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The Vote of Felicitation in Parliament Friday for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in recognition of 40 years of continuous service as a legislator, was overshadowed by the boycott of the special sitting by MPs of the Joint Opposition (JO) group and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Mr Wickremesinghe who first entered Parliament on July 21, 1977 has seen his fair share of political upheavals in the country, but the felicitation vote came at a particularly turbulent time when his govt is at the center of a political storm, brought on by the information unravelling before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed to look into the Treasury Bond issue.

This in turn has led to growing public disquiet about the failure of the ‘Yahapalanaya’ Govt to walk the talk on many of their pre-election promises, which means the Prime Minister’s 40th year as an MP may portend more trying times ahead.

While Govt shortcomings have given ample opportunities for the those in the JO and JVP to seize their moments and make political mileage, there is no justification for their decision to boycott Parliament on a day it convened to felicitate a Parliamentary colleague. Notwithstanding which side of the political divide one is, there is general agreement that Premier Wickremesinghe has contributed immensely to further Parliamentary democracy in the country and help keep alive a faltering system.

The reason given by some JO MPs for the boycott is that the House is breaking with tradition by having a vote of felicitation. Which is not so because, as a matter of fact that such a vote was held in 1992 to felicitate Sri Lanka’s longest serving MP, the late Maithripala Senenayake, when he completed 45 years as a sitting MP.

As Minister of Civil Aviation, Nimal Siripala De Silva noted, when a Parliamentarian from any party reaches a milestone in their political career, they too would be felicitated in the same manner. “Felicitating an MP who is from another Party is in no way a betrayal of our Party’s principles. “We can have our political differences, we can debate and we can disagree but, we do not need to engage in vengeful politics,” he said.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Minister of City Planning & Water Supply, Rauf Hakeem, who spoke in Parliament on Friday, put it more bluntly, when he said the decision to keep away from the House took “essential Parliamentary decency to the lowest level”.

Politics aside, as many of the speakers noted, 40 years of service as a lawmaker during four turbulent decades in the country’s history is no easy task, and like Mr. Hakeem noted, there are traits in the Prime Minister which even his worst political opponents would admire and want to learn from. A case in point the SLMC leader reminded the House was the steadfast loyalty Mr Wickremesinghe showed to late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, when he was faced with an impeachment motion, engineered largely by several senior members of his own Party.
His perseverance and patience, and ability to stomach criticism calmly and unruffled, while also taking decisions that are not always politically popular, are traits that Leader of the Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan noted in his speech.

“Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe was prepared to take decisions which he considered to be in the best interest of the country, irrespective of any other consideration. A crucial decision taken by him was to field Maithripala Sirisena as the common Opposition candidate at the last presidential election. He made this decision boldly and wisely,” Mr Sampanthan said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe engages in religious observances at the Parliamentary complex to mark 40 years of service as a legislator. Pic by Indika Handuwala

The Premier said he is indebted to his political mentor, the late President J.R. Jayewardene, who encouraged him to enter politics and also guided a younger generation of politicians including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka and himself. He also thanked President Premadasa.

“Two lessons I learned were to treat the advice of elders as gold and to learn from past experiences. Discipline, patience, learning to work without jealously towards others and embracing victory and defeat in the same manner, are other qualities that helps one to go forward,” he said.

While a vote of felicitation will in no way lessen the burden that high political office carries with it for the Premier, there is no doubt that in the rumble and tumble world of politics, where brickbats are more common than bouquets, a little appreciation goes a long way.

And in defense of the Premier, at least this could be said with some certainty. There is little doubt that Ranil Wickremesinghe would have been the first to speak if the tables were turned, and Friday’s felicitation was for politicians like former President Mahinda Rajapaksa or, MP Dinesh Gunawardena or, even MP Anura Dissanayaka. It is their inability to put aside political differences and be magnanimous enough to wish a fellow Parliamentary colleague, who has reached a milestone in his political career, well, is the bane of Sri Lanka’s politics of today.