Johnston on why yahapalana govt. did not have JO members prosecuted

by Saman Indrajith

The yahapalana government had tried to prosecute the then Opposition MPs belonging to the Joint Opposition for a fracas in the Chamber of Parliament, but got cold feet on finding that CCTV footage records proved the partiality of former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said yesterday.

Making a statement, in Parliament, following the announcement by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that a committee comprising government and Opposition MPs would be appointed to investigate the incidents of violence in Parliament on Friday and Saturday, the Chief Government Whip said: “Time was when MPs came to the Chamber armed with knives to attack us. During an incident that went out of the control of former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, MPs resorted to fisticuffs. Some MPs threw chilli powder, while some hurled chairs. Following that incident the yahapalana government and its speaker Karu Jayasuriya tried to prosecute the Opposition MPs. They lodged complaints at the Colombo Crime Division and the Rajagiriya police station. They boasted that action would be taken against us under the criminal law. Somehow the investigation was stopped. Later, when the CCTV footage was inspected it was found that the Speaker had summoned outsiders to the Chamber. Among those outsiders was a secretary of Karu Jayasuriya, who later decided to stop the investigation seeing that he would be in trouble if the probe continued,” the Chief Government Whip said.

“It is obvious that with regard to the Friday incident, the SJB MPs are trying to cover the wrong doing of their MP. Today they state that there is no security for the opposition MPs. JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke in this House today. TNA MPs too do not complain of such insecurity. That proves the SJB is propagating a lie.

“MP Manusha Nanayakkara rushed to the Chair on Friday addressing the Speaker by the name of an animal. We stood up for the protection of the Speaker, who always upheld democracy in this House. The speaker allows all opposition MPs to raise points of order to hinder the speeches of government MPs. There was no need to continue the session after five in the evening if those opposition MPs had not been allowed to waste the time by raising points of order unnecessarily. Only the minister who is supposed to deliver the reply speech is entitled to ask for additional time, not the opposition MPs. MP Nanayakkara had no right to ask for additional time and thereafter tried to attack the Speaker. There are security personnel assigned to the Speaker but they cannot come to the Chamber that was why we rushed to protect the speaker.

“The opposition’s so-called boycott is a ruse. Today the debate is on the expenditure heads of the Housing Ministry. That ministry was under Sajith Premadasa during the yahapalana time. If the debate proceeded as planned all his corruptions would have come to the surface. Therefore the opposition leader made use of this issue to boycott the debate so that his wrongdoings could be kept under the carpet”.