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| Sunday, 25 April 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Speaker of the 13th Parliament by E.Weerapperuma WIJESINGHE JAYAWEERA MUDIYANSELAGE LOKUBANDARA was elected the 20th Speaker in the 13th Parliament on Thursday, April 22 when the newly elected members met for the first time to commence the Parliamentary procedures under the stewardship of the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance.
The former speaker Joseph Michael Perera proposed the name of Lokubandara and SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem seconded. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse proposed the name of D.E.W.Gunasekera and was seconded by Wimal Weerawansa of the JVP. Badulla district MP W.J.M. Lokubandara first came to Parliament as the UNP MP for Haputale in 1977 defeating the SLFP candidate H.M.C. Dissanayake. It was a historical win for the UNP for the Haputale seat was a stronghold of the SLFP for 21 years. Former Health Minister W.P. G. Ariyadasa who had represented that seat for a long period did not contest the 1977 general election. At that election the UNP scored 10,818 votes and the SLFP scored 7,476 votes only. Born on August 05, 1941 at Bandarawela, Lokubandara is a BA honours graduate from the University of Peradeniya, BA London and Attorney-at-Law. At the time he entered politics he was the Assistant Legal draughtsman at the Attorney General Department with an 18 year record of government service. In the first few years in Parliament he was made a member of the University Administrative Committee and a member of the Government Finance Committee. In 1983 he was raised to the rank of a Non-Cabinet Minister and was in charge of Indigenous Medicine Ministry. He became a house-hold name with the introduction of "Kola Kenda". He was also the Minister of Media and Cultural Affairs, Education during the regimes of Presidents Ranasinghe Premadasa and D.B.Wijetunga. He was the Minister of Justice, National Integration and Buddha Sasana in the UNF government under Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe. He is an affable man who prefers to speak Sinhala favoured by Munidasa Kumaratunga. He displayed his talents as a feature writer, lyrics composer, Radio artiste and reciter of 'Sthothra' stanzes. His regular column to "Davasa" Chandadayakaya wethatai was a much read and popular piece of writing of the day. He married Malani Priyadharshani Weerasekera, a Music teacher from Sri Jayawardenepura, Kotte on February 01, 1979. He cherished the memories of former President J.R.Jayewardene who gave him the UNP ticket to contest Haputale against all odds and recalled what JR had told him when he decided to enter politics. "Never give yourself to money and do not enter politics to safeguard your money and property". Speaker Lokubandara is a man who never forgets to pay homage to his parents and has cultivated the habit of his father to recount the days activities before he goes to bed at night."It is something I have learnt from my father. I recall to my memory all that had taken place during the day, take account of success and failures,things I attended to and could not". Speaking to Rita Sebastian of the Times as a new MP, Mr. Lokubandara had said that one has to learn to follow before leading others." If you are going to lead the people you must be a man of the people. You must be a man with a heart. Your heart must melt and your eyes tear at another's misfortune. People want to live in the hearts and minds of their MPs. They are pleased when you remember them by their names". Being very realistic and a pragmatic politician he had said that an MP never should lie to his people and should be honest. "Being an MP puts tremendous responsibility on you. The people put you on a pedestal. They separate you from them making you somebody else. But why must they do that....I want to be one of them". Perusing through the pages of history we find that there had been five Speakers from the North Western Province viz Albert F.Peiris, H.S.Ismail, T.B. Subasinghe, Hugh Fernando and Shirley Corea. The Western Province had F.A. Obeysekera, Stanley Tilekaratne, Anandatissa de Alwis, Bakeer Marker, M.H.Mohommad, Anura Bandaranaike and Joseph Michael Perera. The Sabaragamuwa Province had Sir Francis Molamure, Northern Province had Sir Vaithyalingam Duraisamy, Central Province R.S.Pelpola North Central K.B.Ratnayake (the only Speaker who came from the National List). Gampaha District Member of Parliament Joseph Michael Perera was the unanimous choice as the Speaker of the 12th Parliament. He was the 19th Speaker in the line of Speakers of the House elected from 1931, the time of the State Council. Sir Francis Molamure elected on July 17,1931 was the first Speaker of the State Council and was re-elected Speaker of the 1947 First Parliament. Thus the newly elected Speaker will go down as the 20th Speaker in the political history of this country. In Sri Lanka the post of Speaker came into being with the founding of the State Council in 1931. Sir Francis Molamure was the First Speaker of pre-independent and post-independent Sri Lanka. He was the Speaker of the State Council from 1931 July 17 to 1934 December 10, on which day he resigned from the post. He was the member for Dedigama electorate. He was elected Speaker from 1947 December 14 to January 25,1951. Thus he had served as Speaker on two occasions. Though Sri Lanka followed the British tradition in electing a Speaker of the House of Representatives, with the passage of time some alterations have been added to the age old custom. For example it was customary that when someone is elected to the high office of Speaker of the House, he is sent back as a member of the next Parliament uncontested. But this is not observed today. We have seen that the person who held the Post of Speaker of the House is defeated at the next election by an independent candidate in the absence of a political party fielding a candidate as his rival, out of respect to the person who held the post of Speaker. With the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna led by SLFP leader S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1956 we have a Muslim H.S. Ismail as Speaker from April 19, 1956 to December 1959. Then we had T.B. Subasinghe elected from the Opposition as Speaker in the very short lived Dudley Senanayake Government. He was Speaker from March 30 , 1960 to April 23, 1960. With the World's First woman Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike leading the country, R.S.Pelpola was elected Speaker of the House from 1960 August 05 to January 24, 1964. He resigned from the post for there was a No-confidence Motion against him. He resigned before it was discussed in the House. He is the first and the only Speaker so far who had to resign on a No Confidence Motion. Speakers from 1931 1. Sir Francis Molamure (State Council - 1931 July 17 to 1934 December
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
The election of the Speaker of the 13th Parliament will go down in
Parliamentary history as one of the longest and closely contested ones.
Mr. Lokubandara was announced Speaker of the House winning just by one
vote over the government nominee D.E.W.Gunasekera.
