Oh! why can’t the Lankans be more like the British?
Paisley gets suspended but local johnnies go scot free
British MP, Democratic Unionist Party member Ian Paisley this week on Tuesday was suspended from Britain’s Westminster Parliament for 30 sitting days after fellow MPS voted to rule him out of order for his failure to declare two family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government in 2013,
His offence: Not so much that he accepted an all expenses paid holiday in sunshiny Lanka with his wife and children at the invitation of the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa to spread the good word about his regime in London and whitewash human rights violations in the echelons of power at Westminster but for his damning failure in British eyes to adhere to the ;Reporting Duty; all members of the House of Commons are traditionally expected to abide by.
It cost the Lankan taxpayer Rs 22 million just to have the pleasure of the company and his brood on Lankan soil for a few days. But if the first visit didn’t convince this insignificant British MP representing an obscure county in Northern Ireland called North Antrim to give the all clear to his colleagues at Westminster a second holiday was arranged for him to visit Lanka, again with his wife and family for him to garner a second opinion.
The itinerary: He flew with his wife and four children for a 10-day holiday in March and he travelled again in July with wife and two of the children for a seven-day tour of Sri Lanka. They flew business-class, stayed at the Colombo Hilton and five other five- star hotels. The government of Sri Lanka also paid for their travel within the island by helicopter and a Mercedes Benz.
The total cost: The Lankan tax payer had to fork out Rs 45 million to give Mr. Paisley his wife and children the time of their life at Rs 2 million per night. And the service Paisley performed on his return to England was to merely write a letter to then Prime Minister David Cameron the following year urging him not to support a United Nations’ investigation into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. The recommendation was brusquely ignored and presumably the letter was thrown into the trash can.
That was the fate of the letter. And the fate of Rs 45 million of the taxpayers money which the Rajapaksa government spent to hide their sins. In other words it was a Rs 45 million bribe given to a foreigner to paint a rosy picture of the Lankan situation.
The total costs of both visits: Rs 45 million. Never knew that a seventeen day holiday even staying at the Hilton and flying business class cost that much in Lanka. That’s Rs 2, 600, 000 a day. Hardly the sort of info one would include in a travel brochure promoting Lanka as a paradise isle to visit even for a weekend, now will one?
Anyway who is this Ian Paisley bloke? His only claim to fame rest on his father Ian Paisley who founded the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. But he has one outstaying feature he’s well noted for, And that is: he is a big spender.
For the 2011–12 financial year, Paisley's total expenses claim was the seventh highest of all Members of Parliament.[4] His expenses for the 2012–13 financial year were £232,000; the highest of any MP that year.
The final analysis: Mr. Paisley has now been suspended from the British Parliament for thirty sitting days, He has also been suspended by his own party until an internal investigation into his conduct is concluded.
Well that’s the way the British parliamentary system works. And whilst Lanka clamours for a new constitution to replace the old, in the misplaced belief that new brooms sweep better, the British have no written constitution at all. Its tradition that does the trick and why Paisley finds him- self sent to Coventry today, snubbed by his peers.
But here in Lanka, the scene is different. Take for instance three recent cases.
In the last week of April this year it was revealed that former Sports Minister of this Government, Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera had received a cheque for one million rupees from Walt and Row Associates, a subsidiary company of Perpetual Treasuries owned by the man at the epicentre of the 5 billion bucks bond scam Arjuna Aloysius. Did Parliament take any action? No.
In early June it was then revealed that police filed a B report at a magisterial court in connection with the bond scam which claimed that Sujeewa Senasinghe had received a cheque from Aloysius, a cheque not for one million but for three million bucks in three cheques from Aloysius liquor company, W. M. Mendis Ltd., the famous arrack distillers. Did Parliament take any action? No.
Last year during the proceedings of the presidential Bond Commission it came to light that the ex Finance Minister and then Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake had been enjoying the hospitality of the chief architect of the Bond Scam Arjun Aloysius at the penthouse suite of Monarch Towers the rent for which amounted to Rs 1. 4 million a month had been paid by Aloysius.
Did Parliament take any action? No. Did his party the UNP take any action? Yes, it did. It reaffirmed his position this April as the Assistant Leader of the party
So don’t you sometimes yearn to cry out and sigh ‘Oh! why can’t the Lankans be more like the British?