{"id":57535,"date":"2016-08-11T15:03:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T22:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57535"},"modified":"2016-08-11T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T22:03:05","slug":"a-sad-day-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/11\/a-sad-day-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"A sad day for democracy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

August 11, 2016, 12:00 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

The Joint Opposition (JO) MPs yesterday staged a protest in Parliament against the Office on Missing Persons Bill (OMPB), which was originally scheduled to be put to the vote today. But, since no JO MPs spoke during the debate thereon, the government made the most of the situation and rushed it through Parliament with some amendments. There has been a serious lapse on the part of the JO.<\/p>\n

The Rajapaksa loyalists should have moved the judiciary and sought a judicial review of the Bill at issue weeks ago. But, they were busy with other things to gain political mileage to the neglect of their legislative duties. The government took steps to place it on the Order Paper of Parliament and secure its passage with ease.<\/p>\n

Instead of plunging Parliament into turmoil, the protesting MPs should have knelt down on either side of the road leading to Parliament, apologising to the public for having shirked their legislative responsibilities. Of what use is an Opposition which cannot figure out a constitutional amendment disguised as an ordinary Bill and invoke the jurisdiction of the apex court to thwart its presentation to Parliament?<\/p>\n

It was obvious that the OMPB, in its original form, inter alia, sought to whittle down the powers of the executive president further. It made the Constitutional Council (CC) recommendations mandatory in respect of the appointment of personnel to the Office on Missing Persons; this kind of additional responsibility given to the CC amounted to further curtailment of the powers of the executive president elected directly by the people and, therefore, the OMPB, according to the original draft, was a constitutional amendment in all but name. It violated the Constitution. Article 82 (1) states: “No Bill for the amendment of any provision of the Constitution shall be placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, unless the provision to be repealed, altered or added, and consequential amendments, if any, are expressly specified in the Bill and is described in the long title thereof as being an Act for the amendment of the Constitution.” The OMPB, on the Order Paper, had not been presented as a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, the protesting MPs hadn\u2019t stressed this aspect of the issue in their appeals to the President.<\/p>\n

It is too early to say whether the amendments which are said to have been introduced in a hurry yesterday, have rid the OMPB of the sections inconsistent with the Constitution.<\/p>\n

The JO MPs belatedly sought a presidential intervention to have the OMPB referred to the Supreme Court for an opinion. Unfortunately, they made a political issue out of a legal one and landed President Maithripala Sirisena in an embarrassing position. If they had explained the legal position to him clearly, perhaps he would have been able to act without antagonising his allies in the ruling coalition. Mere rhetoric and threats won\u2019t do. Shame on the JO!<\/p>\n

However, the manner in which the government secured the passage of the OMPB yesterday has left a bad taste in many a mouth. The entire process of passing the crucial Bill, described as being inimical to the national interest, took less than two hours, we are told. The government\u2019s modus operandi was antithetical to good governance the ruling coalition claims to promote. A Bill of this nature should have been subjected to a wider public discussion and all stakeholders consulted before its presentation to Parliament for ratification. The irresponsible conduct of the JO members cannot be cited in extenuation of the deplorable manner in which the OMPB was passed. The self-appointed champions of good governance have demonstrated once again that, though they are critical of the last regime\u2019s unspeakable practice of steamrollering Bills through Parliament, they, too, do not hesitate to do so to further their political interests. Shame on them as well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial\u00a0Courtesy The Island August 11, 2016, 12:00 pm The Joint Opposition (JO) MPs yesterday staged a protest in Parliament against the Office on Missing Persons Bill (OMPB), which was originally scheduled to be put to the vote today. But, since no JO MPs spoke during the debate thereon, the government made the most of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57535","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=57535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}