Although the UPFA government claims that MPs switch sides for personal gain and the Rajapaksa administration, too, faced that threat, it will not introduce the required law to bar such crossovers.

The Sunday Island raised the issue at Friday’s UPFA press conference at the Mahaweli Centre when SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena, MP accused the UNP of trying to bribe members of the ruling coalition in a bid to bring down the Rajapaksa administration.

Asked whether the UPFA would bring in legislature to thwart any future attempts to destabilise Parliament, Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Rajitha Senaratne and Dallas Alahapperuma asserted that such a move on the part of the government would infringe MPs right.

Senaratne who contested the Kalutara District at the last parliamentary election on the UNP ticket but switched his allegiance to President Rajapaksa in January 2006 said that such crossovers happened even in the UK.

Pressed for a direct answer, the UPFA asserted that it would not be right to violate MPs rights.

Minister Alahapperuma said that the then President JR Jayewardena had obtained signed letters from members of his parliamentary group to ensure that they would not step out of line though one MP quit parliament at that time. He said that the then government permitted only Opposition rankers to switch allegiance but not vice versa.

National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP, did not respond to our query. Weerawansa contested the Colombo District on the JVP ticket at the last parliamentary election but switched allegiance to President Rajapaksa along with a dozen MPs early this year.

Minister Sirisena said that the executive presidency was needed to prevent crossovers for financial gain and other perks and privileges. He said that MPs could be bought over thereby causing chaos both in and out of Parliament.

Recalling a UNP-JVP effort to defeat the UPFA budget in 2007, Minister Sirisena said that there was an attempt to bribe MPs with USD and Euros. Had they succeeded, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran would still be rowing in the Nanthikadal lagoon. He emphasized that the Opposition plan could not have bene countered successfully without the all powerful executive presidency.

He claimed that those bent on undermining the Sri Lankan State would be overjoyed by former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka challenging President Rajapaksa at the forthcoming elections. He said that nothing could have pleased the Tamil diaspora as a damaging split in what he called the patriotic camp led by President Rajapaksa.

Minister Alahapperuma alleged that the father of a sitting MP, who, too, had been a people’s representative way back in the 1960s accepted Rs. 25,000 bribe to bring down a government. President Rajapaksa, too, told the media during a meeting at Temple Trees how MPs were bribed even at Sravasti. He said it was not a secret.

The UPFA’s reluctance even to consider banning crossover is obvious in the light of about one fifth of its current strength in Parliament being members elected from Opposition parties. Those who had switch sides included many appointed on the National List of the UNP. The CWC parliamentary group is among them.

Some of those who had shamelessly violated the faith placed on them by both voters and their respective parties had gone to the extent of taking SLFP membership and received appointments as electoral organizers. Although the previous UNP-led UNF government, too, engineered crossovers from the then PA to the Opposition, the present government had achieved the largest number of crossovers in Sri Lanka’s political history.

Commenting on the JVP presidential election campaign, Weerawansa said that this party had accused power hungry Rajapaksas of running a dictatorial regime. They had been also accused of nepotism, he said adding that political parties were formed by people though the degree of their greed may vary. This was common factor in politics, he said emphasizing that politics means power and there was absolutely no denial of that.