For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka’s Parliament, a disabled public representative made his maiden speech in Parliament today (6).
Parliamentarian Sugath Wasantha Silva, elected from the National List of the National People’s Power, made his maiden Parliamentary speech today.
During his speech, he stated that the allowance for the disabled community will definitely be increased from Rs. 7500 to 10,000 in the upcoming budget and that the situation required for the disabled community to stand up as a proud group of the country will be created under the National People’s Power government.
Mr Silva said, “This is my maiden speech. And this is a historical speech. After 76 years in the history of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, a person with a disability is entitled to a parliamentary mandate. It is not a mandate given by chance or from above. There is a team that has worked hard for it. I want to thank that group for my disabled community of over 1.7 million.
Only the National People’s Power understood that the community needed representation to make decisions. A person with a disability is a messenger who brings beauty to this world.
Excellence is created by diversity. Because I am blind among you, diversity has arisen here. The splendour of human society has been created because of that diversity. This disability is not something we inherited by force,” he said.
