CERTAIN THINGS CANNOT BE DIVULGED TO THE PARLIAMENT SAYS MINISTER LOKUBANDARA DENYING PARLIAMENT’S SUPREMACY
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
July 15.10.35 AM:The United National Front government’s Leader of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara said that there were certain things that could not be divulged to the parliament.
Making the most controversial statement so far about the supremacy of Sri Lanka’s parliament Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Minister of Justice said , “There are things that could be told to the parliament and there are other things that could not be divulged to the parliament.”
What the government’s leading debater meant was that the Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s proposals on the interim government to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were something the government could not divulge to the parliament at all. The Prime Minister’s failure to divulge them to the parliament created pandemonium in the Sri Lankan legislature last week.
Lokubandara’s statement at least starts a new policy officially for the ruling United National Party, which had traditionally accepted that Parliament was supreme and every aspect of governance should be divulged to it for open democratic discussion.
Lokubandara made this statement commenting about the government’s new proposals for an interim government for the country’s Northern and Eastern Provinces.
The government has provided the proposals in response to the demand of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the formation of such a government with the rebel group’s dominance outside the constitution of Sri Lanka.
Both past Prime Ministers, the late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the late Duley Senanayaka divulged their proposals to the parliament when they put forward proposals for the decentralization of power. Both gentlemen, the latter from the presently ruling United National Party wanted the country and parliament to discuss the proposals widely before the acceptance or non-acceptance of them.
The supremacy of parliament, opposed to the Fascist form of government, has been accepted by Sri Lanka’s politicians as it descended from the evolution of the mother of all parliaments, the Westminster that emerged in the 13th century gradually taking over the powers from the feudal kings of England.
Lokubandara, the country’s Justice Minister and an attorney at law, though he never practiced it in the courts was expected to know the gravity of the statement he made, when he was interviewed by the web radio, Radio Lanka , under the program , Vimasuma, that discussed current events.
Sunil Handunnetti, the young JVP MP who was interviewed as his opposite in the program said Lokubandara’s statement reflected the same attitude he and his party exhibited when they made a secret pact with the Fascist terrorist group, the LTTE before the last general elections, that brought the present government into power. Both Lokubandara and the Prime minister denied there was a secret pact and did not divulge it to the people. Until the Prime Minister signed the secret Ceasefire Agreement with Prabhakaran it was not revealed to the Parliament. A new era of acting in secrecy setting aside the parliament had begun, he said.
Handunnetti said if the proposed one was called an Interim Administration, then Lokubandara should tell the country to what the interim administration was leading to. I f he was unable to tell that they might not be going to something interim but to a permanent one, the Eelam, the JVP member of parliament charged.
Handunnetti said Lokubandara had earlier promised that the ban on the LTTE would never be lifted . He had said there was no secret pact with the Tigers too. Both had been proved wrong. He said this government had shown to the public actually what they were not.
Handunnetti said Lokubandara and government would have been able to deceive just after the formation of the government, fresh from an election victory since people had high expectations. Now the situation was difficult. He said the government was weaker today and ministers were tendering resignations. Certain elements were contemplating on leaving the sinking ship. He vowed that the JVP even by joining hands with progressive patriotic elements inside the UNP would prevent Lokubandara, Wickremesinghe and Company presenting the whole country on a platter to the Fascist terrorists of the LTTE.
