Mr. Speaker, as I rise to speak, I am reminded of those great men who made similar sacrifices, I am reminded of, C Sunderalingam who resigned in 1948, S W R D Bandaranaike who resigned in 1951, Dudley Senanayake who left office as PM in 1953, Phillip Gunawardena and William Silva in 1959, C P de Silva in 1964 and Gamini Jayasuriya in 1987.
I thank you for the kindness you have shown me on this occasion to make a statement on a decision I took to resign from the Cabinet of Ministers.
My decision to resign was also influenced by the many complaints I received from Party Members at all levels from Members of Parliament, Provincial Council Members, Pradeshiya Sabha Members, Branch Presidents, Branch Secretaries, Branch Organisers and ordinary UNP party cadres.
I have been a member of the United National Party before 1972. At the General Elections of 1977, I was elected to the Ratmalana seat by a majority of 7,831 polling 19,972 votes. At the General Elections of 1989, the voters of the Colombo District returned me giving me a resounding victory, polling 235,447 Preferences. This I believe is the highest ever any candidate had polled in Parliamentary elections in this country to date. I am grateful to the voters of Ratmalana and the Colombo district for the confidence they have placed in me. Their interests and welfare shall always be uppermost in my mind.
In the last 2 ½ years, they all feel diminished in status, neglected and ignored. They fought the elections risking their lives, but today the question they ask themselves is. “Is there a place for us in the party now?”
I remember with poignancy one particular incident – the case of the Dehiwela/Mount Lavinia MMC, Lakshman Perera.
At the height of the terror, he was one of the few to put up posters on behalf of our Presidential candidate. So strong was his commitment that he insisted on putting up the posters wearing his one and only green shirt. He was poor but he was fearless. What happened to him? Soon after the new administration took over, he lost his job. To eke out an existence he wrote a play. The purpose of the play was totally misunderstood. He was threatened not to stage it but before he could do so he disappeared. There has been no inquiry, investigation or commission to look into his case. His family, including three little children wait for him in vain.
I have been expelled illegally and in violation of every principle of natural justice. That I shall challenge in the Courts and I know I shall be successful. Purported expulsion means nothing to me because my heart shall always remain with the ordinary party members of the UNP.
With the new portfolio being assigned to me in February 1989, it was with enthusiasm I looked forward to serving with the same freedom of action that I had been used to. We had hitherto worked in an atmosphere where “the mind is without fear and the head is held high”. However, before long it became increasingly clear that the style was changing and that we had to adapt ourselves to it. Intelligent mental processes were not to function. The cold hand of authority was tightening its deadly grip, stifling and finally snuffing out whatever hopes there were of achieving those standards of excellence we were aspiring to. It was apparent that we are following policies inimical to our country's interests. Contrary views are not tolerated. Academic and other attainments are ridiculed and the educated are humiliated, may be due to folly and perversity born of power. By a series of administrative acts purporting to be constitutional, the status of Ministers is being diminished. Politicians are neglected for officials. Secretaries report on Ministers. Indeed, the entire Government Group had to act as mere cyphers. A patronage system hostile and dangerous to liberty has been thriving.
There are a great many challengers facing our country. The fight against fear is uppermost in one's mind. Fear of whom? Fear of the Chief Executive and his agents. This fear has to be removed. I am glad my resignation has helped many to lose their fear. We also fight against poverty. Not merely paucity of material things. Poverty in this country cannot be alleviated without liberty. When men can speak freely, half our battles are won.
We have to refashion the relationship between our communities. The 'oneness' of our country depends on that. It is an extremely difficult problem, but it is also the greatest opportunity and challenge for our generation. A presidency that is too powerful cannot devolve meaningfully and share power with the periphery. The struggle for greater parliamentary power is to get more people to share power. Power in once centralized office means no power at all other levels. When all our communities – Sinhala, Tamil, Moor, Malay and Burgher – feel safe in our country, feel as one despite their diversity, then all our generation of politicians can feel our tasks are done – we have not served in vain.
Our country is blessed with the powerful force of religious fervour. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, strengthen and fortify our lives. But religion has to be lived, not desecrated and exhibited for political gains. True piety is inner piety and all of us in politics are in great need of it.
The time to call for and strengthen a fully fledged parliamentary democracy has come. There are many in the Government group who share these thoughts, but have been frightened enough not to express them openly. I do not blame them, but I do tell them here and now that they should entertain no such fears any more.
When taking this decision to resign, I was fully aware that the total might of the Government machinery would be arraigned against me. The radio and the TV can find no time for us. Can one expect anything more from them, when upto now they have not even carried the news of my resignation and that of my colleagues who followed me. The State controlled newspapers have sunk to such miserable depths that their servility and depravity have made uncommitted readers lose whatever credibility they may have had. Though I have made it very clear on several occasions that our struggle is not against any particular individual, but against an institution, that it is a crusade to restore the dignity and powers of Parliament, the servile newsheets of the State controlled press have thought it fit to unleash personal attacks on me and my colleagues, displaying not only their perversity but also their total bankruptcy of arguments to meet ours.
Such puerile attempts shall not hurt me nor discourage me. You will recall that it was in the precincts of this very House that I was critically injured in 1987, as a result of a grenade thrown at our Party Leaders. My miraculous recovery was largely due to the blessings I received from the members from the Maha Sangha, the clergy of others denominations and the thousands of good people from all walks of life, in this country to whom I shall always be grateful.
I am confident that these very same blessings are with me when I am being flayed by an unprincipled group of newspapers, as I engaged in a struggle along with my colleagues to ensure the speedy recovery of the body politic of Sri Lanka, now morbid and riddled with corruption, nepotism, abuse of power and several other ills, to guarantee thereby the true sovereignty of Parliament and of the people as whose representatives we sit here.
Mr. Speaker, we owe it to our people to make sure that the words freedom, parliamentary democracy and liberation are not distorted from their true meaning as we have understood them.
The struggle we have now launched could be a long one. During this period we have to expect hatred, acrimony and scurrilous attacks to be directed towards us. Untruths, misrepresentation and distortion of facts will be in the armoury to be used against us. We have already had a taste of this. For our part, however, I can assure you that in our actions we will be guided by the unforgettable advice of the Buddha in the Dhammapada:
“With gentleness overcome anger. With generosity overcome meanness With truth overcome deceit. Speak the truth. Give whatever you can, Never be angry.
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or act to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples to build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression or resistance.”