Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe giving a different interpretation to the controversy over the National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa’s request to accept five NFF MPs as an independent group in Parliament said, the NFF cannot be accepted as a separate party, but their intention to give up former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership and remain independent in Parliament should be appreciated.
NFF Leader Weerawansa on Wednesday (February 22) raising a privilege issue requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to recognize his party as a separate party in Parliament and grant all privileges and rights to which other parties are entitled to, since they have given up all connections with the UPFA.
The following day, when MP Weerawansa attempted to draw attention to the same issue, the Premier said, the NFF cannot be recognized as a separate party, but the NFF MPs can function as an independent group in Parliament.
Constituent party
However, the MEP Leader Dinesh Gunawardena maintained the view that the NFF is not a constituent party of the UPFA and added that the Communist Party and the NFF are not governed by the constitution of the UPFA.
The Premier who countered the point raised by MP Gunawardena said, if the NFF is not a party within the UPFA, the NFF MPs can break ties with the UPFA and act as independent MPs, but they cannot be recognised as a separate party but only as five independent MPs. None could prevent them from deciding to act as independent MPs.
The Premier told the House in lighter vein, that he thanked MP Weerwansa for his decision to break ties with the UPFA and reject the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
However, MP Weerawansa responding to the Premier’s remarks said, the Joint Opposition will continue to struggle under the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Leader of the House and Higher Education and Highways Minister, Lakshman Kiriella, who also intervened in the conversation said, MP Weerawansa’s comment that they will continue to do politics under the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa means they have not separated.
While the NFF’s decision was viewed as a recent political development in the well of the House, MP Weerawansa attempted to convince the House that the five NFF members since April last year have been demanding the Speaker to recognise them as a separate political party.
He pointed out how he raised the issue in a letter addressed to the Speaker on April 5, 2016.
Debate
The Speaker told Weerawansa that he needs time to study the issue and discuss it with other Party Leaders, and added there is no need to hold a debate on this and that he will do what should be done. The Speaker’s decision on the request by NFF Leader Weerawansa to sit as an independent group in Parliament will be announced on March 7.
Participating in the second reading debate on the Engineering Council, Sri Lanka Bill, UPFA General Secretary and Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister, Mahinda Amaraweera, told MP Weerawansa, if the NFF members want to quit the UPFA, they should inform the UPFA General Secretary and not the Speaker. The Minister requested MP Weerawansa to submit a letter to him indicating the NFF members’ wish to leave the UPFA so that he can consider it.
However, this issue turned into a hot topic in the House as several Government and Opposition legislators aired their views. City Planning and Water Supply Minister, Rauff Hakeem said, he too faced a similar issue during the last Parliament.
He said, the SLMC contested under the UNP ticket.
But, when they demanded to be considered a separate group the request was turned down on the grounds that they contested from the UNP. Minister Hakeem said, it was the former Government which set that precedent. UPFA Ratnapura District MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara said, they too contested from the UPFA under the betel leaf symbol and they agreed to do so under the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
But, MP Nanayakkara alleged that some got together and deprived them of their rights. He hoped their rights and the rights of others who voted for them would be protected and that they have forwarded this issue to the International Parliamentary Union.
The Chief Opposition Whip, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, making a special statement in Parliament said, the removal of Lanka Mineral Sands Chairman Asoka Peiris indicates, the Yahapalana Government does not need honest and competent public officials with a backbone, but those who toe their line and help perpetuate corruption.
MP Dissanayake said, there is public displeasure against the Government for abruptly removing Asoka Peiris from the post of Lanka Mineral Sands Chairman, as he was an honest public official who carried out his duties to the letter. The MP told the House that Asoka Peiris was in that position before he was appointed as Head of the Delimitation Review Committee.
Honest official
While Peiris was leaving the Parliament complex after giving evidence and statements before the COPE committee on February 7, he was sacked, and another person appointed to his post. Responding to MP Dissanayake’s statement, Industries and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen said, Peiris was an honest public official and had done nothing wrong during his tenure as Chairma of Lanka Mineral Sands.
The Minister convinced the House that it was the Secretary to the President who appointed Peiris to that post and he was replaced with Maithree Gunaratne by the same officer.
Responding to a question raised by MEP Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told Parliament that the Government does not see any need to declare an emergency in the country owing to the prevailing drought.
MP Gunawardena demanded to know how and why the Government is delaying to provide relief to the drought hit people.
MP Gunawardana pointed out that the people in a number of districts such as, Anuradhapura, Moneragala, Badulla,Trincomalee, Killinochchi and Jaffna have been severely affected by the drought. Minister Yapa said, as it is only a natural disaster there is no need to declare an emergency situation.
JVP Leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who made a special statement in Parliament on Wednesday (February 22) asked whether the Government would tell the people the truth behind the recent shooting incident near the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), Malabe.
Contradictory evidence
MP Dissanayake said, there were reports of contradictory evidences and witness accounts leading to many doubts on the incident where the Chief Executive Officer of SAITM allegedly came under gun fire on February 6.
The MP charged, there were subsequent attempts to put the blame and responsibility on those who agitated against SAITM and added that some of the attempts were direct while others were indirect. Dissanayake said, therefore there is an urgent need to know the actual situation.
The MP demanded to know the progress made by the investigations so far and what had been found by the probes.