Dr Sudath Gunasekara
25.8.2015.

No MP elected from one party should be allowed to join another after an election. Because it is unethical, immoral, undemocratic and uncivilized to do so. It not only betrays both the voters and the Party that sponsored him and  who voted him on some policy, conviction or faith but also destroys the trust and the faith people have on the Party system of Government. This in turn seriously affects and undermines the very foundation of democratic system of government.

Everyone knows that no party in the present Parliament has a majority to form a stable Government. UNP which has the largest number has only 106 and still short of eight seats to maintain a simple majority, in the event they make Karu Jayasuriya the Speaker. Now the national Government dream of the President and Ranil has failed there are only two options open to form a Government to try to form a Government. That is firstly, to join hands with the TNA which will never be a practical marriage because the TNA as the critical group within the government thereafter will ask for concessions such as right of self administration, Land and Police powers and re-merging North and East among other things. Granting such demands will be impossible and politically very expensive for any Government in Sri Lanka under the prevailing political climate. Such concessions will never be acceptable to the majority Sinhala people.

The second alternative is the already discussed ‘buying over’ few MPP from the UPFA rather than ‘renting’ as the UNP secretary has already said. That is because it is cheaper as the Secretary says and also safer to have bought up people rather than rent out MPP. It is like buying a slave under a feudal system.  This process of buying though it has been happening for some time is highly unethical and undemocratic within a democratic system where political parties contest on different manifestoes and the people often vote for a particular individual on that basis. Therefore under this system an MPP winning from one party has an obligation as well as an ethical and social bondage to the political Party that has nominated him .Therefore he/she has no ethical or moral right to join another party as a MP of that party.  Because then he will be betraying not only the voters who voted him but also the party that has sponsored him on a different policy.

Under that situation if a MP elected from Party A wants to join Party B then he should resign and contest from the new party he wants to join. This requires him to go for a by election so that then only his position could be legitimized. Therefore for democracy, ethics, morals and social justice to prevail, all political parties should stop this type of hijacking and jumping like frogs of MPP elected under another party. That will also consolidate the peoples respect on party system as an instrument of safeguarding their democratic rights.

If anyone opts to leave the man or the woman to whom they are married and wants to marry another then he/she must first divorce the first spouse before he/she elects to marry the other to make such action legitimate. If he/she does not comply with that requirement then the parties concerned will be charged for bigamy or polygamy as the case may be. Why can’t we adopt the same practice to politics as well? And reintroduce decent politics to this country.

After all politicians who go to Parliament, that body supposed to be supreme, as the legislators should set an exemplary example to society, just like Religious Leaders, Teachers and Physicians. They constitute the elites within the social hierarchy who have to lead the country in the correct direction. As the elites who form the foundation and the steel frame of a moral and civilized society they are responsible for taking the society on the correct path. If they opt to jump without adhering to these social values both the jumpers and takers should be discarded and abhorred as undesirable social elements.

The best solution to this dirty practice, is for the Government to pass a law banning such ‘jumping’ from one party to another illegal and unconstitutional and make it compulsory for such people to resign and re-contest from the new party where they wants to go. But such legal remedies could be used only in future as there is no provision in the present Constitution.

Therefore if no party can get a strong working majority then dissolve the Parliament and go for fresh elections so that people can give a clear mandate for the party of their choice to form a New Government. That would be the best remedy to get out of the present state of uncertainty and impasse. Thereafter the new Parliament should bring in legislation imposing a total ban on the present practice of turn coat culture purely for personal gain. That might perhaps give birth to a new political culture in this country.

There is yet a third proposition I would like to put forward to be considered by the President and all the parties with a view to overcoming the present political stalemate.

Give the first 2 ½ year period to Ranil and the balance 2 ½ years to MR to function as Prime Ministers. Give I extra Minister post for the UNP as it has 11 more seats more than the UPFA. That will make it 16 for UNP and 15 for UPFA. Create 2 more Ministries; 1 for TNA and the other 1 for the JVP making the total 33 cabinet Ministries. Form the whole Parliament in to a Government by a mutually agreed number of committees as proposed by Ranil and run the Parliament for 5 years with the PM or the President presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers. There will be no opposition under this system. While this arrangement will make justice by all political parties and the country will also have a stable government that will implement a national plan of development for five years with a broad national consensus.

This will enable to save unnecessary expenditure on another election and minimize political quarrelling and also relieve the country of the political impasse we are undergoing at the moment.

This might end up perhaps with a unique system of government not shared by any other country.