Speakers of Sri Lanka: “Honourable” guardians of Parliament’s sovereignty

Season’s greetings to all readers! Let me begin the second part of this article on the speakers of Sri Lanka with a reference to former Speaker Asoka Ranwala. A source who is usually well-informed about matters concerning the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the National People’s Power (NPP) got in touch with me a few days ago. He said that ex-Speaker Ranwala had indeed acquired a doctoral degree from Japan.

According to this JVP/NPP “partisan” source, Asoka Ranwala has indeed acquired a PhD from a Japanese institution of higher learning and is therefore entitled to the prefix “Dr”. Apparently Ranwala, a longstanding activist of the JVP, had “escaped” from Sri Lanka when the Ranasinghe Premadasa regime had cracked down hard on the JVP in the 1989-90 period. Ranwala had made his way to Japan and resided there for several years, stated this source.

Ranwala had pursued further studies while being in Japan during those years and had obtained a doctoral degree, claimed this source. Due to some procedural difficulties, Ranwala had been unable to get accredited documentation to clearly establish his bona fides in this matter. The JVP hierarchy was convinced that Ranwala had a doctorate and was prepared to give him time to produce documentary proof of his PhD. 

But when the Opposition was preparing to present a no confidence motion in Parliament, the JVP leaders had felt it was better for Ranwala to resign from his post and then restore his tarnished image by procuring documentary proof of his qualifications. As such Asoka Ranwala is scheduled to go to Japan soon (he may have gone already) and take steps to get proof of his doctoral degree. “Asoka Ranwala will soon prove that he does indeed have a doctorate from Japan,” emphasised the source. I am inclined to treat this claim with more than a pinch of salt, but let us wait and see what happens.

As stated in the first part of this article published last week, both Asoka Ranwala and yesteryear speaker Anandatissa de Alwis have one thing in common. Both were first-time entrants to Parliament who served as speakers. Anandatissa de Alwis had entered the National State Assembly as Parliament was called then for the first time in July 1977 as MP for Kotte when he was elected speaker.

Being a former journalist himself, Anandatissa de Alwis was the darling of the media but it was during his period as Speaker that the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act was given new teeth. To demonstrate the power of the amended law, two senior editors of Lake House were summoned to the House over a mix up of a photo caption allegedly affecting then Foreign Minister A.C.S. Hameed. 

It was a trivial mix up of captions between pictures of an event concerning minister Hameed and a woman clad in a bikini. The two editors were grilled exhaustively and hauled over the coals by Government parliamentarians. An exasperated leader of the Opposition Appapillai Amirthalingam called for an end to the comic inquisition. The editors were let off with a fine. The talk among journalists then was that the captions had been deliberately mixed up to enable the staging of this parliamentary drama.

Bakeer Markar

Anandatissa de Alwis became a Cabinet minister in 1978. He was succeeded as Speaker by the deputy speaker Beruwela MP, Bakeer Markar in September 1978. It was during Bakeer Markar’s tenure that the no confidence motion against Opposition leader of the time, Appapillai Amirthalingam was moved by government MPs in 1981. Such a development was unheard of in parliamentary history. Government MPs don’t bring votes of no confidence against the leader of the Opposition.

Not only did Bakeer allow the motion but also failed to restrain the “criminal” remarks made by MPs against an absent Amirthalingam during the one-sided debate. The lone communist party MP Sarath Muttetuwegama walked out of Parliament after criticising Bakeer Markar for letting Government backbenchers run Parliament instead of asserting order in the House as Speaker. 

Bakeer Markar also failed to check the vituperatively racist outpourings of Cyril Mathew in Parliament on more than one occasion. In spite of appeasing hawkish elements in Government ranks and disgracing the office of Speaker in the process, Bakeer Markar was unable to continue as Speaker for his full term. 

E.L. Senanayake

After the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983, sections of the Buddhist clergy exerted pressure on J.R. that a Sinhala Buddhist, E.L. Senanayake of Kandy should replace Bakeer Markar the Muslim Speaker. This was acceded to and the old trooper E.L. served as speaker from September 1983 to December 1988. Bakeer was inducted into the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

M.H. Mohammed

The 1989 to 1994 Parliament saw the veteran Muslim leader from Colombo, M. Haniffa Mohamed function as Speaker. M.H. Mohamed’s crisis hour came during the impeachment motion moves against president Ranasinghe Premadasa by the trio comprising Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake and G.M. Premachandra. After being initially favourable to the rebels, Mohamed changed track swiftly and switched loyalties in favour of President Premadasa.

 K.B. Ratnayake

A fresh breeze blew in the musty corridors of power in 1994 when the 17-year-long UNP rule was terminated in 1994 by a People’s Alliance (PA) Government led by Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. In 1994 it was the turn of Rajarata’s K.B. Ratnayake to be Speaker. The former Anuradhapura MP was an old student of Hartley College, Point Pedro and spoke Tamil well. K.B. was perhaps the first Sinhala speaker to speak all three languages fluently in the House. Most of the Muslim speakers too were trilingual.

