Choir singers during the opening ceremony in Sri Lanka.
to summarizing some of the sessions, the Hansard staff of the Parliament of Sri Lanka produced a highly commendable verbatim transcript of the proceedings of all the sessions which can be found on the CPA website.
Conference participants noted the full participation of Sri Lankan
Members from both sides of the House. They put aside their very strongly held political differences to support Mr Speaker Rajapaksa, Deputy Speaker Hon. Chandima Weerakody, MP, and the Sri Lankan Branch of the CPA to provide what was a highly effective forum for the exchange of views. They
could not have done so without the exemplary organization of the Sri Lankan parliamentary secretariat under the direction of Mr Dhammika Dasanayake, the Secretary-General of Parliament, and Deputy Secretary- General Mr Neil Iddawala, who acted as Conference Co-ordinator. The Parliament of Sri
Lanka successfully staged a Commonwealth parliamentary forum that may not have always reached agreement on global issues, but it did enable Members from throughout the Commonwealth to understand their differences more clearly and therefore to understand each other and their own roles better.