Sunday Times 2
Who is this stranger in the House?
View(s):By Nihal Seneviratne
During my early years in Parliament, there was a single incident which I cannot easily forget though it was of no political significance.
It happened in the 1960s during the opening session of a new Parliament after a general election. It was a busy day for the staff and I, with many new MPs and those re-elected trooping in, accompanied by their friends and relatives. Our security staff checking the members had regrettably been unable to properly establish the identity of each of the MPs.
The quorum bells were rung and we, the clerks, accompanied the Speaker into the Chamber. After the proclamation summoning the new Parliament was read, the very first item on the Order Paper was the swearing-in of all the members present.
While seated at the Table of the House, I was summoned by a member who asked me to carefully check who one particular individual, seated in the second row of the opposition benches, was. Very cautiously I went across to him and politely asked him for his name and constituency.
He made the fundamental error of saying that he represented Mulkirigala. I immediately knew he was an impostor as I knew very well that George Rajapaksa had been re-elected to that particular seat. Quietly and without making a fuss, I asked him to accompany me to the lobby which he did without protest.
I thereafter asked the Sergeant–at–Arms to keep him in his custody till the conclusion of the day’s sitting.
I returned to the chamber for the swearing-in of the members. All of them were asked to rise in their seats and read out the oath which had been distributed to them. They read it out in one of the three languages of the country of their choice and duly signed the oath document.
After all members had been sworn-in and the sitting concluded, I took the person I had taken out of the chamber, clad in a smart national dress, to the Speaker’s chambers. The Speaker questioned him about himself and his background.
We got the shock of our lives when he told us that he had come that morning from the Mental Hospital in Angoda!
We immediately contacted the hospital authorities who confirmed this. We then asked the Sergeant-at-Arms to accompany him back to his rightful place.
If we had not identified him at the time we did, he may very well have taken his oaths as a member and we would have been faced with a bigger problem of dealing with a duly sworn “Member of Parliament” who was not elected at all!
(The writer is former Secretary General of Parliament)