It was cricket, cricket and cricket for the whole of last week with Sri Lanka reaching Himalayan heights and rewriting world test cricket record books. In public and private offices, productivity took a beating while all eyes were on the historic feats of Sanath Jayasuriya, and Roshan Mahanama and others.
In Parliament also cricket fever was evident. Not only officials, MPs also gathered around TV sets in the offices of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to watch the extraordinary events.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe while speaking in Parliament paid glowing tributes to the ‘glory boys’ of Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, when he learnt that Jayasuriya had fallen short of Brian Lara’s world record tried to contact the heroic batsman immediately on the cell phone. When he failed to do so, his security went all the way to the Premadasa Stadium to get a line connected to Sanath Jayasuriya.
When they finally spoke, Mr. Wickremesinghe congratulated Sanath and said success and failure were part of the game. This was true in cricket and politics as well, Mr. Wickremesinghe told Sanath with a promise to meet him in the evening.
Not only Mr. Wickremesinghe, President Chandrika Kumaratunga also took time off her busy schedule to congratulate the cricketers. She made a personal visit to the Premadasa Stadium to share the joy with the team.
That evening Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama had several visitors at their Taj Samudra Hotel room.
Among them were Mr. Wickremesinghe, Matara District MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena and A.H.M. Azwar. After a fairly long chat with the cricketers Mr. Wickremesinghe told the pair jokingly that they should not go for records in haste but break them slowly and steadily.
But at the UNP group meeting Mr. Wickremesinghe faced a different kind of ball game.
The UNP Parliamentary Group met in Parliament on Monday afternoon and the question of electoral reforms was the main issue, A.C.S. Hameed explaining the issue said the govt’s proposals had gone through various changes. At first the govt. announced that it would reduce the number of MPs to 198-99 elected directly and 99 on the PR list. Subsequently the govt. announced that the composition would be 2/3rd elected from separate constituencies and 1/3rd on PR.
Mr. Hameed said after the Tangerine Hotel seminar for govt. MPs and organisers a decision was taken not to reduce the number of MPs from the present 225. He also said the govt. had proposed two sets of elections - one was to elect MPs directly from the constituencies and the other to elect members on PR and District basis.
Mr. Hameed said that he had taken up the position that there should be one election and that the determining factor must be PR and after having counted all the votes polled by each Party and the distribution of seats for each Party is declared, the rest of the procedure must take place.
In short he said that the UNP proposal was close to the German model. He said that now more or less the govt. was also moving towards one election, the basis being PR. He also referred to two other factors. One of them was to have multi-member constituencies which would ensure representation for the minorities. The new constituencies would be worked out by the Select Committee, which he thought was useful because MPs in Parliament would know the electorates and the areas they cover.
Sarath Amunugama said he saw no necessity for muli-member constituencies. Mr. Hameed said that its approach might be racial. He said the govt. was for providing multi-member constituencies to accommodate the Muslims and asked why the UNP should oppose such a move.
Mr. Amunugama once again said reading from the various news reports, it was clear, that the majority community interests were not being presented by the UNP MPs in the Select Committee.
Mr. Hameed said the remark was unfair because the UNP was represented in the Select Committee by Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wijeyapala Mendis, Ronnie de Mel, Tyronne Fernando, K.N. Choksy and himself.
He said Mr. Amunugama was making a serious charge and he was prepared to resign from the Select Committee. W.J.M. Lokubandara said the UNP should quit the Select Committee immediately as a protest against the President’s refusal to relinquish the executive presidency.
Answering a question raised by Gamini Lokuge on a non-binding referendum and whether all these discussions were relevant, Mr. Hameed said the non-binding referendum should not be a substitute for any constitutional provision.
Ronnie de Mel asked whether the UNP would oppose if the referendum was positive. He thought it was morally not correct to do so. Mr. Hameed, however, took up the position that the Constitution was supreme and though he appreciated Mr. de Mel’s argument, anything that would seek to short-circuit or circumvent the Constitution must be opposed.
Mr. Wickremesinghe who was following the discussions closely said it was the policy of the UNP to support electoral reforms based on the German system and Mr. Hameed had followed that policy. He said it was not fair to criticise Mr. Hameed because he was the only one who attended the Select Committee meetings regularly, playing an active role.
Mr. Wickremesinghe also discussed at length the concept of a Constituent Assembly and how it came into being in 1972. He said none of the factors that permitted the summoning of the Constituent Assembly could be seen in the present situation. He said the UNP voted against the Republican Constitution only because the govt. had sought to lengthen the life of Parliament from 1975 to 1977.
Besides the Hameed-Amunugama clash, there were also clashes betwen Sarath Ranawaka and Mahinda Samarasinghe on one front and between Nanda Mathew and Imitiaz Bakeer Marker on another.
