{"id":103937,"date":"2020-06-25T17:05:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T00:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103937"},"modified":"2020-06-25T17:05:15","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T00:05:15","slug":"why-the-infamous-national-list-should-be-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/25\/why-the-infamous-national-list-should-be-scrapped\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the infamous National List should be scrapped?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Provisions for\nthis so-called National list were introduced by amending Sec 62 of the1978\nConstitution by the14th Amendment on 28.5.1988. Sec 62 of the 1978 Constitution\nprovides only for 196 MPP. This was an increase of 28 from 168 seats\nrepresenting 160 electorates in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I year of\nmaking the 1978 Constitution it was amended and 196 was increased to 225 by the\n14th Amendment which states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Artcle 62 of the 1978 Constitution is hereby\namended by the repeal of (1) of that article and the substitution of the\nfollowing paragraph therefore.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There shall be\na Parliament which shall consist of two hundred and twenty-five Members elected\nin accordance with the provisions of the Constitution\u201d (Note 225 elected).\nAlthough it is said here, the 225 are elected, actually there were only 196\nelected members. The balance 29 came through a new invention called the\nNational List introduced in article 8 of 14th Amendment. Under this Amendment\nprovision was made for the EC to appoint another 29 members to Parliament from\nthe lists submitted by the respective parties at the time of nominations going\nby the number of votes polled by each party at the election.  Since they were taken in only from lists\nsubmitted outside the nomination list to contest elections by the parties and\nthey were never elected by the people at the election, it is not correct to say\nall 225 were elected as stated in the 14th A. This was a willful violation of\nthe country\u2019s Constitution enacted a year ago. Instead it would have been\nbetter and more appropriate to have them called the 29 appointed members, thus\ncalling a spade a spade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The said\namendment enacts by declaring that these 29 candidates submitted by political\nparties at the time of handing over nominations for the election the CE shall\napportion them among the political parties or Independent groups in the same\nproportion which the number of votes polled by each party enabling them to be members\nof Parliament, although they were not physically elected by the people. This is\na fabricated lie. The process adopted here is a devious and mischievous attempt\nby JR, only to give legitimacy to an illegitimate process designed by him to\nenable the political parties to send their faithful to enter Parliament through\nthe back door bypassing the sovereignty of the people given to them to elect\ntheir representatives. This is another dirty political trick by JR to increase\nhis power and consolidate his authority in the House as if the 196 elected by\nthe people is not enough to carry out the functions of the House.  This was an increase of 57 members over the\n1970 number and it constitutes the first additional burden imposed by JR on the\nheads of the tax payers, with no benefit to the people at all. Accordingly the\nintroduction of the National list was malafide ipso facto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If you look at the National Lists submitted by\nvarious political parties this time you will find the ugliness of this system\nand to what sad levels it has been brought to by self-seeking political party\nleaders. This comment is particularly relevant to the SJBV list of Sajit led by\nTissa Attanayaka, who can never win a seat anywhere in the country at this\nelection. Added to this insult is Harin Fernando. Going back to the UNP list we\nsee John Amaratunga, at the top of the list as if he is the most important and\nindispensable law maker who should be in Parliament of Sri Lanka. What a\nmiserable selection t0 head a list of a national party. The SLPP list appears\nto be different this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One wonders as\nto what contribution these jokers have made to public life in this country in\ntheir long stay in politics other than making their own purses fat and\nsupporting their leaders in parliament to ruin the country over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately\nthis aspect has never being contested by anybody either inside or outside the\nParliament, except a brief comment by Chandani Kongaha made last week in Kandy.