Sajith Premadasa told Parliament yesterday that he will withdraw a statement he made after Deputy Speaker Rizvie Salih told him that the remark he made against the Deputy Speaker was an insult to the Chair.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa was speaking about the investigation into the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge when Deputy Speaker Salih told him that what he is speaking on does not fall under Standing Orders 27.2 at which point Sajith told the Deputy Speaker to wait and not to jump in.
Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake, intervening at this point, said that Sajith should either apologize to the Deputy Speaker or withdraw his remarks, stating that on the previous day, one MP had yelled at the Speaker saying, “Shame on you”. Today, another MP had called the Government Whip by an obscenity and now the Opposition Leader is telling the Deputy Speaker not to jump in when he was only trying to tell Sajith that the speech he was making did not fall under Standing Orders 27.2.
Rathnayake urged the Deputy Speaker to either demand an immediate apology from the Opposition Leader or withdrawal of his remarks made insulting the Chair. He said, “We take this seriously and the Government will not tolerate intimidation of any kind by the Opposition.”
Deputy Speaker Salih addressing Premadasa said that the Opposition Leader’s remarks were an insult to the Chair, not to him personally, but to the Chair. Salih further said that the MP who made the statement on Wednesday’s Parliamentary sessions against the Speaker saying, “Shame on you”, referring to MP Archchuna Ramanathan, was again insulting the Chair and urged him to maintain the decorum of the House.
MP Ramanathan responding to the Deputy Speaker said that he was well within his rights to speak up and questioned if MP Dayasiri Jayasekera’s unparliamentary remarks using the obscenity will be expunged from the Hansard. At this point Deputy Speaker Salih admonished MP Ramanathan stating that he would have to request the Sergeant-at-Arms to remove the MP from the House for making a commotion and not maintaining the decorum of the House when the MP was repeatedly asked to sit down by the Deputy Speaker.
The Deputy Speaker then told the Opposition Leader that he was shocked to hear such a word from him. In response, Opposition Leader Premadasa withdrew the remark made against the Deputy Speaker, stating, “When I mentioned that word, I actually meant please don’t obstruct. I used a different word. But if you consider it as an insult, I withdraw it. I have no problem in withdrawing anything untoward. I don’t have a personal ego.”
