{"id":65437,"date":"2017-04-22T23:04:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T05:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=65437"},"modified":"2017-04-22T14:59:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T21:59:14","slug":"high-time-for-right-to-recall-legislation-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/04\/22\/high-time-for-right-to-recall-legislation-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"High time for ‘Right to Recall’ legislation in Sri Lanka!"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
The stench from Meethotamulla, metaphorically speaking, is being matched by the stench of political rivals lobbing chunks of political garbage at one another.\u00a0 The politically dispassionate pointing out that there are countries where such disasters resulted in the resignation of relevant subject ministers or officials, called for the resignation of those responsible.\u00a0 The most uncomfortable thing about all this is that people don\u2019t have any position to resign from; they can\u2019t\u00a0give up their citizenship.<\/div>\n
Much has been written about waste management over the past few days.\u00a0 Hopefully outrage and cheap politicking will give way to sober reflection, self-criticism, responsible citizenship and a scientific approach to the resolution of the problem at all levels which also eliminates the corruption that has made garbage disposal a lucrative business for some while bringing death to others.\u00a0 For now, let us consider the larger issue at hand, that of responsibility and therefore accountability, especially on the part of representatives. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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We can always reject erring politicians at the polls.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only option we have.\u00a0 Either we think this is enough or we are hampered by ignorance or impotency to come up with a better system.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit like waste management.\u00a0 The authorities have for years talked of the 3 R\u2019s (reduce, reuse and recycle).\u00a0 They have tried to educate the public.\u00a0 They\u2019ve set up various sorting mechanisms.\u00a0 The response has been poor.\u00a0 We expect our representatives to deliver and if they don\u2019t we just grin and bear, and even re-elect them after playing a game where relative merits and party loyalty outweigh performance.\u00a0 In other words we essentially assume that politicians have a sense of responsibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Pic: www.newsradio.lk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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We have to come to terms sooner or later with the fact that we just can\u2019t expect people to do what\u2019s right and leave it at that.\u00a0 We don\u2019t worry whether candidates declare assets or not and no one bothers to demand an asset declaration from politicians at the completion of their terms.\u00a0 That\u2019s how complacent we are.\u00a0 We are kings and queens until the polls close and are slaves thereafter until the next election.\u00a0 And even if we punish wrongdoers and the incompetent, they can still creep in through the backdoor called the \u2018National List,\u2019 a devise used by even the lords and ladies of the Yahapalana Project.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Accountability is a tough issue simply because it is the currently unaccountable who have the authority to script it into law.\u00a0 This is clear when we consider the fortuitous circumstances which made for the 17th Amendment, the ease with which it was done away with, the difficult passage of the 19th, the foot-dragging that preceded the Right to Information Act being passed and the strange silence about the 20th Amendment, i.e. on electoral reform, although it was screamed about by chest-thumping yahapalanists<\/i> in the run up to the January 8 \u2018Revolution\u2019. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Without electoral reform and given the escape clause in the 19th Amendment pertaining to cabinet size the accountability measures currently in place are at risk.\u00a0 There\u2019s no harm, however, in proposing additional measures, especially one that few have talked about, namely the right to recall.<\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s not a novel idea.\u00a0 Voters in British Columbia\u2019s Legislative Assembly, for example, can petition to have their parliamentary representatives removed from office and can enforce it through a by-election (Sri Lanka\u2019s Proportional Representation system forbids such procedures obviously, another reason why Electoral Reform should precede recall legislation). Several states in the USA permit recall on grounds such as misconduct or malfeasance.\u00a0 Even the ancient Athenians had a recall option, ostracism. In India it operates at local level bodies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.\u00a0 We live in a hire-and-fire system and as such we have the moral responsibility to affirm the political equivalent, elect-and-recall.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Feroze Varun Gandhi in an article published on the subject in \u2018The Hindu\u2019 has offered some caveats which would be good to keep in mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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While it is necessary to ensure that a recall process is not frivolous and does not became a source of harassment to elected representatives, the process should have several built-in safeguards such as an initial recall petition to kick-start the process and electronic-based voting to finally decide its outcome. Furthermore, it should ensure that a representative cannot be recalled by a small margin of voters and that the recall procedure truly represents the mandate of the people. To ensure transparency and independence, chief petition officers from within the Election Commission should be designated to supervise and execute the process.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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As things stand we can\u2019t expect resignation.\u00a0 Politicians are not into self-flagellation, they don\u2019t self-immolate.\u00a0 They justify action and inaction (like everyone else).\u00a0 It is not that they are all dishonorable and have no notion of dignity, but such things are usually produced by a society that has high moral standards.\u00a0 Ours does not.\u00a0 It also follows that those who won\u2019t hear of resignation will probably not want to talk about recall.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t stop the people from talking about it, however.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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But let\u2019s begin with the 20th Amendment.\u00a0 It is exactly two years (731 days) since the 100 days within which yahapalanists promised to institute electoral reforms.\u00a0 Was that project dumped and is it to remained buried in the Meethotamullas of Political Distraction?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t this alone warrant a call for recall?<\/div>\n
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Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. Email: <\/i>malindasenevi@gmail.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Twitter: malindasene.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE The stench from Meethotamulla, metaphorically speaking, is being matched by the stench of political rivals lobbing chunks of political garbage at one another.\u00a0 The politically dispassionate pointing out that there are countries where such disasters resulted in the resignation of relevant subject ministers or officials, called for the resignation of those responsible.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65437","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=65437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}