Saturday 23rd March, 2024

Never a dull moment in this country despite its economic difficulties! Parliamentary sessions, more often than not, leave the public none the wiser, but at times they can be really entertaining although they cost the public an arm and a leg. On Thursday, Parliament had a sitting, which was replete with theatrics, diatribe, invectives and rhetoric. But what turned out to be most interesting was Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena’s parting shot.

Speaker Abeywardena told Parliament, immediately after the defeat of the Opposition’s no-faith motion against him, that some foreign powers had striven to dragoon him into taking over the executive presidency, at the height of the 2022 uprising, and govern the country, but he had refused to do so, for such an undemocratic course of action would have amounted to a blatant violation of the Constitution and plunged the country into anarchy.

The Speaker deserves praise for having done the right thing and helped bring order out of chaos. But the question is why he took so long to inform Parliament of that abortive move to create a situation here similar to that in Libya. There is reason to believe that he would have kept the matter under wraps indefinitely but for the no-faith motion the Opposition moved against him. He may have sought to portray himself as a patriot being unfairly targeted by the Opposition.

The Speaker, however, made no revelation. He only confirmed what ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa have said in their books, The Conspiracy, and Nine: The Hidden Story, respectively. His statement has lent credence to the conspiracy theories about the 2022 uprising. Gotabaya has said in his book that his ouster in 2022 was due to an internationally-backed conspiracy, and Wimal has argued that there was a foreign involvement in Aragalaya. Weerawansa, in his book, accuses the US of having used Aragalaya to compass its geopolitical ends. He was the first to reveal that some foreign governments had tried to railroad Speaker Abeywardena into taking over the presidency, but in vain. His critics sought to dismiss his claim as a figment of his imagination.

Now that Speaker Abeywardena has declared that some foreign powers pressured him to violate the Constitution, albeit without success, he ought to name the countries that did so and reveal whether any Colombo-based foreign diplomats tried to coerce him into committing that unlawful act. The government must reveal what action it will take against them. Foreign envoys have been expelled from this country for less serious diplomatic excesses.

It is hoped that pressure will be brought to bear on Speaker Abeywardena to respect the people’s right to know the foreign powers that conspired to have the Constitution of this country violated. Let the Opposition be urged to take up this issue and call for a parliamentary debate thereon.

The Speaker has said that among those who strove to have him violate the Constitution were some leading Sri Lankans as well. The government must explore the possibility of instituting legal action against them for treason.