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Friday, 12 August 2016 00:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Dharisha Bastians
The National Unity Government passed landmark legislation to help thousands of families trace missing loved ones after skillfully outmanoeuvring the pro-Rajapaksa Joint Opposition, which launched a sustained effort to obstruct proceedings and prevent the bill’s passage in Parliament yesterday.
The Office of Missing Persons Bill was passed with amendments and without a vote after a debate that lasted less than an hour amidst a constant stream of disruptions by Joint Opposition MPs.
As the Joint Opposition screamed and railed against the establishment of the OMP in the Well of the House, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya put the bill to Parliament. Supported by the Coalition Government and the two recognised opposition parties, the TNA and the JVP, the OMP legislation was enacted into law.
“Today is a historic day. It is a day when we take the very first step towards righting the wrongs of 68 years,” said Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who shepherded the legislation through Parliament, amid howls of protest by the Joint Opposition that denounced him as a traitor to the nation.
History would judge the true traitors, the Foreign Minister said during a press conference convened after the bill was enacted into law.
The Office of Missing Persons to be incorporated by an Act of Parliament as a permanent independent body with wide-ranging powers to investigate disappearances and trace missing persons is the first mechanism of a four-pillared structure for truth-seeking and justice in post-war Sri Lanka.
Amid deafening hooting and jeers from members of the Joint Opposition who stood menacingly close to him, Minister Samaraweera moved the second reading of the OMP bill, screaming himself hoarse as he accused the Joint Opposition group of sowing racial hatred and sabotaging the country’s fragile reconciliation process. Recognising the danger of a scuffle, UNP Ministers and MPs flanked Samaraweera creating a barrier between him and the Joint Opposition MPs, allowing him to continue speaking.
The OMP bill would herald a new era of peace and reconciliation for a longsuffering country, the Foreign Minister said, in an emotional speech amidst disruptions. “60 years after independence Mr. Speaker, two insurrections and a 26-year-old war later, Sri Lanka is now ready to commence the healing process of our wounded and fractured nation, coming to terms with the tragedies of our past...to pave the way for the future,” the Foreign Minister told a House in tumult.
“This Government of the SLFP and the UNP will never allow the likes of you to drive a wedge between our communities again,” Samaraweera raged against the Joint Opposition MPs surrounding him as he presented the bill. “Where were all of you when Mahinda Rajapaksa was plundering this country for 10 years and using soldiers to wipe the sweat from his brow?
There were ominous signs when members of the ‘Joint Opposition’ UPFA faction entered the chamber of Parliament last morning, sporting black armbands and neck-scarves and accusing the Government of seeking to pass legislation that would betray the country’s armed forces.
When the Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella moved the debate on the OMP Bill, Joint Opposition Convenor Dinesh Gunewardane insisted on a two-day debate, followed by a vote to be taken in the third week of August. Gunewardane said the OMP was a serious piece of legislation to conduct a “witch-hunt of the country’s war heroes” and should not be rushed through Parliament.
Sittings suspended
When Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ruled that the vote on the OMP bill could not be postponed since party leaders had agreed on Wednesday to vote on Friday, about 30 incensed MPs of the Joint Opposition stormed the well of the House and advanced shouting towards the Speaker. Unable to proceed with business, the Speaker suspended sittings for 45 minutes.
When Parliament reconvened at 1.30 p.m., the Speaker announced that the party leaders had agreed to debate the OMP bill well into the night on Thursday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also agreed to push the vote on the OMP bill back until 2.00 p.m. on Friday. With all parties in Parliament agreeable to this proposal except the Joint Opposition, Speaker Jayasuriya asked the Government to proceed with the debate.
Pandemonium reigned as members of the Joint Opposition led by former disappearances activist Vasudeva Nanayakkara re-entered the well of the Chamber where they would remain until proceedings concluded about an hour later. At least four sergeants took up position to guard the Mace, as the group advanced towards the Speaker’s podium once more.
The group, which was fighting a proxy battle on behalf of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, refused to heed the Speaker’s orders to return to their seats. Unruly scenes followed, with Nanayakkara and Pavithra Wanniarachchi leading chants of ‘traitor’ and ‘red elephants’ – slurs against the Government and the JVP.
Meanwhile, the Speaker continued to recognise MPs scheduled to make speeches during the debate. Occasionally, the Joint Opposition even launched into song to maintain the confusion and chaos.
TNA Jaffna District Legislator M.A. Sumanthiran congratulated the Government for what he called a “first baby step” in the process of reconciliation.
“It is creditable that the Government composed of two major parties in this country have taken this responsible step towards reconciliation,” he noted.
Sumanthiran pointed out the irony of Nanayakkara opposing the OMP legislation yesterday, when he had fought alongside Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 1990s on behalf of the families of the disappeared in the South. For years Nanayakkara had "masqueraded as a leftist" and a person who surpassed ethnic boundaries as he fought on behalf of disappeared Sinhala youth, the TNA MP said.
“It is unfortunate that Vasudeva Nanayakkara leads this chant as I make this speech, unashamedly calling himself a human rights activist. Today he has demonstrated that he only cares about the human rights of Sinhala youth. That is the depth to which he has fallen,” the TNA MP asserted.
Also recognised by the Chair was JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake, who noted in a poignant speech that the JVP understood the grief of families of the missing, perhaps even more than the TNA MPs did. “Members of our party are on these lists of disappeared people. Rohan Wijeweera’s death was a disappearance. We understand that justice is necessary,” he said.
‘Justice for all’
Ratnayake explained that a permanent institution to look into hundreds of thousands of disappearances from 1971-2009 was essential and said the JVP strongly backed the OMP legislation. “There are soldiers, civilians and LTTE cadres in the lists of disappeared in this country. The JVP stands for justice for all those victims,” the JVP MP said.
After the JVP MP concluded his speech, the Speaker offered to grant time to the Joint Opposition to say their piece, on the condition that they leave the well of the House and return to their seats. National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa, sensing a Government strategy in the offing and realising that the opportunity for the pro-Rajapaksa faction to prolong the debate and record its opposition to the bill was slipping away, returned to his seat and tried to raise a Point of Order.
Speaker Jayasuriya stood his ground, refusing to allow the Joint Opposition to speak until they resumed their seats. Joint Opposition MP Bandula Gunewardane also tried to make his colleagues return to their seats, but to no avail. The demonstration had taken on a life of its own. The debate on legislation deemed treacherous and dangerous by the Joint Opposition ultimately ended without the participation of the pro-Rajapaksa faction that had been explicitly mobilised to delay the enactment of the OMP Act.
The Government made a decision yesterday as the controversy began in Parliament that it would not allow a group of 25 MPs loyal to the former President to hold the OMP legislation to ransom, an authoritative Government source told Daily FT. The highly placed source told Daily FT that with the TNA and the JVP supporting the legislation, and broad support for the OMP within the SLFP-UNP coalition the simple majority required to pass the bill had never been in question. The Government parliamentary group only needed a strategy to counter the Joint Opposition's delaying tactics, the source said.
Bhavani Fonseka, attorney at law and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, told Daily FT following the passage of the historic Office of Missing Persons legislation that the Office would provide permanency in the search for truth and justice for families of the disappeared.
“It was heartening to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who has been a disappearance activist for decades, so strongly championing the legislation to set up a permanent office to trace and investigate disappearances in Sri Lanka,” Fonseka said.
She added however that the political events leading up to yesterday’s debate and the controversial parliamentary session itself demonstrated the immense challenges facing the country as it pushes forward on reconciliation and reckoning with a difficult past.