Anura Bandaranaike

The new millennium in 2000 witnessed what was then the rare spectacle of both Government and Opposition electing a consensus candidate as Speaker. That singular honour went to Chandrika Kumaratunga’s brother and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s old school chum Anura Bandaranaike. The PA Government had won the elections with a slender majority. Though Anura was then in the UNP and therefore in the Opposition, Chandrika and Ranil agreed to make Anura the Speaker, much against the wishes of party stalwarts on both sides.

A crisis arose when Kumaratunga prorogued Parliament after she lost her majority in parliament. Efforts were on to impeach the president and the then Chief Justice Sarath Silva. Sarath Silva tried to restrain the speaker from accepting the impeachment motion. Though initially hesitant, Anura Bandaranaike ruled later that Parliament was supreme. He said the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to issue interim orders restraining the Speaker in respect of the steps he is empowered to take under Standing Order 78 (a). 

As stated earlier, the ruling was prompted by the issue of a restraining order on Speaker Anura Bandaranaike by then Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva because there were moves for an impeachment motion against him (Silva) in Parliament. By then, no motion was placed on the Order Paper and only signatures were being collected. 

The restraining order was based on two fundamental rights petitions heard by a Supreme Court bench presided by then Chief Justice Silva himself. However, the motion did not materialise since the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga later dissolved Parliament.

Summarising his decision, Speaker Anura Bandaranaike declared that: 

1. The Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to issue the interim orders restraining the Speaker of Parliament in respect of the steps he is empowered to take under Standing Order 78(a).

2. The interim orders dated 6 June 2001 are not binding on the Speaker of Parliament. 

3. There are no legal obligations to comply with the said orders. Later Anura crossed over to the PA after Parliament was dissolved.

Joseph Michael Perera

December 2001 elections saw the UNP-led UNF win. Ranil Wickremesinghe became premier while Chandrika Kumaratunga remained executive president. Gampaha District MP, Joseph Michael Perera was elected Speaker. During his term of office Joseph Michael Perera made a controversial ruling where he emphasised that the President could not unilaterally prorogue Parliament.

The Speaker’s (Joseph Michael Perera) ruling reiterated the position that the executive power of the people is vested in the president and Article 70 of the Constitution confers on the president the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve parliament. However, Article 70 of the Constitution, Perera ruled cannot contravene Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution.

Parliament has been elected by the people in whom the sovereign power is vested under Article 3 of the Constitution. Under Article 4, this sovereignty is divided and exercised by the executive president, parliament and the judiciary. In addition, under Article 4, parliament also exercises the judicial power of the people through the courts and tribunals established by the constitution or created and established by law. The Speaker J.M. Perera pointed out in his order that an examination of the scheme of the Constitution shows that Article 70 appears in Chapter XI titled, “The legislative procedure and power.”

This makes it clear that this aspect of the president’s power is not an attributive of his executive power set out in article VII, but rather an administrative function vis-a-vis parliament. The exercise of the power to summon, dissolve and prorogue must therefore always be exercised in consultation with parliament and this function must be accepted at all times as being subordinate to the legislative power of the people conferred on parliament by Article 4 (a).

Joseph Michael Perera therefore determined that were it not so, it would lead to a situation where one arm of government is able to completely suppress another equal, but separate arm. Interestingly Joseph Michael Perera’s ruling features prominently in the 2018 situation where President Sirisena arbitrarily prorogued Parliament without consulting the Speaker.

W.J.M. Lokubandara

Political cohabitation came to an end in 2004 and Parliament was dissolved by the then president Kumaratunga. Elections were held and the SLFP led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) came to power. The communist party’s D.E.W. Gunasekera’s name was proposed as Speaker by the UPFA.

However, the Opposition nominated UNP’s Badulla District MP, W.J.M. Lokubandara instead of the incumbent Speaker Joseph Michael Perera. Though Perera could have been fielded as a speaker candidate, a change was necessitated due to political exigencies.

Joseph Michael Perera was a Catholic. Given the rising tide of anti-Christian feeling among sections of the Buddhist clergy and laity prevailing at that time, a man like Lokubandara with impeccable Sinhala Buddhist credentials was seen as more suitable. 

The phenomenon of nine Buddhist monk MPs of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) holding the power balance in a hung parliament saw the need for an avowed Sinhala Buddhist nationalist like Lokubandara as opposition candidate for Speaker. It was hoped that Lokubandara could win Jathika Hela Urumaya support or at least ensure their neutrality. The election results indicated that the stratagem had succeeded to a great extent.

W.J.M. Lokubandara became Speaker after a bitter and closely contested election. He won with one vote (110-109) in a tussle that went down as a shameful episode in the parliamentary history of this country. In a fracas occurring while Parliament was in session, a Buddhist monk MP was manhandled by a group of MP’s. The chief culprit in this instance was the infamous Mervyn Silva.

