President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Friday that the public has a complete right to criticise those who govern, but that criticism should be made within a framework of civility.
He was speaking at the 37th Il Maha Viru Samaruwa — the November heroes’ commemoration — at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre in Colombo, Hiru News reported. The photograph accompanying the filing shows a Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna backdrop marked 1989–2026; the JVP, which the President leads, is the core party of the governing National People’s Power.
What he said
Dissanayake framed public criticism of rulers as something his own movement set out to create, and contrasted it with what he called an older habit of deference.
“They are not accustomed to a society that questions the ruler,” he said. “They are accustomed to the old habit. What is the old habit? The habit of being subservient to the ruler. Our expectation is a people who question the ruler. A people who criticise the ruler.”
He then set a limit. “When you set out to build that, there is a civility to it, there is a framework, there is a box. One must stay inside that box. But the critic has been unable to keep even his own box of civility. However, we are not perturbed.”
On letting criticism stand
The President said the public itself rejects criticism made outside those bounds, and described being asked why he tolerates it.
“All criticism that is not presented within that framework of civility is rejected by the people of this country,” he said. “Some people call and ask us, brother Anura, why do you allow them to abuse you like that? Let them abuse as much as they want. Some ask why we allow such things to be said. Say as much as you like.”
“Those are not things a civilised society approves of,” he added. “What we say is: criticise, abuse — we need to build a new relationship among ourselves. That is the kind of transformation the ruler and the people need.”
Context
The remarks come at the end of a week in which the government has drawn sustained criticism over the 2027 Budget presented on Thursday, from opposition MPs, professional bodies and trade unions. The filing does not connect the two, and the President did not name anyone.
Not reported
The filing does not say who the President was referring to — no individual, party, outlet or platform is named, and it does not say what criticism he considered to have fallen outside the bounds of civility. It gives no attendance figure for the commemoration, does not report other speakers, and records no policy announcement. It does not indicate whether any regulatory or legal measure is contemplated; nothing in the quoted remarks proposes one.
Sourcing
A single-source report. A sweep of the Daily Mirror breaking and business rails, the NewsFirst homepage payload and the EconomyNext rail on Friday evening found no other verified newsroom carrying the speech, which Hiru filed at about 8.23pm Colombo time. The quotations are translated from the Sinhala-language filing; readers comparing them with other translations should expect differences in wording, not in substance.