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However, they did not wholly forget the people struck by the natural disaster. Led by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, lawmakers condoled with the people affected by the calamity and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe promised government action to provide assistance to those affected. A full day’s debate on the issue has been fixed for Wednesday, on the request of Joint Opposition (JO) Leader in Parliament, Dinesh Gunawardena.

The Prime Minister said he had called for a full report from the Disaster Management Ministry, which will be presented to the House, when long term solutions to people living in low lying areas, as well as areas prone to landslides, would need to be discussed in detail.

But it was SLA that took up much of the time of the House this week, and the weather did not dampen the spirit of MPs on either side who were defiant in their defense of each other’s positions. And this time, it was Government MPs who held up posters inside the House, alleging the “massinakaranaya” of SLA by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa whose brother-in-law (massina) Nishantha Wickremasinghe served as the Airline’s Chairman during the years it went into decline.

The adjournment motion was introduced to the House by UNP Gampaha District MP Nalin Bandara Jayamaha and he, along with most UNP MPs who spoke, reiterated the point that the airline was run at a profit when in partnership with Emirates Airlines between 1998-2008, but the decline had started after the then administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided not to renew the contract with Emirates and make it a State-owned institution.

“SLA was turned into a family business. There was a gross abuse of the airline’s resources and it became highly politicised. The Airline was run to suit the whims and fancies of one family,” he charged.

While not many opposition lawmakers could counter the allegations of mismanagement of SLA under the previous regime, they hit back at the UNP saying, when former President Chandrika Kumaratunga entered into an agreement with Emirates Airlines, it was the UNP which opposed it most staunchly and went as far as to lodge a complaint with the Bribery Commission to get the deal discredited.

“It was the UNP which went around proclaiming that the deal between SLA and Emirates was the seconded biggest betrayal in the country after the signing of the Kandyan Convention,” said UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardena.

Both the UPFA JO Group MPs who spoke at the debate, as well as JVP lawmakers, were of the view that the government’s motive for an adjournment debate on SLA, at this juncture, was to pave the way for the privatisation of SLA.

JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti said that while he welcomed the debate and the exposure of corruption which had taken place under the previous regime, there was also nothing new in the facts presented to Parliament by the UNP members.

“We are aware that it was waste, misappropriation and mismanagement that led to massive losses. This government has a responsibility to ensure those ills are not repeated. However, there is growing suspicion that the government is paving the way to privatise SLA, and this debate is a precursor to that,” he said.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake assured the House that Government is not contemplating the privatisation of SLA, but was looking at different options on how best to address the massive debt problem at SLA.

As Minister of Megapolis Champika Ranawaka put it, SLA is in heavy debt and each citizen of the country was in turn, indebted to the tune Rs 23,000 to pay off this debt. “No amount of beautiful words can hide this ugly truth,” he said.

Meanwhile, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya allowed the motion for a Supplementary sum of Rs 55 million to be reintroduced to the House. The vote on the Supplementary Estimate had run into controversy over allegations that the vote on it taken earlier this month was not counted properly.

This time no vote was called for and it was passed without incident. The Speaker had announced a 4-member committee to look into allegations that the vote was flawed, but did not present its findings to the House.