Parliament

House infected with election fever
By Chandani Kirinde, Our Lobby Correspondent
Even though the week’s parliamentary sittings got off to a subdued start, by Friday election fever had gripped the Legislature with the news of the Supreme Court determination that the presidential election should be held this year.

The two presidential candidates Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe who entered the chamber on Friday afternoon were resoundingly greeted by members of their parties with some of them continuously thumping their tables.

The UNP members seemed elated at the Court decision and the Party Deputy Leader and Gampaha district MP Karu Jayasuriya used the occasion to say that the sovereign right of the people had been upheld by the Court decision.

In response House Leader and senior Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the Government accepted and respected the Court’s decision unlike the UNP which had on many occasions challenged several of the Superior Court’s decisions.

On Friday, the Government also presented the Bill to re-establish the Central Transport Board. This piece of legislation was introduced as an urgent Bill but the Government was not successful in getting it approved as the UNP protested saying they had not been given copies of the Bill and had no time to study it. Amidst the protest the House had to be adjourned for ten minutes and finally it was decided that the Bill would be taken up for voting next Tuesday.

An important piece of Legislation that was unanimously approved by the House was the Computer Crimes Bill, introduced by Justice Minister John Seneviratne on Tuesday. The Minister said that while new technology has provided incredible benefits to facilitate communication, education, research and commerce, it was unfortunately being also used to facilitate criminal activities.

The Bill deals with a host of computer crimes such as hacking, identity theft, the violation of intellectual property rights, cyber terrorism and industrial espionage.

Mr. Seneviratne admitted that the investigation into computer crimes was difficult even for those who were competent in that field and said international co-operation and skilled investigators with the required forensic expertise as well as traditional investigative skills would be needed for this purpose.

The Minister told Parliament that he will be introducing a separate piece of legislation to deal with child pornography. “It is important to criminalise the use of the internet for this purpose. Every picture depicting a sexually abused child is in fact a recording of a crime committed against that child. I do not believe that a society built on the norms of decency can permit this kind of abuse,” Mr. Seneviratne said.

The House did not seem to have any other important business for the week because a whole day was spent debating an adjournment motion moved by Deputy Minister Sripathy Suriyaarachchi condemning the statement made at the International Democratic Union (IDU) by Australian Prime Minister John Howard calling for the presidential election to be held this year, even though everyone was aware that such a statement would be of little relevance, if at all, because the Court was due to deliver a binding judgement on Friday. Nevertheless the debate went ahead and precious time was spent talking on an issue which seemed to have little or no importance to members on either side of the House.

Mr. Suriyaarachchi said the statement by the IDU was an interference in the internal affairs of the country and as such no one had the right to do so. The UNP members however defended the IDU statement.

“Don’t condemn the leaders of neighbouring countries. The ultimate result of such actions would be detrimental to the country in general and the people in particular”, warned UNP MP Karu Jayasuriya.

Another UNP MP Hemakumar Nanayakkara said that while the SLFP was condemning international interference in local affairs, it had also on several occasions run to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva when the UNP was in office.

On Thursday another adjournment motion was taken up, this one moved by Colombo district UNP MP Gamini Lokuge, regarding the sale of Ceylon Hotel’s Corporation shares.

However this debate too drew little attention as Mr. Lokuge who moved the motion soon disappeared from the Chambers followed closely by UNP MP G.L. Peiris who seconded the motion. Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said there was no secrecy in the sale of CHC shares as it had been sold through the stock market where there was transparency and the transaction would also benefit the CHC employees.

By the end of the debate there were less than ten members present in the House and this debate too proved to be another futile exercise. It is strange as to why such motions were entertained in the first place when even the members who propose and second them lose interest given the fact there were many other important questions for which the people were expecting the government to provide answers.

On Thursday the Leader of the House told parliament that with the LTTE agreeing to review the ceasefire agreement, discussions were proceeding to decide on the location for holding these talks.

Mr. De Silva said that while the LTTE had proposed Oslo as the venue for the talks, the Government was keen to have them in Colombo. On Friday the Tamil National Congress (TNA) moved an adjournment motion condemning the alleged attack on a journalist of the “Sudar Oli” newspaper at a rally in Colombo and said the emergency regulations were being used to harass Tamils.

Public Security, Law and Order Deputy Minister Jayaratna Hearth said the emergency was needed because of the situation in the country and was not intended in any way to harass innocent people belonging to a particular community.

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