Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe making a special statement in Parliament on the recent incidents at Digana and suburbs which led to a tense situation between communities, said, some of those driven by political power hunger are trying to capitalize from incidents of this nature to gain their narrow political perspectives which result in the disruption of normalcy and instigate in communal violence. Organized efforts are also being made to disseminate racism and communal disharmony in the social media. The Premier warned that the only trump card the perpetrators of violence have with them is to instigate racial violence across the country and to make use of such grave situations to grab political power.
The Premier assured the House that the Government would do everything in its power to deal with the instigators of communal clashes and racist sentiments. He also told the House that the Cabinet of Ministers had decided to impose a state of emergency for a period of seven days if necessary and added that the Cabinet had also decided to impose other necessary laws for a short period. The Prime Minister said, the Government would pay compensation for the loss of lives and property caused by ethnic violence at several places in the country.
Participating in an Adjournment debate in Parliament on March 6 to discuss the tense situation between communities in the violence hit areas, the Government law makers blamed the intelligence services for failure to give advance warning of possible communal clashes erupting, following the killing of a Sinhala person in Teldeniya. Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella said, the intelligence services should have alerted the Government, but they have failed to identify the threat even after people had got the scent of outsiders in the area.
Muslim Parliamentarians
While the Adjournment debate on the current situation over the tense situation in Kandy was in progress, eleven Muslim Parliamentarians led by Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen sat in the Well of the House asking the Government to ensure the protection of Muslims. Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Musthapha spoke while the protest was on. Minister Kiriella told the House that investigations were being conducted on this incident and the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to declare a state of emergency and as such the protesting MPs returned to their seats.
Joint Opposition
The Joint Opposition (JO) frontliners also requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to summon representatives of political parties and civil organizations immediately to discuss solutions for the crisis situation in Kandy and Ampara.
UPFA Colombo District MP Wimal Weerawansa attempted to portray that the Government did not take adequate measures to halt the prevailing communal unrest in the country. Weerawansa said now both the Sinhala and Muslim communities are living in fear due to the clashes in Kandy and Ampara. He accused the Government Ministers of being irresponsible by not attending the parliamentary session on Wednesday (March 7).
Weerawansa queried is this the way the Government Ministers respond to critical situations arising in the country? Countering the point raised by MP Weerawansa, Chief Government Whip Minister Gayantha Karunatilleka assured that the Government was delivering its maximum capacity to solve the critical situation and several Ministers couldn’t attend the parliamentary proceedings because they had gone to the affected areas to take necessary measures.
However, JO Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardena said they could not be satisfied with Minister Karunatilleka’s reply as there is a very serious situation in the country which warranted the President to impose a State of Emergency.
MP Gunawardena requested the Speaker to summon representatives of political parties and civil organizations to discuss this issue. The Speaker who endorsed the point raised by the MP said, he will look into it and inform the House.
The Bill
The Bill for Protection against Enforced Disappearances was passed in Parliament without amendment with a majority of 37 votes. The Bill received 53 votes in favour and 16 against following a division called by JO Parliamentary Group leader Dinesh Gunawardena. The JO members voted against while the JVP members walked out of the Chamber at the time of voting. The absence of 156 members was a notable feature.
Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana told Parliament that he wished to include a phrase “excluding Sri Lankans” in Section 8 of the Bill to allay the fear in some quarters that the legislation allowed a foreign state to try Sri Lankans who are found to have committed an offence in Sri Lanka. Minister Marapana made this remark when JO members requested that the debate on the Bill be postponed as the Bill had already been deferred twice in Parliament amid objections of the JO. Section 8 of the Bill says, the Government of Sri Lanka will notify any state, which makes an extradition request of the steps already taken or steps to be taken in respect of the prosecution or extradition of the person accused of an offence under the Act.
Minister Marapana further said “It is redundant as this legislation does not in any way obligate us to extradite that person, but we make the amendment for the purpose of clarity. What is mentioned in the International Convention is not the law of Sri Lanka, and what becomes law here is what is mentioned in this Act.” The Minister pointed out that nothing in the Bill had retrospective effect and its content applied only to offences committed in the future. As assured by the Minister, the main objective of the Bill is to ensure that every Sri Lankan citizen gets the freedom to live without fear of being a victim of enforced disappearance or abduction.
Joining the debate TNA Jaffna District MP M.A.Sumanthiran welcomed the Government’s move to accept this international convention. He said, Sri Lanka has a long history of disappearances. More than 60,000 youth went missing during the 1988-1989 terror and tens of thousands due to the terrorist war.
Over 20,000 had surrendered to the Security Forces and there are another 5,000 disappeared people. Sumanthiran was of the view that as the Foreign Minister said nothing in the Bill had retrospective effect, the Government’s intention is to protect the offenders who had committed heinous crimes in the past and added that the Government is doing this to satisfy the international forces.
Under this Bill, all recent offenders are safe and they will not be pursued. Sumanthiran said while welcoming the law, their disappointment is with the attitude that the Government introduces the Bill.
JO frontliner and UPFA Colombo District MP Udaya Gammanpila drew the attention of the House to the fact that, of the 196 countries. this convention has been ratified by only 58 countries. A majority of the world community, 138 countries have rejected this Bill as it is a threat to their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Even the US, UK and India have not signed this convention. Gammanpila alleged that this Bill has been presented targeting Security Forces. Therefore, the course of action going to be taken on war heroes is, of course, dangerous. At present the world community wonders whether there is really a Government in Sri Lanka.
Standing Orders
Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved the revised set of Standing Orders of Parliament and the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament. However, Parliament turned down a request by the JO to include in the Standing Orders of Parliament that “the person who holds the post of Opposition Leader must command the majority support of the Opposition benches.” When Parliament took up the Committee Stage of the revisions to the Standing Orders, JO Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardena moved an amendment seeking to apply the very same principles of electing the Prime Minister to the Opposition Leader as well.
However, Standing Orders Committee member and State Minister Ajith P. Perera did not accommodate the JO’s amendment and maintained the position that the proposed revisions to the Standing Orders were drafted after a careful study of tradition in other countries as well. Intervening in the conversation, MP Wimal Weerawansa said the present Opposition Leader has no majority support and the people’s mandate has been distorted in Parliament. TNA MP Sumanthiran pointed out that this Parliament has only six recognized political parties and two of those parties are in the Government. Therefore, the party which has the third largest number in Parliament is entitled to the post of Opposition Leader.
No Confidence Motion
Despite the big hue and cry in the media circles, the JO’s No Confidence Motion against the Prime Minister was not presented to the Speaker on March 6. Following the requests made by the UNP rebels to the JO MPs not to present the motion, a special group meeting of the JO MPs was held in the parliamentary complex under the patronage of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The JO members also announced their decision taken to postpone the public rally scheduled to be held in Nugegoda on March 7 considering the crisis situation in the country.
The JO sources said, the JO group had decided to hold talks with other political parties on the signing of the motion. The task of conducting talks with other parties had been entrusted to JO parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardena.
The JO would have discussions with the SLFP (Maithri faction) and the UNP MPs on the motion seeking their support to remove the Prime Minister.