‘PTL BENEFICIARY LIST’ STIRS THE HOUSE | Daily News

‘PTL BENEFICIARY LIST’ STIRS THE HOUSE

Secret vote in progress
Secret vote in progress

The widespread speculation of a list of 118 names who had allegedly accepted money from infamous Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. created ripples in Parliament this week as many Parliamentarians complained that it was a severe blow to their “good name and reputation”.

The more they agitated trying to clear their names from the Perpetual Treasuries quagmire, the more they stuck in it exposing how deep the wheeler-dealing has run in contemporary Sri Lankan politics.

While denying benefitting from PTL Beneficiary Owner Arjun Aloysius, the members of both sides pointed fingers at each other disclosing more ugly information only to reinforce what the public presumed for some time now.

Then again, some of those claims were not without distorted facts and fabricated stories designed to insult their political opponents.

Needless to say, Aloysius is not the only influential businessman having unholy nexus with political fraternity. The larger picture of this issue is a strong wake-up call to give serious thought on introducing campaign finance regulations. If investigated deep into the can of worms that has been opened, more interesting revelations may follow.

All MPs in hot water

As the speculations gathered steam and spread fast, the MPs of both sides started complaining the Speaker that they have been finding it difficult to go back to their villages and move with the people due to unfounded allegations.

Many MPs called on the Speaker to reveal the names if such a list exists as all 225 MPs were in hot water. The allegations however sparked from the revelations by one among themselves, namely MP Dayasiri Jayasekara, in Parliament the other day when he tried to downplay and generalize his act of receiving money from businessmen with clout for election campaigning.

The embers that were stirred soon became burning flames as MPs went on accusing their fellow MPs in rival groups, sometimes even by naming them, of involving in shadowy wheeler-dealing. Their heated exchange of words in Parliament at times resounded like “thief shouting thief”. Not stopping at that, JO MP Ranjith de Soysa stoop to discredit a few respected civil society members by linking them to the controversial list.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, being the custodian of all 225 MPs, was seen worried over the serious allegations against the MPs and the impact they have on the dignity of the House. He was keen on receiving the full report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) that looked into the questionable Central Bank Treasury Bonds issuance to deal with the matter head on.

Missing annexures

The Speaker, however, strongly believed that a ‘list of MPs who obtained money from Aloysius’ was not existing and he told Parliament that it was a canard like “wanda pethi (sterilization pills) in Ampara”. “All the responsible authorities confirmed me that there is no such list,” he added. He told the journalists that the report only contained a list of MPs who have had telephone conversations with Aloysius.

The PCoI report, which is more familiarly known as the ‘bond report’, was handed over to the Speaker along with the PRECIFAC final report on January 17. However, the Presidential Secretariat had then held back the many annexes of the report running to several volumes. Following the fresh requests by the Speaker, the Secretary to the President sent 11 more pages from C350-C360 of the report to Parliament on Tuesday.

The Speaker was not happy that he was once again given only a part of the requested documents. He said he was not ready to table parts of the report in the House. On behalf of the Government, Leader of the House and Minister Lakshman Kiriella too renewed the calls for the rest of the pages from C1-C349 of the report.

Watchdog committees get down to work

Three COPE MPs, namely Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Jayantha Samaraweera and Susantha Punchinilame, in what one might understand as an attempt to claim moral high grounds, submitted affidavits in Parliament stating that they have had no contacts with Aloysius nor had received money from him.

As they invited the other COPE MPs to follow suit, the Speaker plainly said that it was an unnecessary act. UNP MP Ajith P. Perera was also quick to point out that both Aluthgamage and Samaraweera have been indicted by court for involvement in fraud and misappropriation of public property. The Speaker could be right when he told the House recently that watchdog committees would have hardly any member left if all MPs with allegations were to be removed.

In the meantime, Parliamentary watchdog committees COPE and COPA had their first meetings this week setting in motion their work for the new session. They unanimously agreed to continue with JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti and Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna at the helm of COPE and COPA respectively. MP Handunnetti earned much admiration from all corners for his intrepid and tireless work as COPE Chairman. With his outstanding work at the committee alone he proved that Matara voters were wrong in defeating him at the last Parliamentary Elections.

Sampanthan backs SLFP nomination

The election of Deputy Speaker led to an interesting turn of events in Parliament this week. The voting pattern of the JO, the Opposition Leader’s unexpected speech in favour of the SLFP, the TNA’s objection to appointing a fellow Jaffna Tamil MP from the UPFA and finally the UNP clinching the Deputy Speaker post with a comfortable majority were salient features during the first secret vote in the House after 14 years.

UNP Monaragala District MP Ananda Kumarasiri succeeded the Deputy Speaker post vacated by MP Thilanga Sumathipala obtaining 44 more votes than SLFP contender Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle. MP Kumarasiri was first elected to Parliament in 1986 and has a cumulative legislative service of about nine years.

Had Fernandopulle succeeded she would have been the second female Deputy Speaker, the first being Adeline Molamure who was appointed Deputy President of the Senate in 1955 from the UNP. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reminded this to the House as a reply to the complaints of blocking a female candidate from becoming Deputy Speaker.

When the Speaker announced that a secret vote would be taken as two names were proposed, old-timer R. Sampanthan urged the House to unanimously agree on the SLFP nomination for the Deputy Speaker post in keeping with the healthy tradition that has been prevailed.

The Prime Minister did not agree with the Opposition Leader and was firm that the Deputy Speaker post has to be retained within the Government ranks. He revealed that it was the TNA which objected to the initial proposal by the Government to appoint SLFP MP Angajan Ramanathan, who is from Jaffna, as Deputy Speaker.

“We bowed to your wishes in withdrawing the first candidate. Not that we went and told the SLFP that we don’t want him. There was no other SLFP backbench MP remaining in the Government and none of the SLFP Deputy Ministers was willing to resign to take it over. Therefore we had no option but to propose a backbencher from the UNP,” the PM reasoned.

Deep fissures in JO camp

A total of 73 MPs were absent for the vote including TNA and JVP MPs who left the main chamber as the quorum bell went off. Interestingly, despite the initial calls by JO Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardena to unreservedly support Dr. Fernandopulle, as much as 29 MPs in the JO and SLFP Group of 16 did not turn up for the vote. They were conspicuous in their absence because some of them even spoke in the House prior to taking up the vote.

The fissures in the JO group were apparent as some JO MPs dodged the vote and remained at the Parliament canteen for the entire period of secret vote which lasted for about one hour and 45 minutes. For the utter disappointment of the JO, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Chamal and son Namal were all absent at the time of voting though they were present in the House earlier on the day.

MPs Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and T B Ekanayake in the ‘SLFP Group of 16’ also chose to be absent regardless that Dr. Fernandopulle is a member of their own group.

As per the Parliament records, the last secret vote was taken in April 2004 to elect the Speaker when the names of both W J M Lokubandara and D E W Gunesekara were proposed. “The sittings went on till around 11 pm that day and three rounds of vote had to be conducted as it was a tie at the previous two occasions. At the final round Lokubandara was elected with a razor-thin margin of one vote,” long-serving senior Parliamentary Official Janakantha De Silva recollected.

 


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