Wednesday, 24 July 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The usually sedate and engaged audience turned somewhat unruly last Wednesday, when some members of the audience used UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s presence at the forum to work in thinly-veiled insults about the weakness of the Opposition under his leadership.
Eran Wickremaratne, who was moderating, found himself fielding incessant questions not about a future constitution, but about the impotence of the UNP under Wickremesinghe’s leadership.
“There has been a critique here of judgments by Chief Justice Sarath Silva. Why then didn’t the UNP impeach him when they had the chance, before he made some of the most detrimental judgments?” one audience member posed.
Wickremesinghe responded that the first time they tabled an impeachment motion against Silva, President Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament. The second time, he said under the UNP-CBK cohabitation, it was deemed futile to attempt to impeach CJ Silva. “The Parliament could have impeached him, but the President might have refused to remove him. Then we would have been faced with a stalemate,” he explained.
Relentlessly questioned on why the UNP did not do more as an Opposition to stop the unlawful impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in January this year, Wickremesinghe said they had fought to the bitter end to prevent her sacking.
“Shirani Bandaranayake was never impeached. A resolution for her impeachment was never passed in Parliament. What was passed was a resolution to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the charges – for the second time,” Wickremesinghe quipped, referring to a glitch in the Parliament’s agenda for the day, which technically ensured a resolution of impeachment was never passed by the Sri Lankan Parliament against Bandaranayake.
When the questions continued about Wickremesinghe’s weak leadership, Wickremaratne fielded the initial onslaught. Using the metaphor from the corporate world, the moderator said that while there could be differences of opinion within a party, constant open criticism of the UNP and its leadership was weakening the UNP brand.
“The Judiciary has also failed to uphold the independence of the Legislature,” he charged, referring to the crossover decision by CJ Silva and court injunctions against the UNP being allowed to take tough disciplinary action against its errant membership. When the anti-Wickremesinghe questioning line did not cease, the UNP Leader reacted to the situation, saying he had attended the forum to talk about the Constitution and not about the state of the Opposition.
One audience member disgusted by the turn of events said in repeatedly heckling Wickremesinghe, some sections of the audience had responded mindlessly to the herd instinct to turn on the beleaguered Opposition Leader. Other participants at Wednesday’s forum believed Wickremesinghe had been disappointing with his repeated stonewalling of his detractors.
“Ranil has the intelligence with which to answer his critics. Why doesn’t he take them on? Say his piece? If Eran Wickremaratne can reply questions about a weak Opposition, why can’t his Leader?” another member of the audience said after the session concluded.
