Joint Opposition's no-confidence move backfires, but Unity Govt. cannot rest on it laurels

The haste with which the Joint Opposition (JO) group in Parliament rushed to bring a No-Confidence motion against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, which, in effect, questions the legitimacy of the entire Government, only helped the UNPSLFP unity Government to put to rest, speculation of rifts within its ranks, and put on a united front. The result was the motion being defeated by a majority of 94 votes, with 145 voting for and 51 against.

President Maithripala Sirisena spent most of Thursday at his office in Parliament when the motion was debated. He also spent close to an hour inside the Chamber, as the debate was in progress, while senior Government members, including SLFP members, led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, spoke in defense of the ruling coalition’s Finance Minister.

The JO group on its part, was ill prepared for the debate on a motion they themselves had authored, falling back on allegations they have repeated ad nauseam, in and outside Parliament, on the poor state of the economy and wrongdoings by the Finance Minister, but failed to make a strong case against him. The absence of former President, now Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa, either during the debate or at the time the vote was taken, was itself a telling fact that the JO group did not expect to pose a serious challenge to the Government by way of such a motion. Leader of the Group MP Dinesh Gunawardena said on Friday, the whole idea of the motion was to expose Government corruption, and they never expected it to be passed, but in the lead up to the debate, the Group members themselves hinted that some SLFP members in Government would break ranks and vote in support. The Government on its part, had a well thought-out plan to counter the Opposition allegations, and it was four senior SLFP members in Government, Ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, S.B. Dissanayaka, Sarath Amunugama and Mahinda Samarasinghe who not only countered the JO charges against the Finance Minister, but also did not shy away from stating their loyalties were firmly with President Sirisena.

Minister Dissanayaka said that a No-Confidence debate against Minister Karunanayake can be interpreted as No-Faith motion directed against the Government and the President, who is the leader of the SLFP. "We, in the SLFP, cannot support such a motion because, this is against the leader of our own Party who is also the head of this Government,” said Minister Dissanayaka.

Chief Opposition Whip MP Anura Dissanayaka whose party, the JVP too, voted in support of the motion, single-handedly made a better case than the entire JO group speakers put together, as to why the Finance Minister should answer some serious questions about the unfair burden being heaped on the public by way of increased taxes, when the Government has been lavish in its allocation of monies to buy luxury vehicles for its members. “The Value Added Tax (VAT) has been expanded to cover sectors which were hitherto exempted from it. Now a person who buys a lunch packet has to pay VAT on it. Taxes have been imposed on the private health sector utilised by millions of people in the country. Even a person selling betel leaves has to pay VAT,” he charged.

Opposition Leader TNA MP R. Sampanthan whose party stayed away from the Chamber during the vote, said "that there is room to be not totally satisfied in the way the Finance Ministry has dealt with Finance proposals, as far as Parliament is concerned." He cautioned the Government that the people were watching, and that each cent of public money should be utilised for the benefit of the people.

The former Secretary General of Parliament, Priyanee Wijesekera in her book, “Parliamentary Practice in Sri Lanka”, states that "a motion of No-Confidence is the most potent device available to the Opposition to challenge the legitimacy of the Government, and should not be resorted to lightly." This is a good thought to bear in mind by the JO group which has been in haste to bring No-Confidence motions against ministers in this Government, without the necessary ammunition to convincingly defend their own motion. It’s also unlikely, the public of this country have forgotten that many in the JO group were ministers in the former regime which casually bypassed Parliament, while allocating billions of rupees in the interests of a few individuals, and Parliamentary control of public finances was grossly disgraced. Hence, convincing the public that they have turned over a new leaf by being in Opposition for just 18 months, may not be easy.

The only hiccup the Government had to face this week was the breakdown of the sound system inside the Parliament Chamber on Wednesday, when the No-Confidence motion was to be debated. It was postponed to Thursday, to restore the audio facility.

For now, the Government has come out looking stronger, with the convincing defeat of the No-Confidence motion, and a strong show of unity, but it will not have much time to rest on its laurels. The move to allocate millions for its members to buy new vehicles is drawing some of the harshest criticism this Government has had to face since taking power, and it is unlikely to subside, unless the allocations are scrapped. It’s also time for the Government to put its money where its mouth is.