Last week’s ceremony at the parliamentary complex to unveil a portrait of the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, we are told, had, so to speak, the trappings of a scene at a public tap in a slum garden, where women drop hints for the consumption of their bêtes noires, who, in retaliating, oftentimes drop pots and pans and even their diya redda (bathing cloth).

Nay, nobody was loud-mouthed and uncanny at that function and there was no barrage of expletives. It went on well. But, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe levelled accusations at each other by innuendo in their characteristic style under the veneer of bonhomie.

President Rajapaksa made use of that opportunity to remind the UNP leader Wickremesinghe known for his appeasement policy towards the LTTE that President Premadasa had been a victim of LTTE terrorism and, therefore, the followers of the Premadasa policies should back the government’s effort to eliminate the LTTE. Ironically, when the late President was struggling to counter LTTE terror, the SLFP used to derive some sadistic pleasure by putting a spoke in his wheel. Immediately after his induction, President Premadasa very eloquently and succinctly expressed his predicament: "I have inherited a torch burning at both ends"—mata hambawela thiyenna depeththama paththuwena vilakkuwak. He was referring to the LTTE violence in the North and the JVP violence in the South. The SLFP refused to co-operate with him. President Rajapaksa, who was an Opposition MP and human rights activist at that time, went to Geneva to name and shame President Premadasa over human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The SLFP, desperate to capture power, would have sided with even the devil’s mother, as they say, to oust President Premadasa. It was while he was battling the LTTE, having realised his blunder of arming, financing and sheltering the outfit, that the SLFP launched vehement protests against his regime with a view to bringing it down. Young Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa himself led a string of anti-government protests such as Pada Yathra, Jana Gosha and Human Chain, as we said last Wednesday. President Premadasa fought back and overstepped, in the process, democratic limits and strayed into the realm of dictatorship.

The SLFP derided everything that President Preamdasa did and tried to sabotage it. When he launched garment factories and took industries to the rural backwaters to raise the standards of living at the grassroots level, the SLFP and others dubbed them ‘jangi factories’ and protested against what they termed using the rural youth to stitch jangi for suddhis (underwear for white women). The JVP, whose propaganda is always creative, coined the slogan: Kellanta garment, Kollanta pavement (Girls reduced to garment workers and boys to pavement hawkers!) Today, an SLFP-led government is clinging to the jangi industry like a limpet to keep the economy ticking!

What did the SLFP do when the LTTE assassinated President Premadasa? Many were the SLFPers who celebrated his tragic demise, like savages. They lit firecrackers and ‘ate kiri bath (milk rice)’. Today, the SLFP is seeking the UNP’s co-operation to avenge his assassination!

Opposition Leader Wickremesinghe in his speech had a swipe at President Rajapaksa. He said under President Premadasa’s watch the supremacy of Parliament had been respected without it being made a mere rubber stamp of the Executive President. Cum grano salis! This statement should be taken with a grain, if not a kilo, of salt.

Under the existing Executive Presidential system, the supremacy of Parliament is only a will-o’-the-wisp so long as the Prime Minister and the President happen to be from the same party. For, the Prime Minister is always dwarfed by the all powerful President in such a situation. Let what Prime Minister Premadasa said of his position under President JRJ be noted. He used to lament in public that though he was the Prime Minister he was no better than a peon.

Thus, since 1978, all Prime Ministers have been glorified peons except during a brief period (2001-2004), when the Prime Minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) came from the UNP-led UNF and the President (Chandrika Kumaratunga) from the SLFP-led PA. In that government, the Premier became de facto President. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe went to the extent of even signing a CFA with the LTTE without the concurrence of President Kumaratunga. After the UNF government was sacked by President Kumaratunga to consolidate her power in Parliament, the Prime Minister (the present President) became her ‘peon’ in the House.

Did President Premadasa respect the supremacy of Parliament? Having handpicked one of the senior mediocre UNPers at that time—D. B. Wijetunga, who, to his credit, became a good president later on—as Prime Minister, President Premadasa ruled the country, Parliament and the party with an iron fist. The first to rise against his ‘one man show’ was a group of his own MPs led by Lalith and Gamini. They duly signed and handed over an impeachment motion to the then Speaker M. H. Mohamed in 1991. President Premadasa’s fury knew no bounds on hearing the news of the impeachment bid. The Speaker who had accepted the motion, scared out of his wits, had to seek refuge in a private hospital and UNP parliamentarians were forced to withdraw their signatures, which most of them did out of fear. (Was that respect for Parliament?) Lalith, Gamini and others who rebelled against him were hounded out the party and Parliament. They became the targets of UNP goons who took Lalith’s life in 1993.

The then Opposition claimed President Premadasa, a believer in astrology and occult practices, had charmed oil applied on the seats in the House, after the abortive impeachment move, with a view to winning over MPs. Not to be outdone, his rivals applied ‘pig oil’ on the same seats as it is said to have a neutralising effect on charmed oil!

No UNP MP who tendered an undated resignation letter to President Jayewardene, who demanded that to ensure his parliamentary group always did what he said with no questions asked, has a moral right to advocate the supremacy of Parliament.

There is only one way to restore Parliament to its supreme position. That is to abolish the Executive Presidency and make the Head of State responsible and answerable to Parliament. The only alternative is to vote a party other than the President’s to power so that the Prime Minister will be stronger than the president like under the UNF regime. But, in such a situation, the country becomes the victim of a ruthless political battle between the Prime Minister and the President. Hence, that is not a desirable option. (That arrangement worked for a few months in 1994 as President Wijetunga had no political ambitions at that time and was matured enough to co-operate with Prime Minister Kumaratunga. )

Political institutions could be restored to their pristine position, people and politicians mobilised for national causes and progress of the country made possible, only if Presidents, Prime Ministers, Speakers, the Opposition Leaders et al rose above petty party politics and behaved like true national leaders. If they, driven by partisan interests, continue to behave like political troglodytes, not even all the devas will be able to save the country, let alone Parliament.

Holier-than-thou politicians cannot hoodwink the discerning public with humbug and piffle.