SC holds that Clause in “Industrial Disputes (Special Provisions)” Bill inconsistent with Constitution-Speaker
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena yesterday announced that the Supreme Court held that Clause 2(1) of the Bill titled “Industrial Disputes (Special Provisions)” is inconsistent with Articles 3, 4(c), 111(H)(1)(b) and 111(M)(a) of the Constitution and may only be passed by the Special Majority required by Article 84(2) and approved by the people at a Referendum by virtue of the power of Article 83 of the Constitution.
He also announced that the Attorney-General has informed that the deeming provision will be removed from Clause 2(1) of the Bill by way of a committee stage amendment.
Clause 2(1) is so amended will not be inconsistent with the Constitution.
The announcement made by the Speaker is as follows, “I wish to announce to the Parliament that I have received the determination of the Supreme Court in respect of the Bill titled “Industrial Disputes (Special Provisions)” which was challenged in the Supreme Court in terms of Article 121(1) of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court makes the following determination in terms of the relevant provisions stipulated in the Constitution:—
(i) The Court has held that Clause 2(1) read with Schedule I of the Bill is inconsistent with Article 43(1) of the Constitution and may only be passed by the Special Majority required by Article 84(2) of the Constitution.
The Attorney-General has informed that Item 49 will be removed from the Schedule I of the Bill by way of a committee stage amendment and Schedule I is so amended will not be inconsistent with the Constitution.
(ii) The Court has further held that Clause 2(1) of the Bill is inconsistent with Articles 3, 4(c), 111(H)(1)(b) and 111(M)(a) of the Constitution and may only be passed by the Special Majority required by Article 84(2) and approved by the people at a Referendum by virtue of the power of Article 83 of the Constitution.
The Attorney-General has informed that the deeming provision will be removed from Clause 2(1) of the Bill by way of a committee stage amendment.
Clause 2(1) is so amended will not be inconsistent with the Constitution
(iii) The Court has also determined that by moving the amendments that have been specifically stated in the determination of the Supreme Court in respect of Clause 2, Clause 3, Schedule I and Long Title of the Bill will make the Bill consistent with the Constitution.
I order that the determination of the Supreme Court be printed in the Official Report of today’s proceedings of the House”.
Ranil commends Minister Sabry for undertaking daunting task
UNP National List Parliamentarian Ranil Wickremesinghe commended Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC for he had been so valiant to undertake a daunting task of reviving the economy of the country at such a critical juncture.
He also requested the Minister not to present the statistics of the loans and those related to economy since 1948 but after 1977 was enough as Minister Sabry presented those related statistics since 1948.
He made this observation joining the debate on the Ministerial Statement made by Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC in Parliament yesterday.
He said that it was the Private Sector which demanded a tax cut as soon as the present Government came into power.
“No politician wanted a tax cut as it was the Private Sector who wanted it,” MP Wickremesinghe said. “The Finance Minister should work on his own and make his own statements in the House.”
Further, MP Wickremesinghe further said that SriLankan Airlines should be made to halt the lending of 21 new aircraft till Parliament approves it. He added that the Opposition is demanding the President and the Prime Minister to step down from their offices. “However, let’s discuss and come to a decision as to what should be done, may be to establish a new government, or to hold an election, or to debate the No-Confidence Motions,” MP Wickremesinghe said. “However, all have to come to a firm decision on reviving the economy as the country is in a worse situation.”
Wrong statistics contributed to rising inflation- Dr. Bandula Gunawardena
The low intellectual contribution of Parliament, which is its prior objective, has contributed much to the current economic crisis in the country, said Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Parliamentarian Dr. Bandula Gunawardena in Parliament yesterday.
He made this observation joining the debate on the Ministerial Statement made by Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC in Parliament yesterday.
He said that in the past decades, the statistics for the Budget proposals were provided to us by Public Service officials. He said based on those statistics the politicians of different camps have been engaged in conducting debates. He added that however it seemed to him that a group of officials have maintained a monopoly of manipulating the politicians.
