Opposition fails to take advantage of Government inability to field the debate

An adjournment motion was called for by the Opposition UNP to debate the prevailing breakdown in the Law and Order situation in Sri Lanka. This was permitted by the speaker for yesterday, Wednesday the 19^th of October 2011.

The principal gauntlet was laid down by the leader of the Opposition, and the chief spokesman for the Government was the Prime Minister, who by the way read fairly incoherently from a prepared statement. He is the Minister for Buddha Sasana and was quite unqualified to speak on the subject. This point should have been forcefully made, rather than meekly accept his stance that it had only become an issue because there was a turf battle between politicians and that if two ordinary people had been involved in this battle a debate would not be called for nor would it be construed to be a breakdown in Law and Order.

They should have pressed the point that there is no one on the government benches qualified to speak on this subject, as there is no one in Parliament who has responsibility for the Defense of the Country. The only “WADA BALANA” MP for Defense is in the Nuro-Surgical Ward of the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital surrounded by a tight security cordon being protected from a possible hit squad!

The Opposition could have demanded the presence of the Minister of Defense, who is the President who was in the Batticaloa and Ampara districts together with the next most important person responsible for Defense being the Secretary for Defense, his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse. So it would seem a slap in the face of this call for a proper debate when the two most capable of defending this allegation are out doing their thing, showing callous disregard to the call for answers.

It is important that the Government accept that things are getting out of hand, and take steps to do something very serious about it by revamping the Police force and taking steps to cut down the level of indiscipline created by the protection of the State. The sight of a President going to a house of the Mayor elect of Negombo to comfort him a day after his house and the houses of his supporters were raided by the STF in search of drugs or illegally built vehicles out of parts, was like the Godfather giving a show of strength to his flock by offering his apologies.

The Government should have been crucified for these acts of transgression in the debate and the whole nation made aware of the ironic display of business as usual while “ROME BURNS”. Shame on you for wasting this opportunity to protect the citizenry and gain the moral high ground in this most important area of concern.