His days in Parliament

By D.C. Ranatunga

Senior citizen Sam Wijesinha, who recently completed 90 years, is best remembered for his role as Secretary-General of Parliament.

His was a tenure that saw the bicameral legislature being transformed into a unicameral one with the abolition of the Senate in 1971, establishment of the National State Assembly (NSA) in 1972 following the promulgation of the Republican Constitution and reverting to Parliament with the 1978 Constitution.

Joining as Deputy to Ralph Deraniyagala, Clerk of the House of Representatives in late 1963, a year later Sam W. succeeded Ralph D. A change of designation saw him becoming Secretary to the NSA (1972) and six years later, Secretary-General of Parliament. His connections with Parliament did not end with his retirement in 1981. He was appointed Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman).

His term saw regular changes of governments. He related the more interesting episodes in such changes in articles he wrote and in talks he gave. His observations were those of a keen student of politics.

‘Systems of Government in Sri Lanka’

In an article titled ‘Systems of Government in Sri Lanka,’ he recalled the Trotskyists joining the Government in 1964 followed by some Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs leaving and the Government getting defeated in Parliament.

“After the election that followed, the UNP, led once again by Dudley Senanayake, formed a Government with support from some Tamil and other parties (including Philip Gunewardena, who continued to maintain his distance from his fellow Trotskyists). Senanayake’s attempt to introduce district councils, however, in accordance with his agreement with Chelvanayakam, was defeated, again because of hostility in his own party as well as from opposition parties.

“Amongst those from the UNP who campaigned against the proposal was Cyril Mathew, who had been a close associate of J.R. Jayewardene when he built up the UNP after its crashing defeat in 1956. At that time Jayewardene had used communal feelings to oppose Bandaranaike’s pact with Chelvanayakam, and it is noteworthy that he continued on close terms with Mathew, who was again a confidante when he once again rebuilt the UNP after its even more dramatic electoral defeat in 1970.”

In 1970 the SLFP came to power again with Sirimavo Bandaranaike as Prime Minister. In spite of the two-thirds majority, a Constituent Assembly was set up to change the constitution. The Dominion of Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka, with Governor-General William Gopallawa becoming the first President.

The 1972 Constitution

Sam W. discusses the 1972 Constitution: “In addition to getting rid of Article 29, a major feature of the new Constitution was the assertion that Parliament was supreme. Traditionally, as countries develop constitutionally, they introduce safeguards against absolute power.  One of these is maintaining a separation of powers, whereby the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary can act as checks upon each other.

“Thus even in a Parliamentary system, where the Cabinet in theory fully dependent on Parliament, and where in practice a majority in Parliament often simply supports Cabinet decisions, the independence of the Judiciary is safeguarded. The 1972 Constitution, however, specifically stated that judicial power shall be exercised by Parliament and by Courts responsible to Parliament.

“All this fitted in with the centralised statism that the Government professed, unfortunately at a time when it was being rejected elsewhere in the world as simply not working. Along with this went deliberate politicisation of the Public Service and even more concerted nationalisation of plantations and lands as well. Such a programme led to economic disaster and the government was stunningly defeated in 1977 election, with the UNP on its own winning well over a two-thirds majority.”

Executive president

Commenting that the presidential system consolidated power in the hands of one person, he points out that in addition, whereas other presidential systems as in America provide for checks and balances through keeping Parliament as a separate institution, the 1978 Constitution combines an executive presidency with aspects of the Parliamentary system.

“This, when added to some special features regarding control of Parliamentarians through the threat of dismissal, in effect, made Parliament a rubber stamp for the executive president. And to emphasise the authoritarian nature of his Government, Jayewardene used his two-thirds majority, together with a rigged referendum, to extend the term of his Parliament by a further six years.”

Lake House takeover

In a talk titled ‘The Changing Face of Parliament,’ Sam W. described one of his early experiences. It was the time when Mrs. Bandaranaike’s Coalition Government (with Dr. N.M. Perera as Finance Minister) was trying to nationalise Lake House.

A motion was brought up in the Senate. Once such a Bill is passed, it was sent down to the House of Representatives where, when asked by the Speaker when it would be debated, the Minister concerned would reply, “Tomorrow”.

Sam W. recalls what happened to the Lake House Takeover bill: “‘Tomorrow’ is understood to be one week hence. This time the Minister, Michael Siriwardena, said ‘Tomorrow,’ and someone placed a piece of paper in my hand which I did not look at, but passed to Ralph Deraniyagala who was the Clerk to the House at the time. It was a note from J.R. Jayewardene, sent through Lakshman Rajapakse to say the Second Reading should be six months hence. The Speaker was given this, and he was probably expecting something of the sort – it was Hugh Fernando, who subsequently joined the UNP – and said “tomorrow” was irregular and he accepted the next proposal that was before him, which was six months hence.

“This pricked the balloon, but the Government was not to be outdone. Since you cannot present the same bill in the same session twice, it prorogued that session and held another session. This session had the usual procedure of the Throne Speech. Mr. Dahanayake, who had been Prime Minister briefly after Mr. Bandaranaike’s assassination, proposed an amendment on behalf of the Opposition. And what happens with the Throne Speech is that, if it is not accepted in toto by the House, that is if there is an amendment and the amendment is accepted, it is considered a defeat for the Government.

“So on the appointed day, 3 December, there were rumours that several members would cross over from the SLFP to the UNP, and when voting time came member after member of the Government walked in through the main door, bowed to the chair and walked to the opposition side. About 15 members crossed over I think and at about 10:50 p.m. the Government was defeated by 74 votes to 73. 74 voted for the amendment and 73 voted against.

“Some of the nominated members, who should have supported the Government which had nominated them, did not vote with the Government but were polite and did not want to vote against, so they kept away, like Dr. Loyd Abeyratne. The British nominated member, Singleton Salmon, had the courage to vote against the Government and Thondaman walked in and said ‘I decline to vote’. So it was 74 to 73 on 3 December 1964, with a British delegation which was visiting watching all the fun.

“There were those who said that they were CIA people who had come to see that the Government was defeated. Even though they were British MPs, the CIA was blamed. That sort of allegation seems now a phenomenon in this country and we have got used to it. So there was an end to that Parliament and we got on to 1965.”