By Saman Indrajith

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran told Parliament on Thursday that when the previous government attempted to repeal the PTA, MPs who now represented the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), fully supported its repeal.

“All that they objected to was the Act or the Bill that was supposed to replace the PTA, which was called the Counter Terrorism Bill, had certain other draconian provisions which could have been used against trade unions and other organizations because there was a new provision that was brought in by which organisations can be proscribed. I agreed with them at that point in time, so we were all in agreement that the Prevention of Terrorism Act ought to be repealed. The draconian provisions in the Prevention of Terrorism Act has no place in a civilized society,” he said.

Now the same MPs had changed their tune and were accusing others of continuing their attempt to repeal the PTA, the TNA MP said.

SLPP MP Shehan Semasinghe raising a question asked: “The Act which you are referring to was gazette on 17 September 2018. Am I right? The Counter Terrorism Act. At that time the government which was ruling the country also supported, so why didn’t you go ahead with it? If you say that you had consent from our side also, why didn’t you go ahead with that?”

MP Sumanthiran: “I am thankful to the Hon. Minister for raising that question. This is the question a lot of people are asking me in the public realm as well, and you have given me an opportunity to answer that. We also found various negative features in that Bill. And during the sittings of parliamentary committee, particularly, the committee on legal reforms, we corrected those provisions. There were still some more objectionable sections even for us, and the Foreign Minister at that time, Tilak Marapana, gave an assurance that at committee stage those also would be corrected. But that was, as you rightly said, in 2018 September. In October, your party attempted a constitutional coup. There was instability right through November and December. And after that there was no possibility of going through that Act and then the Easter bombing happened.”

The TNA MP said that after the Easter Sunday bombings people called for a strong leader and strong pieces of legislation against terrorism.