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Even at 90, Sam fights for Parliamentary independence
View(s):Ninety-year-old one-time Secretary General of Parliament, Sam Wijesinha was felicitated yesterday by the Parliament Staff Pensioners Association at a ceremony held at ‘Temple Trees’ under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had excused himself from the function as he had undergone eye surgery.
President Rajapaksa related an instance when he wanted to move a private member’s motion in Parliament as a young MP. He said the motion related to asking the government of the day (of which he was a member) to develop Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in Nepal.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa presents a memento to Sam Wijesinhe at the ceremony yesterday while Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa looks on. Pic by Sudath Silva
He said the government had sent him a message asking him to withdraw the motion because the government was prepared to undertake the task. He was asked to do so by sending a note to the Secretary General. As was customary with him and his family members, he went to see “Uncle Sam” for advice on what to do. He said that Mr. Wijesinha had told him not to send a note but to go into the House and ensure that he gets it entered in Hansard, the official record of parliamentary proceedings that he was withdrawing the motion because of the undertaking given by the government to develop Lumbini.
The President said that when he went into Parliament, the then Leader of the Opposition J.R. Jayewardene told him that he (Mr. Jayewardene) was prepared to second his motion, but he (Mr. Rajapaksa) had said that he was going to withdraw it in view of the government’s undertaking. When he did so, Mr. Jayewardene had said that the then MP for Beliatte wouldn’t be able to bring this motion again if the government doesn’t fulfill its promise and wanted to move the motion himself, but the then Speaker had disallowed it.
Later, he was happy that his government was able to implement what he had wanted to do as a young MP, but the point he was making was how Mr. Wijesinha counselled them as young MPs, looked into their personal problems and helped them advance in life by offering his office and facilities for their upward movement.
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa related an anecdote how his father D.A. Rajapaksa who as the MP for Beliatte had come to see Mr. Wijesinha with son, Mahinda and told him that the young boy had got into a serious fight. He asked what needed to be done. After a chat, he found that Mr. Wijesinha had given his brother, Mahinda a wrist-watch.
The Speaker said that he remains baffled at this ‘punishment’ that was meted out to his brother for getting into a fight. He said he wondered if Mr. Wijesinha was a seer who could predict his brother becoming a President one day and also if this is how he as Speaker must settle disputes when parliamentarians fight each other in the Legislature.
Parliament Staff Pensioners Association President M.K. Rahulan relating another anecdote said how Mr. Wijesinha’s office aide, Joseph had gone to the Librarian and asked for an “article”. The Librarian had asked “what article?” Josesph had said “any article just give me an article. Lokka (Boss) wants me to get hold of an article”. Not impressed, the Librarian checked out to see that Mr. Wijesinha had asked Joseph to “get Attygalle” – Sepala Attygalle, who was the Defence Secretary.
Mr. Wijesinha referred to the days when he was known as the Clerk to the House, which is an old British designation, but with the 1972 Constitution he became Secretary to the National State Assembly and with the 1978 Constitution his office was upgraded to be known as the Secretary General of Parliament, but his salary remained that of the Clerk.
He said that he saw to it that Parliament had its own budget and paid its officials from that budget, not from government coffers. He said he had running battles with the Treasury on this because parliament’s staff must not be considered government servants. He said he built this budget by selling piles of gazettes and bills in all three languages unread and discarded by MPs.
Mr. Wijesinha referred to a court decision that said that the pensions of parliamentary staff were treated as those of government servants and that even at 90 years he was not going to stop this battle to distinguish the two services and ensure the independence of the parliamentary staff, amidst applause from the members of the Association.
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