Is the Navy Beyond Presidential Control? — MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam Questions

18-Oct-2025

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Member of Parliament Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has questioned whether the Sri Lanka Navy is operating beyond the control of President Ranil Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

He raised the question in relation to reports that private land in Valikerni (Vali North) was being requisitioned for Navy use.

He said many people are wondering whether the Navy wields more power than the President in this country, or whether the President made promises to the people of Jaffna merely to secure votes.

He referred to the President’s recent visit to Jaffna, during which the President had pledged at a district office that the displaced people’s lands would be returned to them by his administration. Yet, a year after taking office, only very small acreage of land has been released — a situation that appears to some as another theatrical attempt to win votes from Tamil people, he said.

Although many years have passed since the end of the war, people still cannot return to their ancestral lands. He noted that while resettlement activists protested in front of the President’s Office calling for release of lands, the Navy has proceeded to appropriate privately owned land for its needs.

Given that the President is nominally head of the armed forces, he questioned whether the Navy’s actions in seizing land contrary to presidential promises are acceptable.

He also criticized the government for failing to take action against illegal constructions at the Asgiriya Vihara complex in Thaiyitti, while the government continues with new construction projects. 

He urged Tamil people to reflect carefully, asserting that a Buddhist-Sinhalese majoritarian government will never willingly deliver justice to Tamils.