Government members had a lot to smile about in Parliament last week with the crossover of two UNP members to its ranks, but they also had to face criticism from the Opposition over the antics of Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva and the arson attack on a media institution.
The crossover of parliamentarians P.Digambaram and Prabha Ganeshan on Thursday, helped the ruling side move closer to obtaining a two third majority in Parliament, which would enable it to bring about constitutional amendments even without the backing of opposition political parties in the Legislature.
With UNP Kandy district MP A.R.M.Abdul Cader waiting in the wings to cross over, the government is now assured of 147 votes inclusive that of the Speaker, just three short of the 150 needed for the two third majority in the 225 member House. Although Mr. Cader, occupies a front row seat in the Opposition, he has been voting with the government to extend emergency.
The debate on the extension of the emergency was taken up once again on Tuesday with Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratna informing the House that more than 700 LTTE suspects have been taken into custody in the past month from Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
He said the Government was in the process of confiscating the assets of the LTTE including houses, lands and business establishments and hence the emergency needed to be extended.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem who opened the debate on behalf of the Opposition accused the Government of abusing emergency regulations for other ‘collateral purposes’ which has lead to a culture of impunity in which crimes take place but no acceptable probes follow.
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| Cheers from the Government benches as parliamentarians P.Digambaram and Prabha Ganeshan crossed over on Thursday |
The attack on the Siyatha media network was brought up by many opposition Legislators but they got little attention from Government MPs. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said necessary investigations were underway but going by the dismal record of the Government in probing attacks on media institutions and personnel in the past, this too is likely to remain yet another unresolved crime.
The tying up of a Samurdhi official at the instigation of Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva, for failure to attend a dengue prevention programme in his electorate of Kelaniya, too came under fire with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe questioning the need for Parliament to approve laws when they were being blatantly violated .
“If a public official has done something wrong, there is a way to deal with him. This is the law of the jungle where a Deputy Minister has taken the law into his own hands. Does the government approve of this kind of action?” he asked.
Sadly no one on the government side was willing to speak against one of their colleagues and instead chose to dig up the old charges such as the Batalanda torture house case and others to slander the Opposition.
Some MPs appear to want to out do each other when it comes to making ridiculous statements in Parliament. First there was Galle District MP Sajin Vaas Gunawardena alleging that the employees of the “Siyatha “media network had themselves set fire to their own office as they had not been paid their salaries, while Mervyn Silva used the floor of the House to say that the Samurdhi official who was tied to a tree in the glare of the media had in fact volunteered.
These comments were intended to make light of two very serious incidents. This has become almost the norm of this government, that chooses to soft pedal many issues until public focus eases off and everything is conveniently forgotten about.
However, it was refreshing to hear some meaningful insights from Hambantota district MP Namal Rajapaksa who spoke on the importance of upholding the law. “No one should be allowed to practise the law of the jungle in this country. The only laws that should prevail are the ones passed by this Parliament,” he said.
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| Mervyn Silva |
There was also a plea from External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris to all legislators not to speak in a manner that undermines the judiciary as it would only benefit those seeking to harm the country. “If we denigrate the judiciary in the eyes of the people of Sri Lanka, it will have international repercussions,” he warned.
However, the minister’s plea did not deter DNA MP Ajith Kumara from detailing several instances where he alleged the judiciary had not acted in a fair manner and accused the government of undermining the judiciary by allowing lawlessness to prevail.
While numberwise the government maybe gaining ground, its continuing sluggish attitude in dealing with attacks on the media as well as its failure to deal with the outrageous behaviour of Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva only shows a growing sense of complacency. |
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