{"id":99945,"date":"2020-03-14T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T23:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99945"},"modified":"2020-03-14T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T23:02:08","slug":"power-without-honour-in-our-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/14\/power-without-honour-in-our-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Power without honour in our Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Countless are the pieces written lamenting the madness at Diyawanna Oya\nin the past so many years. Editorials, opinion pages and features in this daily\nalone demanded a proactive approach to stem the declining standards of our\nParliament.  There is no denying that if\nunchecked constitutional democracy becomes unworkable because the system rests\non honour, dignity and morality as much as on rules and legalities. It has been\nnoted even in western countries that declining standards have the tendency to\npromote authoritarian streaks in parliamentary regimes. Belying the democratic\nprinciple that every person has the right and the capacity to govern himself, this\nunencumbered right to choose the representatives is snatched by a plenitude of\nforces that have access to wealth and power. Where taxation systems and legal\nscrutiny are weak the criminal elements rush in, and Sri Lanka is the\narchetypal example on that count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When standards have slipped, the sands of morality shifted the electors\nsettle for less a fresh cycle of corruption becomes the new normal. Over the\npast decades it has become too hard to call the dishonorable out and instead of\npunishing them we have rewarded them with luxuries out of the public purse. The\npoliticians we elect are not what they claim to be prior to election. Socrates\nmay have said that ‘the greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be,\nwhat we pretended to be’, yet what we have are people in power not becoming\nwhat they pretend to be. The legislators of scant honour have forced their way and\nbecome successful through public life. The car park at Diyawanna Oya is a\nmirror to the world how the parliamentarians have taken the art of dishonorable\nactivity to a nakedly new level, not seen in any other parliament in the world.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan politicians have become masters in buying their way to the\nParliament except for a few men\/women of honour. In 2020 we are asked to elect\na different cohort of deputies, instead of the current lot who are described by\nour readers in colorful language.   In\nthe last two days in this paper alone our so called ‘honorabilis’ have been\ncalled crooks, ruffians, antisocial, black monied, bond scammers, drug dealers,\nrejects, who inhabit a place called Diyawanna Oya, breeding as\n“mosquitoes” like in the marshes of Bellanwila. Dr Amaratunga wrote,\n(24\/2) ‘(T)hey have squandered the country’s wealth, robbed its banks, made it\nalmost a subject nation, brought it down to its knees and finally sold its\nassets’. Even those who shouted aloud-reestablishing democracy brought in\npolitical rejects through the National List, retrieved from the dustbin of\npolitics, and appointed them Ministers. One can truthfully say that even the\nParliamentary debates stank to high heaven in the past few weeks thanks to\nRanjan Ramanayake’ antics. We Sri Lankans must be mad to spend so much of\nnational wealth to hear such inanities and bring shame on those persons who\ndecorated our Parliament in the past and set decent standards not second to the\nmother of Parliaments. The illustrious persons of the past who were universally\naccepted as luminaries are remembered fondly with gratitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\nwe ever succeed in this parliamentary system in the future? My guess is that it\ncan be changed but only gradually. Draining the swamp has to be in stages. For\na start the current leaders cannot obviously avoid nominating the existing lot\nwho helped to bring about the change. To reject some of the unsuitable to\nretire is not that easy without losing their vote banks. No sensible leader at\nthe moment will knowingly commit hara-kiri. Secondly, the election law has to\nbe tightened as to control election expenses but in doing so there are other\nhurdles to overcome. While you may ban the environmentally polluting stuff\nthere must be ways of educating the public who do not access the print media as\nin the past.  If the election material is\nnot advertised in the papers and the electronic media it will be unfair to\nthose who run this essential public service on shoe string budgets. The\nelectronic media has to be used however expensive it may be. The current system\nof electing deputies to the Parliament is therefore heavily skewed in favor of\nthe monied rich and the temptation to make up the losses while in office is\nabundantly obvious. Understandably the parliament becomes a training ground to\nlearn the art of robbing just as much Welikada is the school of criminal arts\nand psychedelic drugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst step towards a possible change is the right implementation of the\nprovisions pertaining to the National List. \nIf the National list is not abused in the manner of the previous\nPresident we can be a bit hopeful. I am dismayed by\nthe EC chief’s illogical comment confusing the much-needed change to rid of the\ndefeated entering through the back door, which seems to receive support from\nall parties. This provision as intended in our constitution can strengthen\nintelligence and professionalism required of parliamentarians and improve both\nlegislative and executive efficiency and honesty. They will add substance to\ndebates, improve policy discussion and contribute to national advancement. Also,\nthe future may be brighter if the electoral law can be changed to reduce the\nnumber of parliamentarians both at the center and the periphery. We need to\nenact legal provision to prevent crossovers, which destabilizes democratic\ngovernance and party discipline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nlife has been an exhausting long wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna Countless are the pieces written lamenting the madness at Diyawanna Oya in the past so many years. Editorials, opinion pages and features in this daily alone demanded a proactive approach to stem the declining standards of our Parliament.  There is no denying that if unchecked constitutional democracy becomes unworkable because the system rests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-donald-chandraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99945","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=99945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}