House heads for New Year with old woes made worse
As the month-long debate on the Appropriation Bill 2017 came to an end this week, and the year’s Parliamentary sittings too drew to a close, the Government got a taste of what lies ahead in the new year- more dissension within its own ranks, an increasingly aggressive Joint Opposition (JO) and growing frustration from the main Opposition for lack of progress in the reconciliation process and the fight against corruption.
President Maithripala Sirisena who participated in the Committee Stage debate on the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday, sought to dispel fears expressed mainly by members of the JO over some of the ambitious plans the Government hopes to finalise in the new year, mainly the ETCA (Economic & Technical Cooperation Agreement) which it hopes to sign with India, and the new Constitution.
“Before the ETCA is signed, it will be presented to the Cabinet and it will be signed after consensus is reached with all parties,” he said.
On the proposed new Constitution too, the President said it was still under discussion and nothing has been finalised.
“The Constitution-making process is still under discussion. We have not finalised anything in this regard. False propaganda is being spread by certain persons who are keen to grab power,” he said.
However, the President’s call for more maturity from the JO MPs fell on deaf ears, with many MPs including JO leader UPFA MP Dinesh Gunawardena accusing the Government of compromising on national security and toeing the line of western nations that helped instal it in power.
“The Office of Missing Persons (OMP) clearly intends to pave the way for members of the security forces to face criminal charges in international courts. I urge the President to amend certain sections of the OMP Bill,” Mr. Gunawardena said.
The JO member also urged the President pardon all members of the security forces who helped defeat terrorism. “This has been done in other countries. The President can issue a pardon to all the military personnel who fought to defeat terrorism,” he said.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna District MP E. Saravanapavan differed sharply with the views expressed by the JO MP, saying that, given the views expressed by some of the lawmakers, it was hard to be optimistic about the dawn of peace and reconciliation anytime soon in the country. He said the high amount allocated to the Defence Ministry also does not show that peace and reconciliation is envisaged by the Government.
Meanwhile, Resettlement Minister D.M. Swaminathan and TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran engaged in heated arguments on Tuesday, over the 65,000-unit housing project in the North .
The TNA MP called for the resignation of Minister Swaminathan during the committee stage debate of the vote of the Ministry of Prison Reforms & Rehabilitation, and it took an intervention by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to assure the TNA that the Government would go with the demands of the public, with regard to the material that would be used to build the houses.
“The majority of the houses would be made from brick and mortar, but there is a demand from some for prefabricated houses. We can discuss this matter and go with the demands of the public,” he said.
In between, the Prime Minister also offered a halfhearted apology for the setting on fire of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981. "The public library was burnt down when we were in power. I apologise for it,” he said.
While the Government was poised to introduce a new Constitution to Parliament early next year, it will no doubt be an uphill task. While the common view of lawmakers from the north is that the Government has not done enough to pave the way for reconciliation, JO opposition MPs are propagating the view that the Government is doing too much in the name of reconciliation. Amidst this, there is also growing religious intolerance in the country, with complicity, to some extent, by some in government with those holding extreme views.
The LLRC (Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission), in its final report, observed that, "one of the dominant factors obstructing reconciliation in Sri Lanka is the lack of political consensus and a multi-party approach on critical national issues, such as the issue of devolution".
What the country has now is the closest it has come to having a multi-party approach to this thorny issue. Whether the leaders of this Government have the political astuteness to bring about changes that could appease both the majority and minority communities, will be seen in the months ahead.