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Speaker Jayasuriya adjourned the day’s sessions just 55 minutes after commencements of sittings, much of which was wasted on heated exchanges between the Chair and JOG members. In all, the debate was to last 210 minutes, but JOG leader MP Dinesh Gunawardena said they were allocated only 31 minutes, even though it was the JOG that moved the motion in the House. The Speaker, after listening to arguments put forward by the JOG lawmaker, said that, an additional 34 minutes would be allowed to the JOG, even which, did not seem to suffice for the JOG.

MP Gunawardena argued there were 52 MPs in the JOG, who were the ones who had more to say on the Resolution and hence, needed more time to speak.

Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the Speaker has been more than accommodating with the whims of the JOG, while breaking precedence by recognising them as a separate group in Parliament, when all of them have been elected from the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

“The usual arrangement is to allocate 70% of debate time to the Govt and 30% to the Opposition. The Govt.’s 70% is divided as 40% to the UNP and 30% to the UPFA. The UPFA’s 30% should be divided among themselves. We have nothing to do with regard to this issue which came out as a result of an internal problem of the UPFA. If the UPFA decides to break from the Govt and come to the Opposition as a single group, we are ready to give them the Opposition leader’s post,” the JVP MP said.

Arguments in this regard dragged on for nearly an hour, by which time an exasperated Speaker decided to adjourn the day’s sittings.

The problem regarding as to who constitutes the real Opposition in Parliament has been a constant matter of dispute in the House, since this Parliament was elected in August 2015, with a substantial number of MPs elected from the UPFA deciding to break with the decision of Party Leader President Maithripala Sirisena, and sit in the Opposition.

As Leader of the House, Highways and Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella pointed out that, an internal party matter is now played out in Parliament on a regular basis, disrupting sittings almost every week.

All the time spent debating matters such as how much time each group should be allocated or, if other parties within the UPFA should also be recognised as separate entities, has led to the utter waste of time on a regular basis. If this time is used to debate important issues that are of concern to the public, at least, there would be some justification for the large sum of money spent on Parliament sittings, including live telecast of proceedings.

The House will next meet on May 3, after a long break for the National New Year. The House, this week decided that, starting from next month, the attendance register of MPs would be made public through the official Parliament website. The move is aimed at addressing the poor attendance by MPs. It can only be hoped that higher attendance will also result in higher standard of debates in the House, and not be a continuation of the usual razzmatazz that has become recent hallmarks of the Sri Lanka Parliament.