By Saman Indrajith

The decision to have deferred telecasts of the proceedings of parliamentary committees including the COPE and the COPA was not aimed at protecting ‘tie-coat thieves of Colombo 07’, the Chief Government Whip told Parliament yesterday.

 Chief Government Whip Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said categorizing the thieves of the former government (2015-2019) into two groups––the ‘tie-coat’ and ‘Colombo 07’ was a task for the SJB.

 “We have nothing to do with these thieves. Our objective is to expose those who ruined this country. The SJB needs to highlight only one set of thieves.”

Fernando said so in response to some questions raised by Opposition MPs with regard to a decision to change the live telecast of committee sessions to delayed transmission.

 SJB Colombo District MP S.M. Marikkar said that the government had decided to have deferred telecasts of the committee proceedings. “The COPE and other committees are going to investigate the malpractices of the previous government during the

period of 2015 to 2019. Various corrupt deals will be exposed and their thieves would be identified. We have no problem with that. The government is going for a delayed transmission to edit the content so that it could spare the names of tie-coat thieves from Colombo 07 in the former government. That is not done.”

 Assistant Government Whip Jagath Pushpakumara said MP Marikkar was misleading the House. “The idea of the delayed transmission was discussed at the first COPE meeting. The new chairman asked members to express their opinions.  Some Opposition members are asking for the post of Chairman of COPE and COPA. They say that the COPE chairmanship was given to the Opposition in the past. That is wrong. It was given to Sunil Handunnetti of JVP, which was an appendage of the yahapalana government. The JVP was there to protect the interests of the then government. So, the COPE chairmanship was in fact retained by that government.

Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella:

The decision to telecast was approved by parliament. I myself as the Leader of the House presented the motion to the effect in this House.

Kurunegala District SJB MP Nalin Bandara:

I am a member of the COPE. The government is trying the stop the live telecast. The decision should come from the COPE Chairman. It is not a decision that could be made by others.

Chief Government Whip Minister Fernando:

That decision was discussed at the Business Committee where MP Kiriella too was present. MP Bandara was not a member of that committee so he does not know. The decision was made at the party leaders’ meeting. It has to be implemented now.

Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa:

The Opposition is putting on a show wasting public funds. This is not an issue at all. The decision has been made at the party leaders’ meeting. After that, the Opposition MPs come here and shout to attract media attention. This is a waste of the House time and public funds.

SLPP MP Jayantha Ketagoda:

MP Kiriella says that their government made that decision so that we should continue it. That cannot be. We did not come here to implement your decisions. We are a new government and we do things the way we want.

 Chief Government Whip Minister Fernando said the previous government had introduced the live telecast as party of its political witch-hunt.  The previous government used this live transmission to cast some people in a poor light. “We can also use this live telecast as a political means to an end. But there is something called moral values. What do most TV channels do using these telecasts? They take specific cuts from this telecast and use them for political campaigns. (Referring to MP Marikkar) Yes, channels that represent people like you. We are not letting any public officials lose their self-respect. This government is not putting on media shows. Your government did that. People overwhelmingly rejected what your government did. That is why they gave us a two-thirds majority. We are not doing what your government did.