“There have been instances when the Budget proposals were formulated based on totally incorrect statistics,” MP Gunawardena said. “When Karu Jayasuriya was the Speaker, as the then Joint Opposition we complained of such flaws in the Budget proposals. He made an inquiry to this matter and I wrote a book on it.”
He said that these wrong statistics too have contributed to the rising inflation. He said that the documents and statistics procured to us by these officials were accepted 100 percent and passed by the members as they were. He said that during the UNP regime, there was an official named Paskaralingam. During our time P.B.Jayasundara was the official. He said hence the responsibility of the issue which was created collectively should not be put on one person.
The MP said that the control over the public finance is vested in Parliament and hence Parliament could have predicted this situation.
He also said that from 2007 to 2014, the Government had obtained only US$ 6 billion as loans. But during the period of 2015 to 2019, US$ 12.5 billion was obtained as loans by issuing Treasury Bonds. However, those loans obtained from 2015 to 2019 would mature by 2029. Hence, all should accept that whoever is in Government, they have to face this critical situation.
Protesters calling for change in political culture - SJB MP Sarath Fonseka
SJB Parliamentarian Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament yesterday that the public engaged in the wave of protests around the country are not only demanding for the President and Prime Minister to step down, but they are demanding for all corrupt politicians to step down.
“They are not only demanding for ‘Gota Go Home’ or ‘Maina Go Home’, but they are demanding that all corrupt politicians go home. This means that they are pointing to the majority of the 225 Parliamentarians in this House. They say that the bottomline should be for the entire political culture to change. Just by bringing in changes to the Constitution and forming Interim Governments, we cannot escape this. I have no faith on whether this Parliament is heading in the right direction simply by changing a few positions and making a few changes to the Parliament rules,” he said, adding that he wishes success to the protesters and is of the stand that the people should win this struggle.
He noted that the protests around the country are developing and growing stronger, adding that some Parliamentarians are trying to downplay it hoping that it will die down. “That is not happening and the protests are getting stronger and more powerful.”
Fonseka also said that calls for the abolishment of the Executive Presidency has come around again like a whirlwind. He noted that while reducing the powers of the President was good, it should not be done in a manner that would destabilize the country’s security. “No matter what powers are given to the Prime Minister, he has to bow down to the demands of his Government as he needs their support to hold on to power. Therefore, it is a question that needs to be raised whether the Prime Minister in such a situation can perform the tasks related to national security.”
He said that in many countries where a President does not Head the Government and a Prime Minister does, they do not follow the preferential system. “But, I believe that in our country the Preferential Voting System should remain to enable the representatives of the minor parties to get elected to Parliament.”
Therefore, he said that due consideration needs to be given on how power can be shifted to a Prime Minister while protecting National Security and winning the trust of the people, adding that national security should be the top priority in a country.
Referring to the removal of the President and Prime Minister, he said as the SJB was also not willing to work with the same persons in the Government they were not willing to join the Interim Government and change their policies. Hence, he said under such a situation two others from the same camp would have to be appointed which would be ‘putting the same old wine into new bottles’.
He also noted that the War Heroes are today facing a difficult period due to the protests and their orders by the authorities. However, he appealed to the Security Forces and Police personnel not to harass or harm the protesters, adding that they are all their brothers, sisters and parents. He said that the Government cannot sack all of them if they stand together. Therefore, he appealed to the security personnel not to harm the protesters even if they receive orders to do so.
‘JVP not prepared to join Unity Government’
JVP Leader Anura Dissanayake said in Parliament yesterday that if the President and the Prime Minister resign, they are ready to come to a temporary agreement in Parliament to resolve the issues.
He noted that his party is not prepared to join a Unity Government with the leaders who were instrumental in destroying the country.