Chamal Rajapaksa

The 2010 Parliament saw Hambantota District MP Chamal Rajapaksa become Speaker. It was a time when the Rajapaksas of Ruhunu were riding high with Chamal’s younger brothers Mahinda, Basil and Gotabaya being the President, Cabinet Minister and Defence Secretary respectively.

It was during Chamal Rajapaksa’s tenure as that Parliament impeached Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. Chamal Rajapaksa completed his full term as Speaker from April 2010 to June 2015.

Karu Jayasuriya

Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated by Maithripala Sirisena in the presidential poll of Jan 2015. Parliamentary polls in August 2015 saw the UNF forming the Government Karu Jayasuriya became speaker in August 2015 as the latest in a long line of illustrious Speakers who served the legislatures, people and country for many decades. Fate seems to have decreed that Karu Jayasuriya should don the mantle of speaker when parliamentary democracy was facing danger. 

In an unimaginable political twist, President Maithripala Sirisena conspired with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to oust the then Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and seize power. Sirisena arbitrarily replaced Wickremesinghe as Prime minister with Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was Wickremesinghe who had the majority of MPs on his side. The Mahinda-Maithripala duo was engaged in cobbling together a parliamentary majority by enticing MPs through incentives.

Karu Jayasuriya in his capacity as Speaker provided courageous leadership to those resisting unconstitutional moves by the Maithripala-Mahinda duo to seize de facto control of Parliament followed by de-jure control. He even risked physical danger to himself in doing so. Karu refused to be cowed down by the “terror tactics” of pro-Mahinda MPs. 

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary history, a group of MPs tried to attack the speaker physically. Jayasuriya was compelled to enter and exit the chamber with Police escort. Not all the waters of Diyawanna Oya are sufficient to wash off the black mark imposed on 16 November 2018.

Karu Jayasuriya’s strength and courage to stand firm in this exercise in the face of violent hostility from the Maithripala-Mahinda forces was derived from his belief of being morally and legally correct. Karu Jayasuriya fought that political battle with the noble aim of safeguarding parliamentary democracy.

 His courageous defiance of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s MP’s in Parliament was a key element of that fight. It was the outrageously anti-democratic power grab – aided and abetted by Maithripala – of Mahinda Rajapaksa that impelled Karu to enter the fray and spearhead opposition to the illegal attempts. 

Karu Jayasuriya by his courageous defiance of Maithripala and Mahinda demonstrated that he was no pushover as envisaged by his political adversaries. Moreover, his brave conduct in those dark times resulted in posterity acknowledging Karu Jayasuriya as the most heroic Speaker in Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary history.

Karu Jayasuriya as speaker also presided over the Constitutional Assembly tasked with the duty of formulating a new Constitution. The Constitutional assembly succeeded in bringing out a very worthwhile interim report that was approved unanimously by all party representatives. However several parties changed their stances thereafter resulting in the Constitutional exercise reaching a dead end.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena

The 2020 elections saw Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna becoming speaker. He was the first SLPP MP to be elected as speaker. The Matara district MP who served two terms as Southern province chief minister had been first elected Hakmana MP on the UNP ticket. He was removed from office as MP by the then president J.R. Jayewardene for opposing the Indo-Lanka accord and violating party discipline.

Abeywardena served as speaker when history of a peculiar variety was made in Sri Lanka. The “Aragalaya” protests resulted in the fall of the SLPP Government. The SLPP president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled from Sri Lanka and went abroad. President Rajapaksa was met in Singapore by the Sri Lankan envoy Sashikala Premawardhane. Gotabaya t signed his letter of resignation in the presence of High Commissioner Sashikala Premawardhane. She e-mailed it immediately to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene in Colombo. 

However, some doubts regarding the authenticity of the e-mailed resignation letter were raised in Colombo. Therefore, High Commissioner Premawardhane despatched the original letter through a High Commission staffer, who personally delivered it to the Speaker in Sri Lanka. The letter was read out to Parliament by the Parliament Secretary-General. Thereafter the Speaker Abeywardena officially announced the resignation of President Rajapaksa at a news conference on 15 July 2022. 

The name of speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena was bandied about as a potential president in those crisis times. In fact some powerful western diplomats tacitly backed the speaker to take over the presidency. Abeywardena refused and Ranil Wickremesinghe became the eighth executive president of Sri Lanka.

Ranwala and Wickramaratne

Presidential and Parliamentary elections in September and November 2024 saw Anura Kumara Dissanayake being elected as President and the National People’s Power (NPP) PP winning 159 seats in Parliament. 

The NPP Gampaha district MP Ranwala Arachchige Asoka Sapumal Ranwala served as Sri Lanka’s Speaker from 21 November to 13 December 2024 for 22 days. On 17 December 2024, Idampitiyegedara Wanigasuriya Mudiyanselage Jagath Wickramaratne was elected as Speaker. The election was unanimous. Dr. Jagath Wickramarathe who was elected on the NPP ticket from Polonnaruwa district is a medical doctor.

This then is the story of the speakers of Sri Lanka from 1931 to 2024.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected].)