President, Sajith wage direct battle in Parliament

A highlight of an eventful week in the 2024 Budget debate was a rare and sustained verbal duel between President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa on the floor of the House.

The two traded verbal barbs on several occasions this week. The most notable exchange came on Thursday, where they sparred over the Constitutional Council (CC) which the President said was delaying appointments to key positions. While those who had seen debates of yesteryear would say there were far better verbal duels, it was still interesting to see the rare occurrence of a President and Opposition Leader going toe-to-toe against each other, especially given their long and complicated history as one-time allies turned rivals. There were several times when this shared experience came through during the exchange, most notably when Mr Premadasa told Mr Wickremesinghe that Parliament was “not the UNP’s Working Committee.”

Tensions between the Government and Opposition however, continued to boil over in-between with MPs from both sides hurling insults at each other at various times during this week’s debate. On Friday, government MPs accused the Opposition Leader of using unParliamentary language to target their members. Some demanded that he too should be suspended from Parliament in the same manner as State Minister Sanath Nishantha, who had been suspended for two weeks by the Speaker this week for unruly conduct. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena then had to order that any un-Parliamentary words found to have been used to insult MPs be expunged from Hansard, the official record of proceedings.

There were also questions surrounding the usage of technology. After the ruckus involving State Minister Nishantha and others, Speaker Abeywardena warned MPs against taking videos inside the Chamber and releasing them on social media, saying strict action would be taken against offending MPs.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Parliamentarian Nalin Bandara however, countered that Standing Orders of Parliament had no such restrictions. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe meanwhile, singled out SJB Parliamentarian Dr. Harsha de Silva for being on the phone while he (Rajapakshe) was raising a privilege issue about the indiscipline among MPs. He called for a change in Standing Orders to prohibit MPs from using phones and engaging in other non-Parliamentary work when in the Chamber.

However, Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella pointed out that each MP also had a laptop on their benches in Parliament and emphasised that Standing Orders had not prohibited new technology being used during sessions. Dr de Silva too called for an amendment to Standing Orders allowing MPs to use the internet within the Chamber. Speaker Abeywardena acknowledged that Standing Orders needed amending in line with requests made by MPs.