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This is a Govt that does not speak in one voice. Be it on Constitutional reforms, the SAITM/GMOA muddle, investigations into corruption or human rights, contradictory views that get aired publicly by key players in the Govt of National Unity, day after day, has only left the public confused, and eroded the confidence people had placed in the form of “experimental governance” the two main parties, the SLFP and UNP have put together.

This week saw more of the same, with some of it played out in Parliament. The ‘International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance’ Bill was scheduled to be debated and passed in Parliament on Wednesday, but Leader of the House, Minister Lakshman Kiriella informed it would not be taken up as listed that day. No reason was given for the delay, and the following day Minister Kiriella told the House that the Bill would be taken up shortly, but did not specify a date.

Later, Minister of Ports and Shipping, Mahinda Samarasinghe went on record saying the debate was put off at President Maithripala Sirisena’s request, as he wanted to scrutinise it, a strange situation, given the fact that the Bill was tabled in Parliament in March this year. If the Bill hadn’t been subject to proper scrutiny by the Govt, more than three months later, and the President is unsure of its contents, it only shows the lack of discussion within the Govt on important legislative matters.
Then, on Friday came another Supplementary estimate amounting to around Rs 200 million to purchase vehicles for two Ministers, a Deputy Minister, the Governor of the Northern Province and the Presidential Secretariat, as well as for diplomatic missions abroad.

The latest Supplementary estimate is to allocate Rs 43 million to purchase a vehicle for Posts, Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs Minister M.H.A. Haleem and another Rs 43 million on a vehicle for Mahaweli Development and Environment Deputy Minister Anuradha Jayaratna.

The other allocations include Rs 9 million to purchase a security backup vehicle for Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ravi Karunanayake and Rs 53 million for the Law and Order Ministry to purchase a vehicle for the Special Task Force (STF). A further sum of Rs 848,400 was sought to settle the balance due on the vehicle purchased for Northern Province Governor, and Rs 706,200 for a trishaw, to deliver mail to the President.

All these allocations of supplementary estimates to purchase vehicles is rather regular, a continuation of the practice that the former regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa followed rather liberally, and would not count for much, if not for the fact that, soon after the devastating floods of this year, President Sirisena had instructed at a Cabinet meeting held in May, not to purchase new vehicles this year.

The Govt could argue these vehicle imports were authorised by Cabinet before the floods hit but, if the real concern was putting aside wasteful expenditure and channeling it to the welfare of flood-affected people, this allocation should have been stopped immediately, because those who are in need of urgent government financial allocations are those made destitute by the floods, and not Ministers or Deputy Ministers or other high officials who, even without new vehicles, will never be relegated to the level of using public transport.

Constitutional reforms, another matter on which no one really seems to know much of what is happening, had to be addressed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament this week. He spoke on Thursday, to reassure that the Article in the present Constitution that guaranteed the foremost place to Buddhism and made it the duty of the State to protect and foster Buddha Sasana, would not in any way be tampered with.

The Prime Minister’s words of assurance were likely directed at the Buddhist clergy, mainly the Mahanayaka Theras who, this week, said they are opposed to a new Constitution and voiced concerns that the Article assuring Buddhism the foremost place, would be removed.

These are but a few of the numerous other issues on which those in Govt have been airing contradictory views and, more than any external force, it is the failure of those inside to speak in one voice that is causing it the greatest harm. While people can appreciate the efforts by the two main parties to work together, putting aside their ideological differences, each one pulling in different directions on important national issues, only makes the Govt lose its credibility in the eyes of the public. It is this loss of public faith that could cost the Govt dearly at government and provincial council elections slated for later this year.