The Samarasinghe-Ranawaka clash was largely personal with the two MPs trading charges of trying to block each other.
The allegation levelled against Mr. Samarasinghe was that he participated in a Bank of Ceylon function at Kollupitiya where President Kumaratunga was the chief guest.
Mr. Samarasinghe said he never accepted Chandrika Kumaratunga policies and stressed he had unlike others, only one leader, who was Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The clash between Nanda Mathew and Imitiaz Bakeer Marker took place when the former said that instead of having 150 protest meetings to coincide with the govt.’s third anniversary, the UNP should have one massive meeting in Colombo with the participation of branch organisations countrywide.
Mr. Mathew said the recent meeting held in Ratnapura was an utter flop. General Secretary Gamini Atukorale, dismissing Mr. Mathew’s claim said the low attendance was largely due to the floods.
With this Imitiaz Bakeer Marker also joined Mr. Atukorale on a common front against Mr. Mathew.
The UNP Working Committee also discussed the protest campaign.
Mr. Wickremesinghe wanted all UNP MPs and organisers to make the meeting successful.
He suggested that protest meetings should be held at the same time on August 16 morning at which point Anura Bandaranaike said that as far as the Gampaha district was concerned it should be in the afternoon.
Since there was no good reason for it, many were wondering why Mr. Bandaranaike wanted an afternoon meeting.
When other members were trying to discuss the reasons behind Mr. Bandaranaike’s move, Mr. Wickremesinghe tactically moved to fix a convenient time in the afternoon only for the Gampaha district.
This would be a test for Mr. Bandaranaike to prove his support base.
Thereafter Tyronne Fernando spoke about a news item published in the Dinamina of the Lake House group. He said Mahendra Wijeratne from Mirigama was reported to have made a scathing attack against Mr. Wickremesinghe and in support of Mr. Bandaranaike.
Mr. Fernando called for a disciplinary inquiry.
Mr. Fernando said he believed that the meeting to felicitate Mr. Bandaranaike was organised by Mr. Wijeratne.
Mr. Bandaranaike vehemently denied this charge and said that the meeting was organised to introduce the area organisers to him and not for any other purpose.
Mr. Anura Bandaranaike also said that the newspaper article was an exaggeration of what was mentioned by Mr. Wijeratne and that he had already briefed Mr. Wickremesinghe on the matter.
Mr. Wickremesinghe replying said that since Mr. Wijeratne is no longer a UNP organiser he would not take the matter seriously.
Some members of the Working Committee discussed this matter among themselves and were of the view that Mr. Fernando was trying to build his future by getting closer to Mr. Wickremesinghe.
The Working Committee also discussed the move by the govt. to introduce regulations under law that had expired.
On Tuesday, Minister G.L. Peiris submitted new regulations for the payment of compensation as provided in the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises Act which is no longer in existence.
The govt. originally introduced this law for six months and it had lapsed when the Minister brought in the new regulations.
Mr. Wickremesinghe strategically got Mahinda Samarasinghe to raise a point of order on the validity of the regulations in Parliament.
After having discussed their strategy in his Chambers, Mr. Wickremesinghe informed Chief Opposition Whip Wijeyapala Mendis who was in the lobby with several UNP MPs to get the UNP members into the well of the House because there was a deficiency in the Bill and a point of order was to be raised. Even before Mr. Wickremesinghe could come back to his Chambers, Chief Government Whip Richard Pathirana had been informed of the UNP move by a UNPer who was present in the lobby.
Mr. Pathirana apparently made a strong appeal to Mr. Mendis to allow the Bill to be withdrawn without a point of order being raised.
However, the UNP managed to raise a point of order and the Chair subsequently held with the Opposition and decided to adjourn the debate on the matter until a ruling is made.
The episode of how they beat Minister Richard Pathirana was narrated to the Working Committee by Mr. Wickremesinghe. He told them that in future he would not confide in anybody regarding such moves.
“We hope that Minister Peiris’ political package will see a similar end”, former Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara told the Working Committee.
In Parliament this point of order was raised by Mahinda Samarasinghe on the instructions of Mr. Wickremesinghe.
When Minister Peiris rose to his feet to argue the matter, Mr. Wickremesinghe said that the govt. was like “Always Break Down”, Ronnie de Mel chipped into say the “Act” was a body without a head.
Later when the Deputy Speaker adjourned the debate Minister Peiris accompanied Parliamentary Secretary General Bertram Tittawella to the Speaker’s Chambers.
Chief Opposition Whip Wijeyapala Mendis and Mahinda Samarasinghe also followed them to the Deputy Speaker’s Chamber.
