PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE AND POSSIBLE ABUSE
Posted on January 24th, 2021
Palitha Mapatuna
It is possible that an individual might hide behind the legal immunity of parliamentary privilege and, disregarding moral principles, engage in direct or implicit defamation of another or others.
Such defamation may happen either through the defamer’s own intention or by instigation of others.
If this occurs, it seems contrary to the intention behind parliamentary privilege and, as such, would amount to abuse of it.
In fairness, it therefore seems necessary that framers of parliamentary rules re-examine the question of parliamentary privilege to determine whether it is possible to introduce safeguards against abuse.
In this regard, blind adherence to practices in some other countries does not seem prudent or necessary.
Palitha Mapatuna
January 25th, 2021 at 10:44 am
As I may have said before, our government is a Kleptocratic system falsely claiming to be democratic.