It wasn’t all over for Sri Lanka’s present set of parliamentarians despite the dissolution of the House in early February. They were given the opportunity last Tuesday, to become MPs once again when the House was re-convened to debate and pass the emergency regulations.
And it won’t be the only time. The House is scheduled to meet once again on April 6; just two days before general elections, to extend the emergency, thus giving a final chance for MPs to return to the House before the people decide who should come back to the next Legislature and who should not.
Although sittings were confined to only three and a half hours on March 9, it will entitle MPs to a full month’s salary. The session also prompted Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera to ask Speaker W.J.M.Lokubandara to request the IGP to restore their security as their privileged status as MPs were restored with the House being reconvened.
The Opposition Whip did not forget to point out that the Speaker who the UNP fought tooth and nail to get elected to the post in 2004 , is now a member of the national list of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) for the upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka had one more go at explaining to the House and the country on the need to continue with emergency rule, even though nine months have passed since the defeat of the LTTE. The international conspiracies aided by local agents continue, he said. Whether these conspiracies are imaginary or real they have become the soul fodder for ruling party frontliners such as Wimal Weerawansa, to justify the continuation of these harsh laws.
“The war against the LTTE isn’t over 100 per cent. We are still unmasking those who had been hiding and supporting the LTTE,” Mr. Weerawansa said, while accusing his former party, the JVP of using General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka to “climb the grease pole to come out of the political abyss that they had fallen into. ”He went onto remind the JVP that during the 1988/1990 period when the government led a ruthless crackdown on their party activists, the former Army Commander had been among those who persecuted them.
But Mr. Weerawansa should not have a problem understanding the necessity for his former comrades to join hands with their worst foes of the past, because he himself had no qualms about joining hands with former President Chandrika Kumaratunga to oust the UNP-led government at one time and joining the present government side after having heavily criticised them while he functioned as the Propaganda Secretary of the JVP.
JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti said the government was using the emergency to victimise political opponents and the former Army Commander had become a political prisoner today. “The government has gazetted several new detention centres. Are they meant to hold political opponents and trade union activists?” he asked.
Minister Mervyn Silva made a refreshingly different appeal to his colleagues calling on them not to accept their MP salaries after merely attending a few hours of sittings. “I will not take my salary and I appeal to the others to do the same,” he said. |
E-mail