The fears were manifest when the PA's new deputy whip Dinesh Gunawardena raised a matter of privilege. Drawing attention to an interview with Anton Balasingham published in the Thinakkural, he said that the LTTE theoretician had claimed that the LTTE was summoning the TNA legislators to Wanni to find out why Tamil aspirations were not being properly articulated in the House.

In an attention grabbing statement, the MEP leader noted that Mr. Balasingham has claimed that TNA members had a duty to act according to instructions from Wanni as they used the LTTE's name when securing parliamentary seats. Mr. Gunawardena charged that the LTTE was denying the freedom of expression which also amounted to an absolute violation of Parliamentary privileges.

Opening the debate on the votes on the ministries of interior and defence was PA's Tissa Karaliyadda who invited the Sinhalese to rise above partisan politics to defend the country's territorial integrity which was under threat by the LTTE.

The Medawachchiya member cautioned that the LTTE had already violated the MoU with the government by preventing civilian vehicles from entering the area. Referring to Prabhakaran's media conference, he noted with the concern that for the LTTE, Thailand talks was only to work out the modalities of an interim administration and had nothing to do with permanent peace.

"Prabhakaran said that the time was not opportune for the LTTE to completely give up waging war. In his kingdom he categorically stated, he was both President and Prime minister. "There is only one prime minister for all of us and that is Ranil Wickremesinghe. Are we going to recognize two governments and two premiers?" he asked passionately.

Making a fervent appeal to the Sinhalese, he called for a collective effort to strengthen the hands of the President and the Prime Minister to overcome this dark hour, he said that all areas of this country should be recognized as the homeland of all the people, not one community.

In a pained voiced, Karaliyadda noted that there has never been a silently suffering community like the Sinhalese, a community that was fast becoming extinct and losing its own rights to minorities.

JVP's fire brand Wimal Weerawansa was in his customary militant mood as he breathed fire during his delivery. He began his verbal thrashing by saying that the UNF has been given a mandate, irrespective of how it was secured, for only a specific period. While that was a sacred custody, the people did not give them a mandate to betray the nation not to compromise territorial integrity.

A fuming Weerawansa thundered: " you have accepted the foundation for the declaration of a Tamil Eelam in your MoU. Are we to have Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Premier in the South and Prabhakaran as the Premier of the North? In your eagerness to please the LTTE, scheduled television programmes were stopped to show Prabhakaran's media conference where he told the entire world that in his kingdom he was king and no other." Holding the House spell bound with the very passion his speech bore, Weerawansa claimed that Thailand was to be only the venue to discuss the setting up of an interim administration but not lasting peace. Weerawansa met in his equal in the thrust and parry when minister R.A.D. Sirisena made what was easily construed as the response to Weerawansa's diatribe. With the UNP showing more eagerness to crack its whip on the JVP than the LTTE, it surprised no one as the Deraniyagala member targeted the JVP, and Weerawansa in particular which he did with great aplomb.

" My fervent wish is that Prabhakaran would also come here following Weerawansa's footsteps. Once it was the JVP that earned a nation's wrath and today interestingly, there is Weerawansa pointing his guns at the LTTE," he noted.

Relishing the moment, minister Sirisena said that it was heartening to note that an LTTEer could actually come with a regular pass to Parliament premises sans the suicide kit. And the man who protests much about this incident belongs to the party that brought a bomb to the House, killed legislators and injured so many. What right have you got to speak of the internal security of a place that you once converted to a pool of blood," he thundered, amidst thunderous applause from government benches.

An angry Wimal Weerawansa threw back that the JVP did not have a single member who had sold his seat for Rs. five million. While the din ensured hair tearing moments for Siri Andrahennadi, the deputy chairman of committees, the minister continued unflustered. Rubbing salt on wounds, Sirisena noted that there has never been a 'viplawakaraya' who had hair cuts and manicures at plush salons.

A man who drew much attention was PA's D.M. Dassanayake who had returned to the house after serving a remand prison term. In a hurt manifested speech, Dassanayake claimed that he was left to suffer untold hardships while in custody when some others enjoyed privileged sentences, an obvious reference to the powerful Ratwattes.

" There are people serving long prison terms for having plucked a few coconuts. Aren't there worse crimes being committed? When I was finally discharged, I realized that I had served something akin to a rigorous term before the case was heard. What kind of justice is that?" he queried, appealing to the House to ensure that other suspects be spared of such suffering.

In the face of JVP bashing by the government, PA's Kathriarachchi sought to draw a distinction between the LTTE and the JVP. The legislator who once held a mobile photographic exhibition depicting JVP atrocities said that right or wrong, the JVP was clamouring for a political change while the LTTE's demand was for a de facto separate state.

"You have no shame to come here and speak after an unforgivable betrayal. Prabhakaran categorically stated that in Tamil Eelam, he was the Premier which also proved that the UNF government has accepted this position. The President also could have entered into drastic MoUs but she only agreed to discuss extensive power devolution, not the recognition of another state within our territory," he charged.

It was Kumar Ponnambalam's son Gajendrakumar, a first time legislator who repeatedly stressed on the need for a separate homeland who spoke next. The MP said that there was no compromising on the Thimpu principles and whatever solution that is offered should have those principles as its foundation. "This MoU is not permanent peace, nor is it permanent. It is one that is operative pending talks," he said, adding that the Tamils were concerned about a system of government falling short of the legitimate Tamil demands enshrined in the Thimpu principles. We are beginning to feel cheated once again," he said, impressing on the House that the road to peace was certainly going to be a thorny one, and one that might leave too many scars on the nation yet again.

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