Referring to a comment by the Finance Minister that the current situation was a blessing in disguise, Anura Kumara said that this was a deadly blessing in disguise, adding that he hopes and prays that such a deadly blessing would not befall this country even in disguise. He said that five key factors led to the current crisis, adding that the country has sunk into a deep abyss due to a lack of plans to increase the share of declining revenues, a lack of vision to bridge the import-export gap, the failure of a development path linked to people’s lives and the lack of any plan to build the country’s manufacturing industries.
Dissanayake also said that the country’s GDP is not distributed fairly and that the top 10% enjoys 38% of the national wealth while the bottom 10% enjoys only 1% of the national wealth.
Country paying for wrong fiscal policies of past 74 years - JVP Leader
The country is experiencing serious repercussions owing to the wrong fiscal management policies practised by the respective Governments during the last 74 years, said JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Parliament yesterday.
He made this observation joining the debate on the Ministerial Statement made by Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC in Parliament yesterday.
He said that the country has faced five challenges in the fiscal sector. He added that the first being the drop of the Inland Revenue to 11.5 percent in 1996 which was 23 percent. The respective Governments had no vision of solving these situations. The second was the deficit between the import and export expenditure. The other is the debt trap. That money taken as loans were not invested but used to build concrete buildings.
The fourth was the diminishing of the production economy in the country. So the economy was dependent on imports. The last is that the non division of the national income in a justifiable manner.
He said that none of the Governments failed to find solutions to these issues. He added that the people are so poor that they can’t afford to buy food nor milk powder for their children. He added that the rulers are so rich. These are not simple mistakes but they are deadly mistakes.
Shortage of goods has created a huge black-market in country- Siyambalapitiya
Kegalle District Parliamentarian Ranjith Siyambalapitiya requested the Speaker yesterday to allocate a seat for him in Parliament as he is no longer the Deputy Speaker.
He noted that yesterday he had received the letter from the President accepting his resignation.
He told Parliament yesterday that the issue facing the country has aggravated into a crisis where the Government has no dollars.
Siyambalapitiya also noted that the biggest mistake the Government made was delaying the seeking of IMF assistance.
He noted that in 2009 while he was a Deputy Minister, the IMF had responded to them much faster and questioned if the IMF had not given proper response to the Government this time as they had done on 16 previous occasions.
The former Deputy Speaker also said that the political instability in the country is another major contributory factor to the IMF’s reluctance to assist the country.
However, he commended the Government for appointing the new Central Bank Governor and the current Finance Minister. He said that by the time Sri Lanka received IMF assistance, it might be the end of the year. He also said that the Government had printed 3,000,000,000,000 currency notes and even an GCE Ordinary Level student is aware of what happens when such a large sum of money is printed.
Siyambalapitiya said that today the country is facing not inflation but hyper inflation and the country’s complex problems are approaching a crisis and if that happens there could be no solution.
“The truth must be told at a time like this and even the Minister of Finance acknowledged that the delay in obtaining the assistance of the IMF was a historic mistake.”
He also said that with the shortage of goods a huge black-market has been created where due to the scarcity, a gas cylinder is sold for as much as Rs.30,000. He warned that the country could face an even greater crisis in the next few months. Hence, he said that an Interim Government should be formed that could win the trust of the people, representing all political parties. However, he said that to achieve this, the country’s leadership must make sacrifices and called on them to take that decision for the sake of the country.
All MPs should support NCMs - Ganeshan
Tamil Progressive Alliance Leader Mano Ganesan said in Parliament yesterday that two No-Confidence Motions (NCMs) had been handed over to the Speaker and urged all Parliamentarians to support it. He noted that the public will eventually know how many of the 225 MPs are on their side and how many are not.
Referring to comments by the Government benches calling on the Opposition to show their majority and take over the Government, Ganesan noted that they would do so at the right time, but called on the Government to abolish the 20th Amendment and bring in the 21st Amendment and reinstate the 19th Amendment.
He called on the Government factions to do so as they are the ones who raised their hands and supported the 20th Amendment.
He also thanked Minister Ramesh Pathirana for taking steps to address the issues faced by the upcountry people recently.
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