Sajith’s parliamentary speech today, November 22nd 2021, was the finest speech I have heard from a Sri Lankan public figure since the assassination of his great father. It was the rollout of a New Vision, New Deal for 21st century Sri Lanka. I detected the distant echoes of Ranasinghe Premadasa’s April 1973 address to the Rotary Club of Colombo West. He would have been proud of his son today, and indeed must be, from wherever he is.
Sajith demonstrated he was the best speaker and the best mind in the House, head and shoulders above the competition, in possessing a program and the ability to take the country out of the crisis and to build the best Sri Lanka that we can be. (He outclassed AKD totally.)
Most importantly, he showed he has a rare, actually unique (at this moment), combination of a warm heart, a cool head and a statesmanlike stance.
Nalaka Godahewa’s attempted rebuttal revealed that he is ignorant of the fact that a Social Democratic economic philosophy and model is a synthesis, a fusion, of the role of the state and market; of progressive social values and liberal investment climate.
Furthermore, if Sajith can be held responsible for what happened under Ranil’s UNP especially under Yahapalanaya, then MR can be held responsible for CBK’s PTOMS, and SWRD for the UNP policies he denounced in 1951.
-Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
