A TikTok post with a clip of NPP MP Nalin Hewage speaking on a TV programme is being circulated on the platform. He says in Sinhala, “If a man who eats rice is a ruler of this country, would he ever import 5 lakh tonnes of rice from abroad?”
Next to this video, an Ada Derana Sinhala news card states, “Cabinet approves rice import to address Samba and Kiri Samba shortages.” This suggests that Hewage criticised his party and government over importing rice. We found the claim to be misleading upon investigation.
Evidence
- We first did a keyword search using multiple combinations of the words “rice shortage”, “rice imports”, “Sri Lanka”, “Nalin Hewage” and “2026”. We were unable to find any recent news about statements made by Hewage about a large-scale rice import as specified in the claim.
2. We then performed reverse image searches of several keyframes of the video. We found matching footage dating back to January 5, 2019 on YouTube, during the time of the then government led by President Maithreepala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
During a live telecast of a debate on the Rupavahini channel, Hewage presents a solution to the shortage of rice production in the country and suggests that instead of importing 5,00,000 tonnes of rice from abroad, the government should work with 5,00,000 farmers to produce a tonne of rice each by providing them with adequate resources such as water and fertiliser.
An excerpt of the live telecast can be found here:
He makes the exact statement in the TikTok at 4 minutes 55 seconds in the video.
3. We further checked if there had been a shortage of rice around the time of the Sirisena government, which would have brought up the conversation about importing 5,00,000 tonnes of rice. According to news reports from The Sunday Times and Lanka Web, we noticed that in 2017, the Sirisena government had imported 5,00,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand.
Thus, we were able to conclude that this TikTok post is misleading and refers to a statement made by Hewage in relation to a decision by the Sirisena government to import 5,00,000 tonnes of rice during a shortage in Sri Lanka.
Context
Currently, due to the conflict between the US-Israel and Iran, many countries, including Sri Lanka, are facing a crisis concerning many essential items, including fuel and rice. As a result, several social media users are discussing the current government’s strategies to control rice supply and demand. Hewage, who hails from an agricultural background in Galle, has often shown an interest in how different governments address rice supply and demand. Moreover, his statement in the video has been revived due to the current NPP Government’s decision as of March 31, 2026 to import up to 1,040 metric tonnes of ponni samba and keeri/paal samba via private importers to address the shortfall of these two varieties of rice.
Verdict
The viral TikTok post showing MP Nalin Hewage criticising the government’s decision to import 5,00,000 tonnes of rice, in criticism of his own party and government, is old and misleading. Hewage made this statement in 2019, criticising the then Sirisena government for importing large quantities of rice.
FAQs
Q1. What does the video show?
A TikTok with a clip of NPP MP Nalin Hewage speaking on a TV programme: “If a man who eats rice is a ruler of this country, would he ever import 5 lakhs of tonnes of rice from abroad?”
Q2. When was the TikTok posted and when did the actual incident in the video take place?
April 4, 2026 and January 5, 2019, respectively.
Q3. Does the statement by Hewage in the video bear any relationship with the current import of rice in 2026?
No. While the current government has recently decided to let private importers to bring up to 1,040 metric tonnes of rice to the country, the original video is in reference to the large-scale import of rice done by the Sirisena government in 2017.
Our Sources
‘පුංචි වෙලාවක් වෙන්කරගෙන මේ කතාව👂 හොදින් අහන්න…’, posted on the YouTube channel SL Tube, January 5, 2019
‘Emergency import of 500,000 tons of rice’, published in the Sunday Times, July 16, 2017
‘Sri Lanka offers to purchase rice from Myanmar’, published in Lanka Web, July 18, 2017
