(Lanka-e-News - 13.Jan.2018, 4.40PM) As was revealed by Lanka e news previously so was president Sirisena’s probity put to the litmus test when the parliament had a special session on the 10 th. Sirisena on the 10 th not only demonstrated his dishonesty and unscrupulousness but also dodged an urgent request made by the legislature , thereby creating a conflict between the legislature and the executive for the first time.
It were the Joint Alliance including the UPFA’s Rajapakse group, JVP and UPFA’s Maithri group M.P.s. that requested a debate on the Bond commission report . Accordingly , following a request made by the Prime Minister , the speaker summoned an emergency parliamentary session.
In fact this emergency session was to debate on the Bond Commission report as well as the 34 grave corruptions report forwarded to the president . Strangely , neither the Bond Commission report nor the report pertaining to the 34 grave corruptions were in the custody of the parliament to conduct a debate. Those reports were with the president.
The speaker therefore through the parliament secretary sent a letter to the president’s secretary requesting to forward copies of the reports to Parliament on the 10 th (morning)
Lanka e news a few days ago reported , if the president is honest ,reports relating to the SLFP culprits involved in 34 grave frauds shall be made available to parliament on the 10 th . Based on reports however , president Sirisena had concealed those and is to forward only the Bond Commission report to parliament .
Shockingly , president Sirisena for most mysterious reasons had not forwarded the Bond Commission report to Parliament , the supreme legislative body ! Obviously this is because Sirisena will not be able to score political mileage during the run up to the upcoming elections exploiting that report (if revealed, the world will know the truth) to conduct his mudslinging campaign.
Unbelievably the president who should act most responsibly had most irresponsibly furnished no valid reason for this grave omission, to parliament when it began its sessions . The explanation offered was : the Bond report shall be forwarded on the 17 th , and the reports on the 34 grave corruptions shall be furnished subsequently – no date was given . In other words the president who should be the first if he is honest to take action against the culprits is behaving like their accomplice . He is procrastinating until the elections are over thereby denying the public the right to identify the criminals before the elections.
The Joint opposition alias Rajapakse UPFA group and the JVP after the parliament sittings commenced went on asking for the Bond Commission report from the speaker . When it was revealed that the president’s secretary has intimated , the report will be made available in a week , the JVP and the JO argued an official cannot override the directive of the parliament , and the secretary should be immediately summoned to parliament for questioning.
In the agenda on 10th , the debate on the Commission reports was mentioned . The second item in the agenda was the special statement to be made by the P.M. who requested a special parliamentary session yesterday. As the president has not complied with the first request in the agenda , when preparations were being made to take up the second item in the agenda –P.M. ‘ s special statement, the JO alias UPFA Rajapakse group started screaming ‘P.M. is a rogue’ while carrying posters with that slogan . These MPs who opposed then moved to the front shouting hoarse , and entered into a brawl .
The conflict between Gamini Lokuge and S.M. Marikar of the government took a turn for the worse. After UNP M.P. Kavinga Jayawardena fainted he was taken to hospital for medical treatment .
Amidst the melee , the P.M. continued with his speech with great difficulty. After the conclusion of his speech , raising the voices and hands like in a procession the members asked ‘who is the rogue?’ when everyone started screaming ‘Mahinda is the rogue’. However when P.M. asked others to shout with him and since this request was clearly heard via the microphone , allegations were made, that request of Ranil was untoward . But when the UPFA Rajapakse group hoodlums turned the August assembly into a bedlam shouting hoarse and conducting themselves worse than protestors at Lipton Circus , no attention was paid to that hooliganism .
In any event when considering the behavior of the third world parliament prime ministers , our P.M.’s conduct is not unsurprising . Nevertheless Ranil’s behavior in any event cannot be approved.
However , after the speaker adjourned sessions , parliament resumed to hold the party leaders’ meeting. By that time many of the members except Dinesh Gunawardena of the UPFA had left to attend a meeting of the Flower bud party on that day.
Soon after the parliament session was resumed , the speaker read a letter sent by the president to parliament . It is then the cat was out of the bag of the president .The president had been mudslinging while hiding the Bond Commission report making use of the Attorney General as a pawn. In president’s letter it was stated, after the AG’s advice was sought , the AG had advised that the report shall only be made available to those mentioned in it and not to the Parliament. However , the AG in order to save his own skin had again in another sentence said , the president can act according to his discretion.Accordingly , the president without releasing the report to the Parliament - the supreme legislative body , sent copies thereof to the Central bank, the AG, Director General of Bribery and corruption Commission and the Department of archives.
This step came in for a lot of flak from the parliament , government and the opposition . It was the opinion of the P.M. , the AG had not only transgressed the laws but even the parliamentary traditions.
The chief whip of the opposition Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, 3 copies of the Bond report were to be released , and at least one copy should have been made available to the Parliament. He pointed out vehemently ,before the report is made available to the Bribery commission , AG , Central bank and the Archives department , the president should have released a copy to the parliament which is responsible for the State finance.
The view of the TNA including its leader Sampanthan was , a report of the Bond Commission should be released on the first occasion at the same time to Parliament too.
It was minister Hakeem who made a most important announcement. When there is no difference of opinion between the government and the opposition , and there is nothing to conceal in the report , each individual seeking to exploit that report to gain political mileage at the forthcoming elections is absolutely wrong. Obviously he was indirectly pointing an accusing finger at the president though he did not mention the name.
With regard to the issues sparked in relation to the Parliament owing to the dastardly actions of the president , the speaker making his comments said , he has no desire to create a conflict between the Executive and the legislature. Since the president had stated , a copy of the report will be forwarded to Parliament within a week , the speaker urged the members to be patient.
However , in the letter of the president no mention was made of the date on which the report pertaining to the 34 grave corruptions will be released to the Parliament. The letter stated , that report is not with the president , and the Commission has to be notified to collect that report . This is a wonder of wonders ! Can a responsible president the highest in the hierarchy say the 34 reports handed over to him on grave corruptions are not in his custody ? It is crystal clear from this the president is wantonly concealing those reports to shield and support the SLFP culprits until the elections are over. In other words the president despite his exalted position has proved he is an accomplice of the crooks and the corrupt.
Finally it was decided by the speaker to summon AG to parliament to question him. Accordingly a directive in that regard was sent to the AG .The P.M. pointed out , this gives an opportunity to the party leaders to question the AG.
The final outcome: It is only the baser instincts and unscrupulous nature of the president that came to be clearly known to all members of the parliament including those of the government and the opposition , not to mention all the citizens.
A condensed version of the actual incidents that occurred in Parliament are in the video footage hereunder
---------------------------
by (2018-01-13 11:34:41)
Leave a Reply