By Saman Indrajith

The content of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s policy statement to Parliament last week signifies the beginning of a Sri Lanka’s journey towards a dictatorship. SJB National List MP Harin Fernando told Parliament on Friday.

Participating in the debate on the Presidential policy statement, MP Fernando said that the statement contained matters which were frightening. “When I read the headlines in the newspapers which said one country one law, my knees started to tremble in fear. He (the President) said that he would bring one law for all people, but I don’t want that to be the Rajapaksa law. If the law being promised is here the same that imprisoned former CID Director Shani Abeysekera, then I don’t want that law.”

Fernando warned that the course of action proposed by the President would lead the country to a dictatorship.

“I saw the Facebook page of the former President Maithripala Sirisena today. There is a post in which he says that after accomplishing a task with great effort it is now time to quietly watch the process in motion. But we can’t do that; we cannot be quiet and watch what this government is doing because people have given them two third majority with the hope of getting what they had been promised. We are not going to be silent when the government is doing otherwise.”

Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella said that government had shown an indecent haste to abolish the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

He said that almost all seniors sitting in the government ranks now had voted in favour of the 19th Amendment in 2015.

“We introduced the 19A to reduce the powers of the executive President and at the time the UNP had only 45 seats even though in government but we got the requisite two-thirds majority in the House to pass this Amendment.”

Kiriella said that the government had not disclosed whether it was planning to retain the independent commissions. “Tell the country how 19 A is going to be amended. Is it being done for the benefit of the people or to serve some other secret agenda?”

Kiriella said that the ‘one country, one law’ concept was not realistic. “There are many customary laws in this country. There are the Kandyan laws, the Thesawalami law, the Muslim laws etc. It is difficult to change these laws which are hundreds of years old,” he said.

Leader of the House Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that 19A had left the country in a mess and had to be changed.

“The President was elected in November last year but he could not dissolve Parliament because of 19A. He had to wait for the end of four and a half years of its term to be completed. Because of this Parliament was dissolved in March and elections had to be postponed twice due to COVID-19. This amendment has tied the President’s hands and left the country in a mess.”