Daily News Editorial

Minister Seneviratne vindicated

23rd October 2015

 

The other day in this column we commented about the observation made by SLFP stalwart Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne on the need for the party to get rid of elements in the UPFA (of which the SLFP is the main component), who are peddling the communal line. We said that the SLFP itself will have to undergo a major overhaul of its policies and outlook if it is to have any chance of winning over the minorities. We also commented on the damage done to the party by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who by his actions reversed all the good work done by Chandrika to re profile the SLFP as a party belonging to all communities. From the looks of things Minister Seneviratne has certainly been vindicated.

Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardena may not be a member of the SLFP. But by association he clearly identifies himself with that party (presently nobody talks about an MEP, of which Gunawardena is a member). Hence the conduct of any member of the UPFA reflects on the SLFP. Gunawardena on Tuesday , true to form , indulged in a bout of racism in Parliament. He made attempts to show that Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was a Tamil during the debate on the Finance Bills by referring to an old Hanzard that had wrongly printed the names of Minister Karunanayake and that of MP Mano Ganesan together.

Not stopping at that, Gunawardena also threatened to resign from Parliament if he could be proved wrong .However later in the day on spotting the howler he had apologized to the Chair (Karunanake was not present in Parliament when the incident took place) admitting that he had made a mistake earlier in the day. Matters came to a head the following day with Karunanayake adamant that he would not accept the apology since the remark was make during the Live telecast of the proceedings and when the apology was tendered the Live broadcast had ceased.

The House broke into an uproar over the issue, with Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella denouncing the member for peddling racism. But the telling indictment came from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who observed that the Opposition had a problem because of the word Ganesan and that there wouldn't have been any issue if the word was Gananatha instead.

This was a pointed reference to the racist bent of the likes of Bandula Gunawardena who would not let an opportunity pass to paint the UNP as a pro minority party and in this instance an important portfolio such as Finance being held by a member from the minority. It is this same innuendo that was evident when the self same Bandula Gunawardena and Udaya Gammanpila et al excoriated Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, where they were more intent on harping on his ethnicity and foreign citizenship than trying to unravel any irregularity in the Central Bank bond issue. Karunanayake for his part maintained that he was a Sinhala Catholic, married to a Malay, while his business partners and associates were mostly Tamil.

One has to ask as to why did Bandula Gunawardena see it fit to raise the ethnicity of the Finance Minister or any member of Parliament come to that, other than a pathological desire to portray the UNP as a minority friendly party that reserved the plum jobs for the minorities. It was also an attempt to show the party as being hostile to the Sinhalese. If not why did he not raise the question of ethnicity of former Ministerial colleague Nirupama Rajapaksa who in certain circles is still referred to as Nirupama Nadesan. Pray, why did not raise questions as to the true identity of erstwhile colleague Wimal Weerawansa whose real name is Wimalasiri Gamlath. Why is it that the member is only obsessed with names of Parliamentarians of the UNP?

This is the same individual who was adamant that an ordinary family of three could live on Rs. 2500 a month and also threw a challenge that should anyone prove that he had stolen even one rupee of public funds he would disembowel himself at Galle Face. This is also not the first time he had offered to quit. Hence it could be better for Minister Karunanayake to dismiss this as yet another antic of a politician who always likes to be in the public eye. But what would be of utmost concern to the public is the comment made by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya that each day of Parliament sittings cost the tax payer Rs. 4.6 million. Are the public then expecting their representatives to waste time in Parliament unraveling rival MPs' pedigrees and ethnic origins? When we wrote in this column about the pros and cons of permitting Live telecasts of Parliamentary proceedings we dwelt on the question of slander and if the Speaker had set guidelines in this regard. Tuesday's proceedings demonstrated that MPs may take this opportunity to vilify and defame rivals. When Gunawardena made his remark, proceedings were telecast Live and when he apologized the cameras were still. The damage had already been done. The Speaker should either rethink this whole exercise or take stern action against MPs who exploit the Live telecast to slander opponents.