CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Farcical Select Committees – Parliamentarians dirty linen will always be hidden from the Public

Shenali Waduge

We have been informed that another of the infamous Select Committees has been appointed to look into deals with the LTTE going as far back as 1989.

A very interesting feature of these Select Committees is not only that they compromise Parliamentarians representing all the political parties in Parliament but that each of them are likely to have been party to the allegations that are to be investigated. Even the public cannot place which Member of Parliament had been with which party at any given time because of the crossovers which have become part and parcel of Sri Lanka’s democratic system. With such a cocktail of political parties in Parliament it becomes a farcical venture to hand them the accountability to find the culprit or culprits to any of the allegations being investigated.

Having said that the present select committee tasked to investigate deals with the LTTE – & probe to go as far back as 1989 indirectly insinuates the then leaders of the various Governments that have ruled Sri Lanka to date. Judging by the moral records of most of the Parliamentarians through Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary history we can safely deduce that these probes are very likely to end in stalemate. It is like asking a thief to point out another thief.

The furor for a select committee probe has been based on the allegations of Mangala Samaraweera & Sripathi Sooriarachchie who claim that the LTTE was paid to bring Mahinda into the Presidential throne. If the President Mahinda is guilty of striking a deal with the LTTE then Mangala Samaraweera is also guilty of having being instrumental in setting the grounds for such a deal – he was after all very much part of the presidential campaign having defected from the arms of the outgoing President Kumaratunga. Why is it that Mangala Samaraweera‘s moral consciousness surfaces only when he has been denied privileges & portfolios – was he not holding the most number of portfolios in the Mahinda R Government & wasting away the State’s wealth for refurbishments & foreign trips with the very knowledge that the LTTE helped bring the President to power? Why the crocodile tears now?

While Parliamentarians will continue to amuse the public with their Parliamentary theatricals what remains true to reason is that the public will continue to pay for their own mistakes of voting them into power as their representatives in Parliament. So long as personal gains, parampara allegiance & blind faith triggers the voting system of Sri Lanka there is likely to be more comedy of errors in Sri Lanka for generations to come. Despite the failure of the Executive & the Legislative system there still remains some saving grace in the country’s Judiciary – perhaps they should take over these investigations?

What remains to be said is that so long as the people are at fault for voting the parliamentarians into power we cannot wash our hands by only blaming the Parliamentarians – the fault after all lies with us for voting them into power.

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