Legalize all Political Party Manifestos
Posted on May 23rd, 2012
Shenali Waduge
Too often political parties and politicians have made a mockery of democracy by forwarding attractive manifestos promising the people they have the answers to all the ills that prevails but no sooner they are elected the promises are broken leaving voters with no means to challenge these parties.
A solution to ensuring that the power of politics and democracy prevails as it should in the hands of the people, is to make sure that party manifestos are made legally binding so that any breach of a commitment made to the voter can be challenged.
By legalizing political manifestos, it would mean political parties would be careful in what they promise and moreover they would be forced to think and plan what is best for the country and its people without taking the public for granted.
In the developing world this would be a perfect check and balance system. This would apply to opposition parties as well and would put an end to the gallery type of politics that has become the norm today. In the event of a coalition government the agreed upon conditions must be made public so that these too can beƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ legally binding and allow the public to take action against Parliamentarians hoodwinking the masses.
If we are to see proper governance taking place at this critical chapter in our historyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” both politicians and public need to play a role together and politicians in particular must be made accountable to the people.
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:02 pm
No country has done it for good reasons.
Sometimes it is better not to commit.
e.g. Run-NIL’s LTTE hand over promise
political solutions promise
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:24 pm
It is the voters who have the responsibility to decide it. but, they don’t do it and they are prepared to close eyes and pretend nothing happened. They don’t want to learn lessons.
Otherwise, the govt – politicians and top bureaucrats live with lies.
Some times, politicians give promises that they can not implement because they find the truth only when they change the side.