No-faith motions,Parliamentary privileges overshadow debate

The Committee Stage debate on the Appropriation Bill is turning out to be more eventful than expected, not because of the subjects under debate but, because of the sideshows by way of ' No-Confidence' motions and 'Privilege' issues.

This week saw two separate ' No- Confidence' motions handed over to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. One by the Joint Opposition (JO) and the other by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), both against Minister of Provincial Councils & Local Government, Faiszer Musthapha. Both groups are blaming the Minister for the delay in holding elections to Local Government (LG) bodies.

In their efforts to oust Minister Musthapaha, the Opposition lawmakers may have found an unlikely ally in a group of UNP backbenchers who, on Thursday, joined the voices calling on the Minister to step down, if he is unable to hold the elections on time. The UNP MPs, namely K av i n d a J a y aw a r d e n a ( Gampaha), Ashoka Priyantha (Puttalam) and Thushara Indunil Amarasena (Kurunegala) hastily called a press briefing, on Thursday at the Parliament complex, to express their displeasure with the Minister who is an SLFP member.

“We are unable to wait till the SLFP and the JO form an alliance for the election to be held. The UNP wants the polls held soon. This exposes the Minister’s incompetency, so he should resign,” said MP Kavinda Jayawardena.

The ongoing tussle between the UNP and President Maithripala Sirisena's SLFPwing, over the LG elections, seemed to have widened this week, with a lot of finger-pointing with regard to the election delay.

Added to that, the conduct of 4 UNP MPs of the Committee on Public Enterprises ( COPE), whose links to businessman Arjun Aloysius, the man at the center of the Central Bank Treasury Bond controversy, came to light recently, has heightened tensions between the two sides.

While most SLFP members in Government have chosen to remain silent on the issue, JO members have been turning up the heat, seeking the removal from COPE of the MPs whose names transpired in records of telephone conversations submitted to the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Bond issue.

The UNP MPs on their part, however, cried foul over the whole affair, and have sought refuge under Parliamentary Privilege. Leader of the House, Minister Lakshman Kiriella raised a Privilege issue on Monday, saying that, recording of telephone calls of Parliamentarians who are members of COPE was a breach of their Parliamentary Privileges, and asked the Speaker to inquire into this matter and take such steps as he deemed appropriate.

While raising the Privilege issue, Minister Kiriella also tabled a document in the House, which gave details of the extent to which there had been communications between the 5 COPE members and Mr. Aloysius. All 5 MPs have denied any exchange of information with Mr. Aloysius, which compromised their positions as neutral members, during the COPE inquiry into the Bond issue.

While the Parliament ( Powers & Privileges ) Act safeguards the privileges of MPs and bestows them immunity and other preferential treatment, which the rest of the citizenry are not entitled to, they are also required to refrain from disclosing information that transpires before any Parliamentary committee, without authorisation or, until the relevant reports are tabled in Parliament.

However, the CoI clarified in a statement that no telephone records of any MPs were obtained nor examined, and the process was based on the date extracts from telephones and other electronic devices used by Arjun Aloysius and the former Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran. Hence, it is unlikely the matter will be referred to the Privileges Committee of Parliament.

The disclosure of the telephone conversations comes at a time when a Code of Conduct for MPs has been finalised and is awaiting final approval of the House. It very specifically states that, "Where any Member has any personal or pecuniary interest, whether directly or indirectly relating to any matter under consideration by Parliament or any Committee thereof, such Member shall declare the nature of such interest and shall not participate in any debate taking place in the House or, in any Committee, unless he has made such declaration.”

The question now is not, if the Parliamentary Privileges of the MPs have been breached but, if they have acted in breach of their responsibilities as MPs. It is also a good time for the Speaker to re- examine the suitability of these members to sit on this important Parliamentary oversight committee.

MPs are bestowed with special privileges and many other perks because the voters of this country voted them into office. Among these is the Rs 50,000 monthly telephone allowance which, if put to good use, could benefit the public of this country, and not a chosen few.