Sumanthiran tells government not to play politics with economic situation

TNA MP  M.A.Sumanthiran told Parliament on Thursday that when the previous government attempted to repeal the PTA, MPs that now represent the SLPP MPs too supported it.

“All that they objected to was the Act or the Bill that was supposed to replace the PTA, which was called the counter terrorism bill, had certain other draconian provisions which could have been used against trade unions and other organizations because there was a new provision that was brought in by which organizations can be proscribed. I agreed with them at that point in time, so we were all in agreement that the Prevention of Terrorism Act ought to be repealed. The draconian provisions in the Prevention of Terrorism Act has no place in civilized society,” he said.

Now the same MPs have changed their tune and are accusing others of continuing their attempt to repeal the PTA, the TNA MP said.

State Minister Shehan Semasinghe: “The Act which you are referring to was gazette on 17 September 2018. Am I right? The counter terrorism act. At that time the government which was ruling the country also supported, so why didn’t you go ahead with it? if you say that you had consent from our side also, why didn’t you go ahead with that?”

MP Sumanthiran: “I am thankful to Minister for raising that question. This is the question a lot of people are asking me in the public realm as well, and you have given me an opportunity to answer that. We also found various negative features in that Bill. And in parliamentary committee, particularly, the committee on legal reforms, we corrected those provisions. There were still some more objectionable even for us and the Foreign minister at that time, Tilak Marapana, gave an assurance that at committee stage those also would be corrected. But that was, as you rightly said, in 2018 September. In October your party tried a backflip – tried a constitutional coup in the country. There was instability right through November and December. And after that there was no possibility of going through that Act and then Easter bombing happened.”

The TNA MP said that after the Easter Sunday bombings people called for a strong leader and strong pieces of legislation against terrorism. The TNA MP said that the parliamentary select committee that inquired into the Easter bombing, in September 2019, in its report that asked the question whether this was done to  make the country a call for a strong leader with the presidential election coming later in the year.

“Now, that was only a question that was posed by the parliamentary select committee but its being proved more and more to be the actual fact. If not, I ask you the question: there were intelligence reports that were available, not just three weeks before the attack – even one hour before the attack, the previous evening. There were sources that were available who are still alive, because it came from a different country. To date not one muscle has been moved to take action against those who perpetrated the act,” he said.

Sumanthiran said that it is important to go after the ones who planned premeditated acts and caused so much havoc in the country. However, no such persons had been produced before court.

“Now before I sit down, I want to table the letter dated 11 February 2022, which party leaders in this house including members of the government subscribe to, saying certain steps must be taken to arrest the economic situation of the country. Now I am not saying that because we say you should do that. Everyone agrees that this should have been done more than a year ago. There is no coherence in the government: you listen to the Minister of Finance; you can’t even understand what he is saying. There are several interviews….  we are ashamed, that’s the coherence with which the finance minister of the country is speaking. The Governor says something totally opposite. You the Minister of State also holds something connected to finance in this country. There must be a coherent policy. We are willing to support. This is a damage that this caused to the whole country. We are all willing to stand together and approach this situation. So I urge the government: don’t play politics with the economic situation as you have been doing with the Easter bomb attack. This must be faced by the whole country together. And we have demonstrated that we are willing to support the government in addressing this situation.”