Lobby

When Parliament met last Tuesday, there was no inkling that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would prorogue the House by midnight the same day. Instead, the day began with two MPs taking oaths, one being Sarana Gunawardena to replace Anura Bandaranaike and the other Dulip Wijesekera to replace the assassinated Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.

This was followed by the UNP raising objection to the appointment of Dhammika Kitulgoda as the Acting Secretary General of Parliament, question time and the debate on the extension of the emergency.

By midnight, the President issued the proclamation proroguing Parliament, fixing June 5 as the commencement of the new session of the Legislature. Although there was speculation of an impending prorogation for several months, when it actually happened, the UNP and other political parties were caught unawares and by next day, both the UNP and the JVP charged the move as “dictatorial.”

Under the Constitution, the President has the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament by Proclamation. In 1991, the then President, Ranasinghe Premadasa prorogued Parliament to buy time to scuttle an impeachment motion against him and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga did the same in 2001, to prevent a no confidence motion when her Government lost its majority in Parliament. In these two instances, the objective was clearly to achieve a political advantage but as to what President Rajapaksa hoped to achieve by the prorogation remains unclear.

One thing is however clear; the Government can now gain control of the Chairmanships of the two most important parliamentary committees, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) whose membership will lapse with the prorogation. COPE was headed by MP Wijedasa Rajapakse who crossed over to the Opposition in December, while the PAC was headed by SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem who resigned from Parliament last month.

It will also give the President time to decide how best to resolve the crisis that has arisen after the appointment of the Acting Secretary General of Parliament, that has put the Government and the UNP on a collision course. The UNP has said it will disrupt proceedings if the matter is not unresolved. The President also needs time to name a member to replace assassinated Chief Government Whip Jeyraj Fernandopulle. Among those canvassing for the post are several senior SLFP members as well as a UNP cross-over MP.

The prorogation will also give time for the rebel JVP MP Wimal Weerawansa--who has said that he will form a new political group--more time to decide what role his group would play in the Legislature. Though Mr.Weerawansa last week occupied the front row seat that he is entitled to as the Parliamentary Group Leader of the JVP, by June 5 it is likely he will no longer be holding that position and would be relegated to a back bench, unless he stakes a claim to a front row seat as the group leader of a break-away JVP faction.

While there was speculation over the reasons for the prorogation of parliament and the Opposition crying foul over the President’s move, the debate for the extension of the emergency once again highlighted the worsening security situation in the country and the toll on members of the armed forces as well as civilians.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka gave his customary monthly breakdown of the death toll due to “terrorist activities”. He said between March 30 and April 29, 120 members of the security forces and Police and 56 civilians were killed and 945 security personnel and 145 civilians injured.

The Prime Minister also reiterated the Government’s determination to wipe out terrorism from the country. “With the polls in the east, the people will defeat the bullet with the ballot. The same thing will happen in the north before long,” he said. But the Government’s euphoria over holding an election to the Eastern Provincial Council was not met with the same enthusiasm by members of the UNP and the JVP, both strongly criticizing the nexus between the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the Pillayan group to contest the polls.

JVP frontliner Anura Dissanayaka accused the Government of working according to a political agenda by rushing to hold an election and ignoring ground realties in the east. “The election could have been held a year from now after the Pillayan group had been disarmed. We agree the Pillayan cadres need security but that security must be provided by the members of the armed forces and the Police and not by their own members carrying weapons,” he said. MP Dissanayaka who seems to have become the chief JVP proponent in the Legislature after Wimal Weeerawansa’s fall from grace, also accused the Government of providing sophisticated weapons to the Pillayan group which he said were being used to intimidate political opponents.

The UNP voiced almost the same allegations against the Government, especially criticizing it for the manner in which the election campaign was being conducted in the east. The Party’s General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the Pillayan group was operating camps in close proximity to military camps in the east and tabled in Parliament the list of locations where the camps were situated.

After the prorogation of Parliament, the UNP said the move was taken to prevent the Opposition from raising concerns about the manner in which the eastern polls campaign was being conducted. With a Constitution in place that gives absolute power to the executive, such objections will have little or no impact.

When Parliament meets again on June 5, President Rajapaksa will ceremonially declare open the new session. On that day, the Opposition and the country may get to hear from the Executive himself why he chose to prorogue Parliament.

Why did he do what he did?