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By Chandanie Kirinde

While the current parliament completed four years of its five-year term this week, there was more focus on what was happening outside parliament than inside as developments relating to the upcoming presidential election overshadowed legislative matters.

Attendance in parliament remained low, with sittings being adjourned early on Thursday due to a lack of speakers when two Medical (Amendment) Bills were taken up for debate.

On Wednesday, Parliament took up for debate an adjournment motion moved by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s Madhura Vithanage to discuss the mid-year fiscal position report for 2024. The motion was intended to give a lowdown on the economic recovery of the country since the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe took office, but with elections around the corner, the usual election-targeted exchanges dominated the debate.

“The country was hours away from becoming like Bangladesh, and it was at a crucial time that the current president took over as the Prime Minister and saved the country,” Mr. Vithanage said, opening the debate.  

He strayed on economic matters and was critical of the failure of the military top brass to act when the lives of then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and many others in government were under threat. “Unfortunately, we had some military top brass who could not look after the security of the country’s leader, and there were some who were hatching a plot to take over the country. Luckily, we had the current president come forward and avert a great danger,” he said.

Throughout the debate, one common exchange between the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and government MPs was the disputed facts on the offer made by the former President to SJB and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa to take over as Prime Minister after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from the post on May 9, 2022.

The SJB’s Colombo District MP, Harsha de Silva, attempted to put to rest the continuing allegations by the government that the opposition leader had run away in fear without shouldering the responsibility when the country was at a crucial juncture.

“It is true we went to meet President Rajapaksa that night. I was accompanied by Ranjith Madduma Bandara (SJB General Secretary), Eran Wickramaratne and Kabeer Hashim. The meeting started at 8 p.m. and continued till 10.20 p.m. Nalaka Godahewa and Ramesh Pathirana were there with the president. We were asked what could be done, and we made it clear that we would go along with the proposal of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka,” he said.

The SJB MP explained that this included the formation of an interim government, the abolition of the executive presidency, etc., and while they were preparing the technical details on the transition of power, Ranil Wickremesinghe had been sworn in as the PM.

“Don’t ever say we ran away from taking power,” said an impassioned MP.

However, it’s unlikely any amount of explaining will put to rest the varying versions of the circumstances under which the current president was appointed first as the Prime Minister and later elected president in July 2022 after the former president fled the country.

Stability was a keyword used by government MPs to illustrate the achievements of the past two years. They found support from SJB MP Champika Ranawaka, who said that while some level of stability had been achieved in the country in the past years, it was important to keep it on track. “In the upcoming election, people should not be misled by fancy tales and ensure that the economic path that is put in place is continued,” he said.

Finance State Minister Shehan Serasinghe also warned against making election promises that would be impossible to deliver if there were changes to the ongoing economic programmes.

“There is a big difference between managing the economy and making election promises. The presidential election is on September 21, but we cannot make any promises based on the elections. Instead, we have to stick with the programmes we have in place,” he said.

There were several MPs who referred to the incident that had taken place in Bangladesh and sought to draw comparisons with Sri Lanka. Among them was Udaya Gammanpila, who said there were some similarities between the aragalaya in Sri Lanka and the student protests in Bangladesh.

One such similarity was the involvement of the United States. “As soon as the protests began in Sri Lanka, US Ambassador Julie Chang took to X (formerly Twitter) to warn against any attempt to disrupt the protests. The US has done the same in Bangladesh, warning against any move to disrupt the protests there. However, the US Ambassador in Colombo has fallen silent since Ranil Wickremesinghe became president,” he said.

During the debate, the Government came under severe criticism from Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem over the decision to outsource the visa application process for tourists arriving in Sri Lanka to a private company. “The Supreme Court has decided to suspend this operation as there is a prima facie case involving this government decision. There is blatant corruption in this case. Approval was granted based on an unsolicited proposal, and there are discrepancies between what was presented to the cabinet and what is in the agreement,” Mr. Hakeem alleged.

On Friday, parliamentarians across the board put aside their differences and paid tribute to veteran politician Ronnie de Mel when a vote of condolences was taken up.

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena led the House in paying tribute to Mr. de Mel, who served as Finance Minister from 1977-1988 and had a long career as an MP. He passed away at the age of 98 in February this year.