately supportive of it.”

Responding, Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella said the President’s speech failed to provide solutions to the immediate problems faced by the people. For example, the President failed to address the plight faced by farmers, who have been hit hard by the fertiliser crisis. The President also failed to provide solutions to issues such as the fuel crisis, power crisis, gas crisis and the struggle faced by the people to survive each day, he remarked. “He didn’t explain how the Government plans to bring down the prices of essential items. Those are the important issues of the day. Any Government can build roads and buildings,” Mr. Kiriella said.

Given how “listless” President Rajapaksa’s speech to the House was, Parliament seems to have allocated too much time to debate it, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran quipped. “There was no policy, that was stated. There was a few identification of issues but no answers given. Nothing by way of a message on the inauguration of a new session of Parliament that the Parliament should get excited about and debate for two more days.”

Mr Sumanthiran also accused the President of insulting the people in the North and East by stating that his Government’s prime responsibility towards reconciliation was providing facilities to the people of these areas without discrimination.

“They haven’t been fighting for facilities, they have been fighting for their equal citizenship right, their right to self-determination, their right to self-rule, for share of powers of governance, and for the president to reduce all of that to a level of saying, ‘you know that there are basic facilities that are necessary, that is what will bring about reconciliation’ says much about what he understands the National problem to be,” Mr Sumanthiran said.

House Leader and Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said it was unfair for the Opposition to attack the Government over the challenges faced by the country while knowing full well that much of the world was facing the same issues owing to the pandemic. “The President’s priority in this situation was saving lives and it is natural that certain decisions that were taken to do that resulted in a negative impact on the economy.”

He claimed that the Government was “not alone” and that many friendly nations have stepped forward to assist the country in this time of need.

Though the main theme the current Government used to come to power was strengthening national security, yet national security was an extremely broad subject that encompassed many aspects including military security, economic security, livelihood security, health security, agricultural security, education security, food security, energy security and political security, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said. Mr Premadasa opined that the Government had failed in each of these aspects. “In short, the President and his Government have failed completely.” He dismissed Government claims that the Opposition was watching on with glee as the country faced a severe economic crisis. “When you go begging to India for dollars, the Indian Government asks us if they should do it, and we tell them it’s fine. Why? Because we don’t want 22 million of our people to suffer. We don’t want to keep them in darkness without power. We are not the type to be happy when people can’t get fuel.”

Winding up the debate, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said Opposition MPs were behaving like “frogs in the well,” acting like only Sri Lanka was hit by such an economic crisis.

“This Government has only been in power for two years and four months. For two years, it had to contend with the COVID pandemic. Yet even in the midst of the pandemic, we held the parliamentary election and voters still gave a resounding mandate to the Government. This was because voters approved of the way the President and the Government handled the pandemic.”

Minister Alutgamage said the Government accepted that people were suffering due to the high prices of goods, but said this was a global crisis.

The minister also insisted that the country will not suffer a food shortage, no matter how much Opposition parties tried to mislead farmers into staying away from their fields.

Parliament will reconvene at 10.00am on February 8.