Parliament

Week of theatrics with flying saucers and a run-away mace
By Chandani Kirinde, Our Lobby Correspondent

Protect me:Maheswaran
Claiming that his life was under threat, from certain quarters in the government, controversial Colombo district UNP MP T.Maheswaran has asked the Speaker to provide him with adequate security.
Raising a privilege issue on the floor of the House on Thursday, Mr.Maheswaran said his security had been withdrawn and he feared for his life.
The Speaker said he would inform the concerned authorities to look into the allegations and take steps to provide him with adequate security.

The UPFA passed its first Budget but probably in the manner they least expected with economics being eclipsed totally by the imprisonment of S.B.Dissanayake and the outrageous antics of several UNP MPs led by Colombo district MP T.Maheswaran and a group of TNA MPs too joining in with their own contribution to further tarnish the image of the Legislature in the eyes of the public.

The votes of several important ministries were passed without even a word being spoken on their performance in the past year amidst the chaotic scenes that took place inside the Chambers of the "August" assembly with frequent suspension of sittings, damage to some electrical fittings inside the Chamber, minor injuries to some of its officials as well as several MPs coming close to fisticuffs, being all a part of the fun and games that the people's elected representatives chose to play as part of last week's parliamentary business.

The second week of the committee stage of the Budget got off to a wild start with Mr. Maheswaran flinging a glass-saucer at the Speaker's table on Tuesday shattering it to pieces. It fortunately missed the officials seated below the Speaker's Chair. This incident came a day after Mr.Maheswaran defied a decision by his party to vote in support of the votes of the ministry of Defence and abstain in the vote on the Ministry of Public Security, Law and Order. Instead Mr. Maheswaran voted against both these ministries along with members of the TNA, after keeping himself hidden from the view of UNP MPs by sitting in the seat in a furthest corner of the House and getting up to vote when his name was called much to the surprise of many of his party men who thought Mr. Maheswaran was not present in the Chambers.

Wednesday's sittings began in the wake of the imprisonment of S.B.Dissanayke for contempt of court. His onetime Cabinet colleague in the previous PA regime as well as the UNP regime, Mahinda Wijesekara stood up to make an appeal on behalf of Mr.Dissanayake that he be allowed to come to Parliament. Mr.Wijesekera also made a personal appeal to the President to give a pardon to his colleague.

This led to an uproar in the House with the Speaker being forced to suspend sittings for more than an hour and call for a party leaders meeting. When sittings resumed, the troubles were far from over with several UNP MPs continuing the battle cry for Mr.Dissanayake's right to attend Parliament which ended with some of them seizing the Mace and pulling it away from the hands of the Sergeant-at-Arms, his deputy and assistant. In what resembled a tug-o-war between the three parliament officials and several UNP MPs including Puttalam district's Ranga Bandara, Kurunegala district's Dayasiri Jayasekera, Matara district's Sagala Ratnayake and Mr. Maheswaran pulling hard at the Mace and finally Mr.Maheswaran running out of the Chamber with the symbol of Parliamentary authority.

This followed a heated exchange of words between government and opposition MPs with several of them almost coming to blows and the Speaker ordering the immediate return of the Mace. The Mace was returned a few minutes later but several table lights on the MPs tables were damaged in the melee and some officials suffered minor injuries.

When sittings resumed the Speaker agreed to a government request and hurried through the votes of the several important Ministries including Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, Power and Energy and Trade, Commence and Consumer Affairs.

It was amidst this confusion that TNA Jaffna district MP K.Sivajilingam had asked the Speaker for a division on the votes of these ministries and as this was not done, they chose to show their displeasure by blocking the Speaker's entrance to the Chamber on Thursday morning.

The 22 TNA MPs formed a human barricade as the Speaker entered the Chamber blocking the Sergeant-at-Arms who walks in front of the Speaker carrying the mace as well as the Speaker from proceeding. Both the Serjeant-At-Arms and the Speaker had to take a detour from their normal route through the government benches to get to their respective places. Even at this point, the Mace had to be placed on the Speaker's table as the TNA MPs blocked the Mace holder. Another suspension and party leaders meeting followed and after an hours delay sittings got underway once again.

Things proceeded somewhat calmly for the rest of the day on Thursday and as the votes of the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration were being debated, UNP's G.L.Peiris chose to take up the case of Mr.Dissanayake and said that his jailed colleague had every right to be present in the Chamber and asked the Speaker to rule on the matter.

His appeal was followed by several impassioned speeches from the UNP benches with Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena and Dr.Rajitha Senaratne too stating that Mr. Dissanayake's parliamentary privileges have been violated by the Court ruling.

As the final day of the Committee stage of the Budget began, things got off to a smooth start with the votes of the Ministry of Finance and Planning taken for debate. Here too the subject of Mr. .Dissanayake continued to dominate most of the speeches with government MPs accusing the UNP of making Mr.Dissanayake's case an issue as there were no other issues to attack the government on and the UNP MPs saying that Mr.Dissanayake's plight was brought on by political pressure and not because he had acted in contempt of the Supreme Court.

Friday's troubles began when the final speaker on the Budget debate Leader of the House Maithripala Sirisena got up to address the Legislature. Almost very UNP MP present pulled out a poster with the words "Free S.B." written on them and began shouting calling for his release. In the cacophony, almost all of what Mr.Sirisena said was drowned out. The only one who seemed unaffected by all this seemed to be the Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe who walked in amidst the chaos, occupied his seat and left a little while later.

Amidst these scenes, the Speaker shouted out to the Finance Minister Dr.Sarath Amunugama to read out the relevant clause in the Appropriation Bill 2005 and passed it. Some TNA MPs walked upto the Speaker's chair and demanded a vote. A vote was taken amidst deafening noise with the final tally being 126 for and 24 against. The JHU and CWC voted with the government and the TNA and the SLMC voted against. The vote of the UNP MPs were not counted.

With the parting words from the UNP MPs being that Mr.Dissanayake should be present in Parliament when the House meets on January 4, after a recess of nearly a month, the turmoil in the House will no doubt continue.

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