Puduma Saththu back in the House

Very early in the life of the First Parliament elected in 1947, its Leader of the Opposition Dr. N. M. Perera found himself in the middle of a huge controversy for voicing his opinion in public about the species that populated the Chamber of Parliament, particularly among the government benches.

Speaking at a public rally he had said there were 'puduma saththu' (strange animals) in parliament.

The UNP government of the day charged that he had committed a serious breach of privilege by referring to members of parliament in such manner.

While NM held his ground about what he felt regarding the behaviour of many members of government, the issue of breach of privilege lapsed as our parliament was not covered by any privileges law at the time.

It was NM's reference to the 'puduma saththu' that led to both Parliament and the Senate getting together to introduce what was an exemplary law of Parliamentary Privilege based largely on the traditions of the House of Commons.

I was reminded of this on reading the recent news of a woman member of the Afghan Parliament had being charged in court and punished for stating that most members of the Afghan parliament today were animals.

This Afghan MP had much to say for animals when compared to her parliamentary colleagues.

She said that among animals the donkey helped people carry heavy loads and the cow gave nourishing milk. But the animals in parliament were not even as useful. They were a burden on the people.

A quick cut to the present debate in our own parliament. A burden on the people she said, and how true. Charges of Breach of Privilege are very much in the air. Some MPs are angry about how the media reports the proceedings of parliament.

They want all of it reported. Good heavens and guess why? Because the media did not report in full what some MPs said about the Supreme Court order on the cost of security for former President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Interestingly, it is the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who has become the cheer leader for Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who thinks the SC has acted incorrectly about the former President's security.

I will leave the issue of security aside and get on to the more familiar area of media and its freedom. But before that, it is interesting to recall that Ranil W. who now sheds tears for Chandrika's safety, as Prime Minister, had no compunctions about humiliating Chandrika K. when she was in office, and did not object to Ravi Karunanayake's repeated demands that her handbag be searched for the hidden weapon or a camera or who knows what.

Ranil Wickremesinghe now wants editors to be summoned to Parliament to be questioned under the Parliamentary Privileges Act, allegedly for not publishing what he considered were vital remarks made by Minister Fernandopulle on the SC decision on limiting security to former President Chandrika K.

Free Media Movement is sorely disappointed by Ranil's statement. Wonder why? Hasn't it heard the old one about the tiger never changes its stripes? This is nothing but Ranil playing true to form.

He must be thinking of the days of his late uncle JRJ and the draconian law of Parliamentary Privileges that he introduced; under which the first persons to be punished were two journalists of the then Daily Observer. Those were the days when the Attorney General was kept busier running up the steps of Hulftsdorp filing plaints of Criminal Defamation, than attending to more important legal work.

It was also the time when the Secretary General of Parliament had to work extra hours to summon journalists to 'show cause' why they should not be charged for breach of privilege, and brought before the Bar of the House, under the contemptible Parliamentary Privileges Act of JRJ, for which Ranil W shamelessly voted. Victor Ivan will be able to tell us much about the many charges made against him for alleged breach of privilege under that despicable law.

Such is the story of the new defender of media freedom and parliamentary privilege. The level of discussion and debate in parliament has dropped to such depths, and often at the level of the vulgar, that the public should be spared the trial of having it telecast live or read it all as possibly Jeyaraj F or Ranil W would have it.

Telecasting debates will take outside the Chamber all those brays, neighs, bellows, and moos that the elected and nominated species in our parliament make each day. Let all that hogwash unworthy of repetition be confined to the Chamber of the House where it originates. We have enough problems of pollution, without adding to it with parliamentary debates.

Ranil W is living so much in the past that he has even forgotten that the most obnoxious provisions of his cherished Parliamentary Privileges Act, which allowed for journalists and editors to be summoned to Parliament and humiliated, were removed after the first cabinet shuffle by President Kumaratunga. No doubt, there is more of it that still requires rescinding.

Parliamentary Privilege and Media Freedom should be treasured in a democracy. More importantly, they should be protected by these marauding political animals who are all to willing to pounce on those they claim have breached their privileges, and have nothing but contempt for Media Freedom when it goes against them. We are back to the days of the puduma saththu in parliament, and the strangest of them all is today's Leader of the Opposition; with due credit to N. M. Perera.