Can NPP really change the system?

People expect their elected preventatives behave well and not to let them down (File photo) 

The nomination period for the Parliamentary election scheduled for November 14 ended yesterday with many well-known figures of political parties deciding to opt out from the race. It is clear that they could have definitely tendered their nomination papers had the National People’s Power (NPP) not won the Presidential election last month.

For all politicians except for a few, politics is a money-making business. There have been many of them therefore somehow do a political somersault on the eve of or on the heels of an election and mange to gain a ministerial post, no matter whatever party comes to power. Also, some politicians know that the social status of an MP is also a good investment that produces fat returns. Such politicians seem to have been disappointed with the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the President, since he had vowed to prune perks of the politicians. 

Another group of former MPs seems to feel that they were on the wrong horse at the Presidential election and have lost hope of being reelected this time. Hence, a record number of members of the last Parliament have decided not to contest this time. 

The results of the Presidential election represented mostly the aspirations of the people who took to streets two years ago seeking a change in the political system. However, President Dissanayake would succeed only in making changes in symbolic matters, unless his party managed to obtain at least the simple majority in Parliament. If not, it would not be able to pass any Bill or resolution in the House that would bring in the changes contemplated.

Several political parties including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) that came second at the Presidential election have stated – genuinely or otherwise - that they would assist the President to fulfill the aspirations of the people. Nonetheless, no party can do or assist to do so if they failed to field a group of untainted men and women as candidates for the upcoming election. 

For the past several decades, the standards of the representative bodies of the people, especially the Parliament have been coming under severe criticism. Out of the 225 members of the Parliament during the so-called Yahapalana Government, 102 members had been from political families whose close relatives had also been preciously in the House, according to a survey. The outcome of the research was revealed at a forum conducted in November 2019 by Verite Research, a Colombo based think-tank which runs Manthri.lk, a website that tracks legislators. It was also told at this forum that about 80 out of those 102 MPs were “highly spoiled children of politicians who have come to Parliament on the strength of their parents and did not even attend a funeral of constituents.”  

The need to elect competent and decent people to law and policy-making bodies at national as well as provincial level has been a debate since independence, especially after the 1970 general election at which the United Front, an alliance led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike obtained two-thirds power in Parliament. The situation was aggravated subsequent to the next election in 1977 when the United National Party (UNP) won five-sixths of seats in the House. 

During the period between 1977 and 1994, gun-toting “Honourable” members of Parliament invaded polling booths and opposition rallies during by-elections, local council elections and the two national polls - the 1982 Presidential election and the only referendum held in the country in the same year.

Revealing some startling facts about the so-called people’s representatives, former Chairman of Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the General Secretary (leader) of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) D.E.W. Gunasekera said during the last general election that some MPs in the last Parliament had not spoken in the House since they were elected and some who had been in more than one Parliament had been so even until they retired. He stated that some of these dumb members had polled the highest number of votes at the elections they were returned.Gunasekara was of the view that only a handful of members in the Parliaments of the recent past were qualified to be called lawmakers. Meanwhile, shockingly 94 MPs of the Parliament elected in 2010 had not passed the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination, according to a statement made to the media by former Chancellor of the Peradeniya University, Professor M.O.A.de Zoysa on March 15, 2017.

Mr. Gunasekara observed that a Parliamentarian should possess four qualifications - capability in contributing to law-making, policy-making, monitoring of public financing and representation of people who elected them.
Basil Rajapaksa, the one-time Finance Minister under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa once during the height of the Aragalaya told media that people must also accept the responsibility of the economic crisis, as it was they who elected the President and the Parliament. Although his intention was to pass the buck, ironically, he was not totally wrong. It was the people who gave the highest number of preferential votes to Premalal Jayasekara who signed his nomination paper at a prison. It was the people of Gampaha District who gave more preferential votes to actress Upeksha Swarnamali than the senior politician Karu Jayasuriya at the 2010 general election. In fact, one should be ashamed to say a particular corrupt or incompetent MP is his representative, irrespective of his/her popularity.

The March 12 Movement has put forward an eight-point guideline in respect of selecting candidates. The guideline specify that candidates should be free of bribery and corruption, free of anti-social trades, environmentally friendly, free of abusive financial contracts, close to their electors and should not be criminals or persons abusing power while political parties should provide adequate opportunities for women and youth.

However, political parties that ruled the country so far, though publicly accepted it, have proved that they are not serious enough to rectify the situation. Hence, the onus is totally on the people to elect untainted and competent men and women as their representative.