“There is some point in what you say”, the Deputy Speaker told the two UNP MPs and requested them to get Mr. Wickremesinghe also to participate in the discussion.
Subsequently Mr. Wickremesinghe too arrived at the Speaker’s Chamber accompanied by Henry Jayamaha.
At the meeting, Mr. Wickremesinghe said they had no objection to the payment of compensation to those who lost their shares due to vesting orders made under the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises Act. But the regulations could not be introduced since the primary law was non existent, he said.
Mr. Wickremesinghe requested the govt. to bring in new legislation to which Chief Government Whip Richard Pathirana agreed readily.
“Then we can give a ruling later”, the Deputy Speaker said with the acknowledgement of both the govt. and the opposition.
However Minister Peiris after having failed in his effort spoke to Deputy Speaker Anil Moonesinghe at the Parliamentary canteen and explained to him the circumstances that led to the introduction of these regulations. He argued it was not necessary to bring in a new Act since the law is valid.
Defending his position, Dr. Peiris said the regulations made under the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises Act were perfectly valid in law and in Parliament.
He said the regulations had been gazetted on May 9, two days before the law lapsed and the regulations had taken effect on the day they were gazetted.
Attorney General Sarath N. Silva has already advised the govt. on the matter. In his opinion the law operates in three stages - when the President makes the vesting order and secondly when Parliament approves the vesting of shares and thirdly the payment of compensation.
Mr. Silva had apparently pointed out that the law expired on May 12 and the regulations had been gazetted before that.
Until Parliament disapproves it, the regulations gazetted under the law are valid.
He pointed out that the regulations come into force as soon as they were gazetted.
In any case Mr. Silva had pointed out that basic principles of the law of interpretation applied on such occasions.
He said that according to Section 6 (3) of the law of interpretation,
when a law expires, the proceedings that have commenced should be continued and completed as if it had not expired.
Dr. Peiris has now made his submissions to Speaker K.B. Ratnayake who returned to the country on Thursday after a visit abroad.
Government lawyers on Thursday expressed the view that the Speaker would make a ruling favourable to the govt. on the issue since the law was quite clear.
Government Ministers also discussed this matter at their weekly meeting on Wednesday.
Attorney General Sarath N. Silva who was summoned before them explained the circumstances that led to the debacle and said that the regulations were valid in law.
Thereafter the Ministers decided that the position taken up by Minister Peiris was correct and agreed to explain the whole issue at the weekly news conference chaired by the Cabinet Spokesman.
However there was only a handful of Ministers present during the meeting since most of them were out of the country.
The govt. in the meantime is making a valiant effort to introduce the political package to end the ethnic crisis. The stumbling block is the poor response given by the UNP towards this, and the govt. is exploring other methods of implementing the package.
It is believed that a section of the UNP is of the view that serious consideration should be given to the package.
This section feels they could get the govt. to agree to an Independent Police Commission and an Independent Election Commission if the UNP supports the package with some amendments. The UNP has called for an Independent Police Commission and an Independent Election Commission in the aftermath of alleged wide-scale rigging and police in action at the local elections in March. But some UNPers feel supporting the package could amount to political suicide. They feel what is required is a provincial council for the North-East with enhanced powers under the 13th Amendment with the rest of the country remaining under the central administration.
Another significant development last week was Anura Bandaranike’s participation as a guest speaker in the World Islamic Call Society conference organised under the auspices of SLMC leader and Minister M.H.M. Ashraff.
Mr. Ashraff warmly welcomed Mr. Bandaranaike with a traditional Islamic “embrace”, putting behind the bitter fight they had over the Galle Port.
Mr. Bandaranaike had been instrumental some time ago in getting the UNP to move a no-faith motion against Mr. Ashraff over the award of the Galle Port tender to the UK-China Consortium which later became the Euro-China Consortium.
The possibility of a fresh link between Mr. Bandaranaike and Mr. Ashraff has raised many an eyebrow even within the SLMC.
Some political analysts describe this as a strategic political alliance that could put the UNP back to office at the future General Election.
Meanwhile many are posing a question about the SLMC’s political principles. But others look up to Mr. Ashraff as another Thondaman who is young and strong enough to deliver the goods for the benefit of his community.
In the meantime, Mr. Bandaranaike is reported to have rejected a move by the UNP to nominate him as Western Province’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Provincial Council Elections.
Mr. Bandaranaike sensing something behind the UNP’s move had reportedly turned down the offer.
Simultaneously, the UNP is likely to call upon Rukman Senanayake to play a more prominent role and contest as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the North Central Province. But Mr. Senanayake is also not likely to accept the offer.
So the UNP is really facing a problem in getting strong candidates to the Provincial Elections which are due by March next year.
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