Saturday 10th August, 2024

The law caught up with SJB MPs Manusha Nanayakkara and Harin Fernando yesterday. The Supreme Court (SC) ruled that their expulsion from the SJB was lawful. They have lost their parliamentary seats and ministerial posts, as a result. They sought to put on a bold face, but they were visibly worried. Their political masters’ despicable efforts to intimidate the judiciary have been in vain.

The historic SC ruling has come amidst a controversy over President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s defiance of an apex court order that IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon be suspended and an acting IGP appointed. The country will descend into lawlessness if government politicians are allowed to defy judicial decisions with impunity.

The predicament of Nanayakkara and Fernando should serve as a warning to all turncoats who cherish the delusion that they can remain above the law by siding with the President and receiving Cabinet posts. The MPs who cross over to governments in return for financial benefits and/or ministerial posts have aggravated public disillusionment with the legislature tremendously.

Successive governments have come under pressure to introduce anti-crossover laws, but to no avail, and the MPs of easy virtue continue to go places, and only a few of them lose their seats. There is a school of thought that argues against a blanket ban on crossovers, suggesting that the MPs who break ranks with their parties on matters of conscience be allowed to remain independent.

This suggestion can be considered sensible because governments in this country tend to resort to undemocratic and even anti-national measures to further their own interests, and the MPs who are opposed to them should have the freedom to register their protest and vote with their feet, if necessary, without losing their parliamentary seats.

There are many dissident MPs on both sides of the House, and most of them would have faced the same fate as Nanayakkara and Fernando if the parties which fielded them at the last general election had resorted to legal action, seeking their expulsion. The SLPP rebels are lucky that the incumbent government lacked courage and strength to go all out to hound them out.

Now they need not worry because Parliament will be dissolved immediately after the upcoming presidential election; there is hardly any time for their estranged bosses to take legal action against them.

It has now become clear that Nanayakkara and Fernando served as Cabinet ministers unlawfully for two years at the expense of the public, who had to pay through the nose to maintain them. There have been several other similar instances where the expulsions of ministers and MPs were declared lawful by the judiciary years after their appointments to the Cabinet.

This problem has gone unaddressed, and the time has come for action to be taken to prevent disqualified individuals from holding political office, drawing salaries and enjoying perks for extended periods while cases against their election or appointment are pending.

The existing laws should be amended or new ones introduced for court cases regarding the eligibility of the MPs, Provincial Council members and local councillors to hold office, to be concluded expeditiously.