Parliament sittings for 2009 were overshadowed by the killing of the Editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickramatunge on Thursday.
The Government which was buoyed up by the military successes in the north, saw a rapid turnaround in its fortunes when the news broke first of the arson attack on the MTV/MBC television station and then of the brutal slaying of Mr. Wickramatunge, giving the much-needed ammunition to the opposition to criticise the Government.
UNP MPs wearing black bands and red shawls staged a noisy demonstration in the Well of the House on Friday to protest against the two attacks, pointing the finger directly at the Government. Amidst the commotion, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament that those behind the attacks belonged to the military intelligence and that not only do they pose a threat to the opposition and the media, but to the Government itself. “These forces are beyond the control of the Government and pose a threat to democracy,” he said.
But what was more worrying was the attitude of several government MPs who attempted to dilute the seriousness of the killing of a senior journalist by singing a “patriotic” Sinhala song and attempting to drown the protests. The failure of any senior Government member to condemn the killing too did not reflect well on a ruling side that has for a long time been hiding behind a cloak of misguided patriotism to cover up all other wrongdoings. While the majority of the people are supportive of the military efforts against the LTTE, the Government’s failure to investigate and bring to book those responsible for the attacks on the media, shows it is not sincere in putting into practice its oft-repeated assurances that it is doing its best to apprehend the culprits.
While the Government maybe heading towards disaster with its indifferent attitude, the UNP is doing more than its own share to show why it has become ineffective as the main opposition in the Legislature.
The UNP made a hasty decision to bring a no-confidence motion against the Government over the CPC hedging deal submitting it on the last day of Parliament sittings of last year and wanted the matter taken up for debate as soon as sittings commenced in 2009.
However, by last week, the urgency that the UNP initially showed to take up the motion for debate had died down with Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera being forced to make several lame excuses on the floor of the House as to why the UNP did not want to take up the motion last Friday as agreed to by the Government side and instead wanted it debated for two days in the third week of January. Some of the reasons trotted out by Mr.Perera were that he had difficulty in getting all the UNP MPs to come to Parliament as they were out campaigning for the upcoming elections to two provincial councils and that if the House sat till late, providing security to MPs travelling to and from the Legislature would be difficult. This came in the wake of the Government agreeing to hold sittings even upto midnight on Friday to conclude the debate.
The end result was that when Speaker W.J.M.Lokubandara asked UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera to move the no-confidence motion on Friday morning, he did not do so and hence the motion lapsed. By bringing a no-confidence motion against the government without even canvassing support from other opposition parties, such as the JVP , the UNP lent itself open to certain defeat by a large majority in the House.
At least with the motion lapsing, the party was spared a humiliating defeat and it also deprived the Government the opportunity to show it commands a convincing majority in the Legislature at least for now.
The Government hand in Parliament was further strengthened when 11 members led by MP Wimal Weerawansa crossed over to their side on Tuesday. Weerawansa who famously likened the two main parties that have successively ruled the country since independence to ticks who have been taking turns to suck the blood of the people, obviously does not mind joining the ranks of one of the two tick-infested parties.
The week also saw former Minister Karu Jayasuriya once again taking up his front row seat within the UNP having left the government a few weeks earlier.
As politics go Sri Lanka style, these scenes are more the rule than the exception. With a little over a year left for the term of this Parliament to lapse, the latest rounds of crossovers are unlikely to be the last. |
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