‘Act responsibly to douse religious disharmony’

The responsibility of acting with patience and prudence to prevent the surfacing of communal disharmony irrespective of petty political differences once again turned into an important issue on the floor of the House when Leader of the House and Irrigation and Water Management Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva responded to a statement made by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe alleging that instead of acting with responsibility to douse racist and religious flames among communities, the Opposition Leader deliberately attempted to fan communal disharmony by highlighting some minor incidents that had taken place.

The Minister who was responding to the Opposition Leader's statement drew the attention of the House on the responsible role to be played by the Government and the Opposition members to create a conducive environment to prevent attempts made by some opportunist elements to destroy inter religious harmony.

The Minister in his reply alleged that the Opposition Leader attempts to highlight some minor incidents that occurred several months ago, again and again with the intention of creating religious disharmony among communities. The Minister told the House it is unfortunate that some media organisations have blown minor incidents out of proportion and the Opposition Leader also resorted to do the same.

He said it is a victory for people that the President, all the Ministers and MPs of Government, Maha Sangha and other religious leaders have not fallen prey to these sinister manoeuvres and police had been able to control their spread.

The Minister stressed it is not only the Government but also the Opposition which is bound by the responsibility of acting with patience and prudence to avoid the surfacing of communal disharmony and the support extended by the opposition in this regard to the Government is their national duty by the motherland.

On the basis of a report from the IGP, the Minister told the House that no major incident had been reported yet and there had been some protests at Wanduramba, Navagamuwa, Badulla, Payagala, and Kurunegala against Halal certification and other matters.

Those responsible for these incidents have been taken into custody and legal action has been taken against them. The Police had acted in a prudent manner to avoid the spread of similar incidents. He however told the House that it is obvious that several parties with vested interests are trying to cause communal disharmony and put the Government into difficulty. Some media institutions too had knowingly or unknowingly supported their activities.

The Opposition Leader in his statement attempted to highlight Police reports to the effect that no ethnic and communal incidents had taken place in the country were incorrect. The Opposition Leader who told the House that he had information relating to some incidents that took place in Hiriyala and Kurunegala had demanded the Government consult Provincial Councillors and Parliamentarians to make sure whether the information provided to the Leader of the House by the IGP were correct or not.

Wickremesinghe who quoted some news reports published in a Tamil newspaper pointed out that the Police report which stated that no incidents had taken place in Hiriyala and Kurunegala were incorrect. There is continuing tension in the area. Therefore he queried will the Government have an independent inquiry into this matter with the consultation of Provincial Councillors and Parliamentarians?

However, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva in his reply to the Opposition Leader's statement said the question raised by the Opposition Leader in Parliament were incidents which had occurred six or nine months ago.

The Minister also categorically denied news reports published in that particular Tamil newspaper. If the Opposition Leader was so keen on these incidents, he should have raised them on the floor of the House 6 or 9 months ago when those incidents occurred. It is pertinent to question as to why he did not raise these issues then. The Minister said it is evident that the Opposition Leader had made this statement based on false newspaper reports and other sources of information. In his speech the Minister also quoted a statement made by the Opposition Leader in Parliament on February 6 that all together there have been 10 attacks on mosques and 10 protests at various towns. The Minister recalled how he challenged the Opposition Leader in his reply given on February 7 to inform the House of the dates and the places where these mosques had been attacked. He alleged the instead of doing so, the Opposition Leader had avoided the question. The Opposition Leader in his statement had not been able to provide any credible information on the ten mosques attacked that he highlighted in his previous statement.

A Vote of Appreciation for the service of Pope Benedict XVI was taken up in Parliament and it was suggested to send a translation of the proceedings to the Vatican. Moving the motion of the vote of appreciation, Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said Pope Benedict XVI who had decided to resign from office was the first after six hundred years.

Amaratunga said Pope Benedict XVI served in the army during war time and later joined the seminary. He is a scholar par excellence and has been recognised the world over for this scholastic distinction in theosophy. He is also an environmentalist.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva seconding the motion told the House that the meaning of the Latin word Benedict was the blessed one. Pope Benedict XVI is truly a blessed one. He was also an academic and served as a Professor at Bonn University.

He is a democratic leader who heeded the advice of all.

Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne participating in the debate said that Pope Benedict XVI had shown the greatness of humanity to the world and became an epitome of enormity in rendering his services to the universal Catholic Church. The Premier told the House the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to resign from his post had shocked nations worldwide. It was after some six hundred years a pope is resigning. External Affairs Deputy Minister Neomal Perera who joined the vote of appreciation said that there is a greater possibility an Asian becoming the next Pope and our Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has the potential of bringing that honour to this country.

We are proud of the fact that Sri Lanka is among the nations that participate in the process of electing a new Pope.

Ministers taking more and more time to respond to the questions raised by the Opposition members once again came to light before the House due to the request made by UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera from Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa.

MP Jayasekera pointed out that he had raised 11 questions with the hoping to obtain answers from the Government Ministers during this week but none of them had been answered and the Government side asked for additional time. The Speaker who responded to the MP told parliament that he would bring about a special mechanism in consultation with Party Leaders to provide answers to all questions raised by the Opposition MPs from the Government Ministers.

The Speaker also thanked the Leader of the House for being present to answer questions. To make sittings more meaningful, other Ministers too should be present in the House to reply to questions from the Opposition.

The UNP on Tuesday handed over a no confidence motion against Foreign Employment Promotions and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera citing his failure to save the life of Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek who was beheaded in Saudi Arabia recently.

The motion which has been signed by UNP MP Ajith P Perera and several other UNP MPs mentioned that Minister Perera had failed in managing the issue and saving her life and instead tried to put the blame on the Saudi authorities and the House had+ no confidence in the ability of Minister Perera to hold the portfolio of Foreign Employment Promotions and Welfare.