Editorial

22nd March 1998

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Some 40 percent of the people of this country voted for the UNP, and it now claims that some 50 percent of the people are with it. Then that proportion of people is unrepresented in Parliament. Is the UNP right to abandon its rights and more importantly the rights of its voters? We think not.

We must ask the UNP to get back to Parliament. It cannot abdicate either its mandate from the people, or its daily duty as an Opposition, and just go around the country singing some thing like the Gypsies' "Singyore labanasare api denewa bate."

Next time round the UNP may assume it would be its duty to get elected to Government and then boycott Parliament whenever the party finds it suitable to do so. A token boycott is understandable. But this is hardly the way to protest, however justifiable the cause, whatever the undemocratic tactics the UNP alleges are being adopted by the incumbent Government. When the UNP was in the opposition led by J.R Jayewardene, there was much worse harassment by way of the Attanagalla doctrine. What did JR do? Not boycott Parliament but used his voice in it to protest the autocratic actions of the Government, with only 15 members on his side and doing this turned the tide in his favour.

Today the Government opportunely using the absence of the UNP is taking the autocratic route to pass some 20 bills through Parliament. That will stand sentinel as its own commitment to Parliamentary democracy. Next month again business in Parliament will be largely devoted to the extension of the Emergency and also the passage of the Anti- Ragging Bill. It might be politically wise for the UNP to steer clear of the latter - after all, the students are against the Bill and civilized society surely condemns barbaric ragging. So let the Government take the flak as it did when the bill relating to the NGOs earned it the wrath of the NGOs here. Well and good this may be as political games go, but for how long can the UNP go on adopting such tactics?

As for the Emergency, the 1970-77 period saw Emergency declared without recourse to debate. The UNP through its 1978 Constitution introduced what was a salutary change by deeming that that Parliament should sanction the extension of the emergency each month. Emergency rule by whatever Government. is bad but what happened to be good about the UNP move was that it gave the Opposition an opportunity in debate to air its views on it. And now the UNP through a truculent twist foregoes that very opportunity.

It has been said in UNP quarters that the Parliament boycott is intended as a protest to show the international community the repression being perpetrated on the Opposition by the Government. Does the argument hold water - or votes? The UNP MPs were elected by the voters of Sri Lanka but they have made it a habit to run to foreign missions and show them slides to support their allegations and cry foul. Well and good but of what use other than to live in a make-believe world that these missions will come to their aid. Are they so naive as to imagine that these missions will lift a finger against the incumbent Government.? On the contrary their interest would have other foci, including tenders for their companies doing business in Sri Lanka. A far cry indeed from fostering humanitarian and political rights in the interests of the people or any particular party in Sri Lanka.

Others in the UNP compare the boycott of Parliament by the Opposition in Bangladesh some time ago to what is happening here and say that the Bangladesh Government was forced in to a settlement with the opposition as a result. With all due respect to the people of Bangladesh, we think the comparison is inapt. This is not the model of democracy that the UNP is heir to.

All these apart, it seems the UNP is having lots of difficulty with the Mendis issue. In what is seen as an incontrovertible case, where the diagnosis is nothing but positive, surgery seems to be the only answer to the UNP dilemma - either Mr. Mendis must go gracefully, or he must be asked to go sans grace. While the Mendis motion on the Order Paper in Parliament was not fixed for a particular date for debate, the Government took its chance to sling mud at the UNP and its leaders. All because of the absence of the UNP from Parliament. Will the UNP think again and call it off, or carry on regardless?

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