\nTherefore it has opened the doors of the so-called August Assembly for\nundesirable 29 more parasitic political henchmen to get in to Parliament,\nthereby adding further burden to the tax payers, only for the benefit of\npoliticians, converting the government to be a government by the politicians,\nfor the politicians and of the politicians, fundamentally the opposite of what\ndemocracy is supposed to be. The idea of a National list I think finds its\nroots in the 6 Nominated MPP under the Soulbury Constitution and it continued\nup to 1977 with mixed results, both positive and negative. Jennings made\nprovisions for it for a different purpose, invariably bona fide. That is to\nfind representation for those elements not represented in Parliament through\nthe elected. At the initial stages all appointed MPP were white men\n.Subsequently it changed to trade union leaders and minority\nrepresentatives  to woo their vote rather\nthat their capacity to improve the quality of law making. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National\nlist of JR on the other hand was shrewdly and cunningly designed entirely for\naccommodating their kith and kin and favorites who cannot come to Parliament\nthrough elections, first in order to enable them to enjoy the luxuries of\npolitical plums and second for party leaders to have a set of MPP reliable MPP\nin Parliament to provide against a rainy day who will not be answerable for\nrecalling at subsequent elections or before even If they act against the public\nwill  and also who will vote in favor of\nany legislation presented by their party leaders as they depends entirely on\nthem for their political survival.  These\nbackdoor intruders were heavily used by JR to bring in 16 Amendments to the\n1978 Constitution within 2 years of its enactment, all passed for the benefit\nof the  UNP and broadly for politicians\nonly.  Look at the enhanced benefits and\nprivileges like increased salaries and perks such as full pension benefits in 5\nyears  that is passed on to their wives\nas well, duty free vehicles, liquor bars, petrol sheds Government contracts and\nother financial benefits like the DCB money, often misused, disbursed through\nthem in the Districts and so on.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nSirisena misused this provision in 2015 to get the number of his SLFP votes in\nParliament increased unconstitutionally and unethically by appointing even\nthose who were rejected by the people at the 2015 elections. Few cases in point\nwere S.B Disanayaka and Vijitamuni Zoysa. By doing so he not only violated the\nConstitution but also murdered the fundamental principles of all democratic\nvalues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is worse is\nthese henchmen are not answerable and responsible to the people but only to\ntheir Party leaders who have put them there, made democracy a real joke and an\nopen mockery in this country. These law makers under these circumstances only\nlook after the interests of their leaders and their own. Under this situation\ndemocracy needs to be redefined in a new context in this country where\nuniversal franchise was granted even before the UK did it..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One can see\nfurther deterioration with this parachute list when you look at the list of political\nrejects submitted by the parties to fill I this time. Usually the names that\nappear at the top of the lists depend solely and entirely on personal\nconsiderations that has nothing to do with law making for the good of the\npeople. This reference applies particularly to the UNP and the Jana Bala Wegaya\nof Sajit Premadasa.. The only way to prevent these nefarious elements coming to\nParliament is to not to cast a single vote to these parties in protest so that\nthese jokers will not find entry in to Parliament. Thereby the voters can do\na  very big job to save democracy in this\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for me I am\nvehemently opposed to this undemocratic, anti-national and waste full national\nlist that serves no purpose at all to the country or the people but only breeds\ncorruption and erosion of democracy in this country. T<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore I\nstrongly recommend that the next Government scrap this nuisance at the first\nopportunity it gets after the election under a new Constitution for this\ncountry and also even the number of MPP in Parliament should be reduced to\nabout 150 so that we have a pruned Parliament affordable to the country instead\nof having a white elephant Parliament, a virtual paradise for politicians, as\nwe have it today. I am sure such action on the part of the new Government will\ntremendously increase its popularity among the masses for decades to come, as\nthey see that at last a people friendly government has emerged after 72 years\nof independence and 205 years of repressive foreign colonial rule in this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Provisions for this so-called National list were introduced by amending Sec 62 of the1978 Constitution by the14th Amendment on 28.5.1988. Sec 62 of the 1978 Constitution provides only for 196 MPP. This was an increase of 28 from 168 seats representing 160 electorates in 1970. After I year of making the 1978 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}