SLPP blames Speaker for behaviour

• Attempts to justify actions in Parliament by blaming Jayasuriya
• Says Senanayake and Vadivel will cross back    

By Nuwan Senarathna 

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday attempted to defend its actions in Parliament by heaping its misbehaviour on the actions of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.  

“If the Speaker continues to behave like this, there is no way that Parliament can continue,” MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena told journalists at the SLPP headquarters before sessions began in the House. 

He charged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya was behaving like a partisan politician in Parliament, which had led to a brawl. Abeygunawardena claimed that the Speaker had abused his authority, which led to the current political crisis in the country. 

“It is the Speaker’s responsibility to protect the value of the House but if the Speaker himself violates them, we do not have any other option but to behave like him.”

Responding to MP Prasanna Ranaweera pouring water on the Speaker’s Chair, Abeygunawardena defended MP Ranaweera’s behaviour, stating that it was a move to keep Speaker Karu Jayasuriya away from his Chair and to intervene in the proceedings of the Parliament. According to Abeygunawardena, violent behaviour was the only possible option for them to avoid the Speaker using his power. “If we were quiet during the brawl in the well of the Parliament, our voters would have called us cowards. They sent us to fight for them, not to hide behind a shield.”

He said that Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should be held responsible for the entire scenario. “When Chamal Rajapaksa was the Speaker, he never acted like Karu Jayasuriya. If we had done something wrong, he did not hesitate to take an appropriate action for that.”

“Karu Jayasuriya has become the speaker of Sirikotha; he was acting according to the agenda of the United National Party (UNP),” he charged.

Abeygunawardena alleged that UPFA MPs who have represented the Joint Opposition (JO) had handed over ten no confidence motions during the last three years, out of which only two were taken to order papers in Parliament. 

“We shall continue to ask for an early election because we have been brought into anarchy by the ousted Government. We are being threatened in the Parliament.”  Meanwhile, Abeygunawardena said that MP Wasantha Senanayake and MP Vadivel Suresh should join them, and insisted the MPs would resume their duties in their respective Ministries.