UNP punished for scooting from Parliament
Shortly after Ranil Wickremesinghe became prime minister on January 9, 2015, he issued an edict to his own party members. He said that strict action would be taken against those who did not attend Parliament. No excuses would be tolerated, he said. No plea that one had to attend a funeral or sign as a witness at a wedding would be acceptable. Parliamentary attendance was mandatory, no excuses spared. In the manner of his old school motto Learn or Depart, his new dictum was Attend or Depart.
Sadly, his best intentions to instil discipline and a sense of public responsibility into his party members seem to have fallen by the wayside after four years of being cottoned in comfort. And this Thursday, as a result of this ‘ No Action, Talk only’ policy, the votes on the budget expenditure for three UNP ministries were defeated by 24 votes for and 38 votes against. Not even the Prime Minister was in attendance: Serves the UNP right for this political cockup due to its sheer complacency and nonchalance, when it comes to discharging their duties.
As the Speaker announced a few months ago, it costs Rs 5 million a day to maintain Parliament. Plus it costs the nation’s taxpayers billion of bucks to keep its members amply provide for with their salaries, their duty- free vehicles which they sell overnight and make a cool killing of over Rs 30 million, not to forget a whole host of other perks and privileges including their mobile phone charges. They are only expected to attend parliament for eight days of the month and still shun this simple duty. If they happened to be in the private sector or even in any government department they would have been sacked a long long time ago.
So what happened on Thursday that led to UNP’s great embarrassment and tainted the birthday bash of its leader who turned seventy last Sunday and entered the House of the Aged? It was sheer complacency and laziness.
Shortly before the vote was to be taken up, the opposition MPs left the chamber. The UNP MPs took the cue. They thought the remaining 24 members would suffice to get the vote through in the absence of the opposition and left the chamber to pursue their own delights of interest and enjoyments at public expense. But the opposition had done a coup. They had remained in the building and entered the chamber to vote against the expenditure proposal, leaving the UNP red faced the following day when the nation knew that the party that governs them had fallen prey into so simple an opposition trap. .
It’s time the UNP MPs took their job and its concomitant duties more seriously. And not represent the lotus eaters of the land. Perhaps now at least, once bitten as they are, they will be twice shy to leave the chamber in a hurry.