President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the government is prepared to hold no discussions and grant no pardons on two matters, the first of them the underworld, and that armed criminal gangs operating in the country will be eliminated completely.
He was addressing a farmers’ rally at the Deepa Uyana grounds in Polonnaruwa on Saturday evening, Hiru News reported. The event is one of a series the National People’s Power is running to mark two years in office; NewsFirst gave the series title in Sinhala as “අපේ ආණ්ඩුවට වසර දෙකයි – රටට සුබයි”, rendering it “Two Years of Our Government — A Prosperous Country”, while Hiru translated the same series as “People’s Rule – Two Years Strong – Progress for All”.
The President said more than 70 individuals who directed Sri Lanka’s underworld operations from abroad have already been brought back to the country. NewsFirst put the figure at around 70 suspects.
He said the government had been given a mandate specifically to enforce the law against the corrupt, and that there would be no compromise or leniency in dealing with organised crime or the drug trade tied to criminal networks.
No decision on the death penalty
On capital punishment, the President said a public discourse has emerged around carrying out the death penalty but no decision has been taken. He said the administration remains committed to dismantling the drug trafficking network tied to underworld operations.
Sri Lanka retains the death penalty in law but has not carried out an execution since 1976, and successive governments have raised the prospect of resuming hangings without doing so.
”We have no land disputes with anyone”
The President rejected the argument that prosecutions of political figures amount to political revenge — a charge levelled by the opposition since the arrest of SLPP National Organiser Namal Rajapaksa, who is in remand custody and whose party held its own rally in Anuradhapura the same day.
“What do they say when corrupt individuals are caught? They claim it is political revenge. Why would we seek revenge? We have no land disputes or personal arguments with anyone. However, we do have a case to settle and that is the case of bringing to justice the corrupt individuals who destroyed this country,” he said, according to the Daily Mirror.
He said appeals to sympathy would not alter the course of prosecutions. “Fathers should have told their sons not to steal while the theft was happening. Shedding tears only after they are caught is useless,” he said, adding that the law “applies equally to a grandmother, a mother, a brother, or an uncle."
"Investigations are done — now we arrest”
The President offered an explanation for why arrests are arriving only now, two years into the term. Investigations had taken considerable time, he said, but many are now complete and the authorities have moved into the stage of arresting suspects, NewsFirst reported.
He said cases must be properly investigated, evidence established and charges proven in court before anyone is punished — a sequencing argument that answers the opposition’s complaint about timing without conceding the charge of political motive.
On the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, the President said those responsible must face justice through proper investigation and court proceedings, and that sympathy or political pressure would not be allowed to shield them.
He added that attempts to destabilise the government would not succeed for as long as the public continued to back it.
Update (September 13): two more ministers speak at the rally
Hiru News filed two further speeches from the same Polonnaruwa rally on 13 September, both dated in the copy to “today (12)”.
Deputy Minister T. B. Sarath told the rally the government has not yet been able to fulfil the promises it made to the public — an unusually direct admission of unmet commitments from within the governing party.
“This is not a government that is trying to abandon you. You should be provided with the best bus, the best hospital, and the best school. The National People’s Power government has not been able to complete that yet. Over the next three to four years, we will work to complete all of these and deliver these achievements to you,” he said, according to Hiru News.
Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe told the same rally that the President’s public approval now stands above 75 per cent.
“When Anura Dissanayake became President, he had 48% of the vote. However, by now, more than 75% of the country’s people accept the leadership of this country, and his approval is increasing,” Hiru quoted him as saying.
No polling source or methodology is cited for the 75 per cent figure, and no published opinion survey is referenced. It is a claim made by a government minister at a party rally and should be read as such, not as a verified poll result. The 48 per cent figure refers to Dissanayake’s first-preference share at the September 2024 presidential election.
Not reported
None of the three outlets says which matter the President named as the second issue closed to negotiation. NewsFirst pairs organised crime with the drug trade in the same breath, which points to narcotics as the likely second item, but no report states it. Nor is it reported over what period the 70-plus returnees were brought back, or under what legal process, and none gives a timeline for any decision on the death penalty or names which Easter Sunday investigations the President was referring to.
