Thursday 9th July, 2026 The latest episode of prison violence has come to an end, after claiming 28 lives and leaving more than 100 others injured. But political battles are still raging over it. The government and the Opposition continue to clash; they traded allegations and in…
Thursday 9th July, 2026
The latest episode of prison violence has come to an end, after claiming 28 lives and leaving more than 100 others injured. But political battles are still raging over it. The government and the Opposition continue to clash; they traded allegations and insults in Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Opposition is all out to lay the blame for the prison violence squarely on the government. It is demanding the resignation of Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara. The government has struck back, asking whether any Yahapalana politician resigned over the Easter Sunday terror attacks in 2019. Many of the SJB politicians were in that failed administration. That argument is however self-defeating in that the JVP was a partner of the dysfunctional Yahapalana government in all but name and defended it to the hilt in Parliament. Moreover, there were devastating terror attacks on military and civilian targets during the Eelam war. A considerable number of military installations, including the Mullaitivu camp and the Elephant Pass base were overrun by the LTTE, which killed hundreds of military personnel, but no politician resigned. There have also been several major incidents of prison violence. As we pointed out yesterday, in 1983, 53 Tamil prisoners were massacred inside the Welikada Prison in two separate attacks. In 2012, about 27 inmates were killed during a riot in the same prison, following a search operation conducted by the STF for weapons, drugs and mobile phones. In 2020, violent clashes in the Mahara Prison left 11 inmates dead. But ministers in charge of prisons did not resign. So, it may be argued that neither the SJB nor the UNP nor the SLPP has any moral right to call for anyone’s resignation over the Negombo Prison riots. Opposition politicians and their propagandists may go on shouting until they are blue in the face, but their efforts to see the back of Minister Nanayakkara will be in vain. Sri Lankan governments are notorious for shielding politicians and officials loyal to them, no matter what. The incumbent dispensation is no different. One may recall that it went to the extent of bringing two senior CID officers out of retirement, elevating them to high posts in the public security sector and entrusting them with the task of probing the Easter Sunday carnage, which they themselves failed to prevent despite repeated warnings, while they were at the helm of the CID in 2019. So, it is only wishful thinking that the government will ever ask Minister Nanayakkara to resign over the Negombo Prison killings. Interestingly, an NPP MP’s attempt to distract Parliament and the public from the Negombo Prison violence by bashing the former rulers, boomeranged on the government. Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe displayed a picture in the House, claiming that it showed Namal Rajapaksa with notorious criminal Julampitiye Amare at a public event. His claim prompted Opposition MP Chamra Sampath Dassanayake to remind the government that it was the JVP that had enabled Mahinda Rajapaksa, accused of shielding the likes of Julampitiye Amare, to win the 2005 presidential election and paved the way for the rise of the Rajapaksa family in national politics. Worryingly, more often than not, parliamentary debates descend into slanging matches. They cost the public an arm and a leg. A parliamentary sitting costs taxpayers about Rs. 32.2 million, according to research conducted by some civil society organisations. It behoves the government and the Opposition to stop wasting public funds, and use parliament time productively to discuss issues of national importance seriously, manage state funds frugally and make progressive laws. As for prison violence, the focus of parliamentary debates must be on structural problems in Sri Lanka’s prison system, including overcrowding, delays in court proceedings, gang rivalries, drug peddling, inadequate facilities, corruption and difficulties in maintaining security in large custodial institutions, the causes of the latest prison riots, and what needs to be done to improve prison conditions and prevent violent clashes and human rights violations in prisons. Parliament, maintained at public expense, is not the place for verbal slugfests, which can be staged elsewhere, if at all.