Columns

By Sandun Jayawardana  

The need to uphold the dignity and decorum of the House is a requirement all Parliamentarians are asked to adhere to, yet time and again, whichever Parliament is elected, there are always occasions where MPs cross the line, leading to ugly exchanges across the aisle.

So it proved during this Parliament week as well, when several MPs on the government and opposition benches got into unseemly exchanges that diverted attention from the main Parliamentary business of the day.  

One incident has already forced Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne to appoint an investigation committee. The incident under probe occurred on Tuesday (20) when Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekara raised a point of order following a claim by Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala that certain politicians from several opposition parties including the SJB had connections to organised criminal groups. Mr Jayasekara asked the Minister to name who the politicians were because otherwise, he was tarring all others from those parties with the same tainted brush. He also accused the government of trying to suppress opposition politicians who are highly critical of the government’s conduct. He pointed out that some opposition MPs had allegedly received death threats and urged the Speaker to intervene to safeguard the lives of MPs.

It was at this point that Colombo District National People’s Power (NPP) MP Dr. Kaushalya Ariyarathne rose to say that what Mr. Jayasekara raised was not a point of order and that he was misleading the House. An angry Mr. Jayasekara shot back asking who the NPP MP was to question him on his point of order. This in turn elicited an angry reaction from Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake, who asked “Who is he?” Mr. Rathnayake and Mr. Jayasekara then ended up levelling serious accusations against each other, leading to the Speaker to order that all unparliamentary language used by both MPs be stricken from the Hansard.

Following a complaint submitted to the Speaker by the government regarding Mr. Jayasekara’s conduct, Speaker Wickramaratne announced ton Friday that he had appointed a three-member committee chaired by Deputy Chairperson of Committees Hemali Weerasekara to investigate the allegations. The two other members of the committee are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath and Chief Opposition Whip Gayantha Karunathilleka.

Mr Karunathilleka expressed displeasure over the matter, telling the Speaker the opposition had not been informed beforehand about the appointment of such a committee and he was only finding out through the Speaker’s announcement that he too had been appointed as a member of the committee. He urged the Speaker to consult the Opposition Leader’s office in Parliament prior to appointing opposition MPs to be part of such committees.

Meanwhile, opposition MPs have also separately asked the Speaker to probe the conduct of the Leader of the House over his own outburst during the incident.

There was also a heated exchange between Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Sunil Handunnetti and Jaffna District Independent MP Ramanathan Archchuna. The Jaffna District MP had earlier had a ban imposed by the Speaker on the live broadcast of his Parliamentary speeches for eight Parliament sessions, covering sessions in March, April and early May. The ban had been completed only recently. While addressing the prevailing salt shortage, Minister Handunnetti accused the Jaffna MP of orchestrating a protest by a handful of workers at the Elephant Pass salt production facility. “They said not to send salt from the north to the south. “There is no such thing as northern salt or southern salt. The only salt is the country’s salt. You can keep your northern salt and southern salt in the past. There’s no such thing now. We have made everything into one country,” the Minister said. He added that the government had resolved the country’s salt shortage and that ships carrying imported salt stocks are now anchored at the port. “The shops should start receiving the salt stocks in the next two or three days. We have spoken about this salt problem for three days. That’s enough now,” he added.

MP Archchuna refuted the allegations levelled by Minister Handunnetti. “I never said anything about northern or southern salt. Some workers there were protesting because they had been sacked. I only appealed for their jobs to be safeguarded.” He added that he intended to raise a privilege issue over the minister’s statement, which he claimed was utterly false.

SJB Kalutara District MP Ajith P. Perera addressed the exchange while taking part in the Parliamentary debate on Friday. He noted that as someone who had served in Parliament for three terms, what he saw the day before was extremely unseemly. He said while he did not approve of the conduct of the first-term MP, he was astonished by the poor choice of language used by Minister Sunil Handunnetti to attack the opposition MP. “I did not expect Mr. Handunnetti, as an educated and experienced MP, to descend to that level. Whatever the question and no matter how high emotions may run, it should not come to a situation where we heard language such as what was used to address that MP,” said Mr. Perera.

The MP pointed out that the usual procedure in the House was to address an MP as “Honourable MP” and minister as “Honourable Minister,” giving due respect to the position. “Though we may not agree with a view expressed by an MP, or even if it is a view that should be vehemently rejected, this is a place of dignified debate,” Mr. Perera said. He said all MPs needed to understand that whether they are in government or opposition and whatever their political view was, “we should address each other respectfully. That is the Parliamentary tradition,” he emphasised.