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by Lionel Wijesiri

It is widely accepted that parliamentary democracy is a system of governance which has to evolve and grow taking into its fold the native realities and aspirations. It necessarily involves certain broad parameters of working and envisages certain principles and policies of public ethics as its functioning base.

The character and quality of parliamentary democracy depend on the quality and calibre of persons who man the parliament. Their behaviour should be such as to enhance the dignity of Parliament and its members in general. The degree of esteem in which the people of a country hold its Parliament is a sign of the success and maturity of its democratic process.

With its rich heritage spanning over two thousand years, Sri Lanka has been a crucible of many cultures as also systems of governance. After achieving Independence, we opted for a parliamentary form of Government.

We have amply proved our inherent democratic credentials by successfully conducting as many as twelve General Elections to the Parliament and many more to the other Legislatures. In spite of many trials and tribulations, democracy has struck deep roots in our country.

Transformation

However, over the past two decades, the face of our Parliament has undergone a dramatic transformation reflecting the socio-political development of the nation as a whole. To begin with, one finds that the number of political parties represented in the Parliament has been on the rise, especially in recent years.

This corresponds with the multiplication of political parties and the fragmentation of mainline political parties. Mergers and splits of political parties have become a recurring phenomenon in our electoral politics.

Parliament is not a talking shop. Its functioning is a serious business and ought to be conducted with a degree of dignity, decorum, and sincerity. It is visualized by the Constitution as an important instrument of socio-economic change. As such, it has to closely watch the functioning of the Government and influence its performance for social good.

Pandemonium

The proceedings of our Parliament, at many a times during the past few decades, had become noisy leading to pandemonium and turmoil. This projects the Parliament in a poor light. For example, just a few days ago Parliament witnessed one of the worst scenes with the PA and JVP opposition howling and screaming - the former over the incarceration of its activities and the other over the MOU between the Government and LTTE.

The disturbance reached a climax when a group of opposition MPs occupied the centre floor of the House in a "satyagraha". The developments that unfolded, resembled a scene lifted straight out of a cartoon movie.

The imperative for maintaining discipline and decorum in the Parliament can hardly be over-emphasized. Incidents of pandemonium and unruly scenes have been a matter of concern to all those genuinely connected with the working of parliamentary institutions-be it the Speaker, the Leader of the House, the Leader of Opposition, Leaders of Political Parties, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Whips or Senior members.

The top political brass of the country should meet and discuss how they could restore decorum to the functioning in Parliament because all of them should be concerned by the deteriorating standards in House of Parliament and more so in some of the provincial legislatures.

Closed minds

Our Post-independence history tells us that much of the problems in the smooth functioning of the Parliament arose when ruling parties behaved arbitrarily, tried to impose their will without discussions and considered dissent as anti-national and approached the issues with closed minds.

On the other hand, the difficulties also have cropped up because the opposition had been trying to embarrass the governments and push them to the wall. In consequence, the opposition has been resorting to trivia rather than raising the real problems of the people.

This has been a pattern of behaviour because the parties depend on trivia rather than on serious issues. This stems from the changed pattern of politics in Sri Lanka. Our politics is no more dependent on ideologies or principled programs.

Emotions

It depends more on exploiting emotions. Hence some of the parties depend on mobilizing their support on the basis of ethnic and other extremist considerations. When such sentiments become the foundations of political assemblage, it is but natural that disorderly elements take commanding positions in the party.

They have no academic bent of mind. They are not interested in resolving differences and seeking solutions through democratic debates and discussions.

They tend to seek solutions of their likings by pushing their weight on the political opponent. Hence they naturally tend to use their lungpower, rush to the well of the House and thus render normal proceedings in the House impossible. This pattern has been visible during the last two decades.

Some political analysts propose that a code of conduct for the parliamentarians is the need of the hour and the party leaders should be pulling up the erring members of the House. However, the matter of greater importance is to ponder why such a code is needed at all.

Why do some of our elected members act disorderly inside the House when healthy debates and discussions should be the norm rather than the exception? Why do MPs discard all probity thereby endangering the very essence of democracy?

No code of conduct can be effective as long as politics remains rooted in exploitation of emotions rather than in ideologies and principles.

Discipline

The absence of sensitive responses from both the government and the opposition on various issues would only result in continuation of the same patterns.

The Constitution, Rules of Procedure, Conventions and Usages provide enough guidance as to how members should conduct themselves within the House. Some of the former Legislators feel that the Constitution and the Rules of the Procedure provide adequate powers to the Speaker and strict enforcement of the Rules, to a great extent can improve the discipline and decorum of the House.

Many of them believe that political parties should also share the responsibility of ensuring discipline among the Members. Similarly, they also suggest that only the Speaker cannot be held responsible for the indiscipline among the Members and that the political parties should have a code of discipline, right from selection of candidates to the conduct of their elected Members inside and outside the House.

Once elected, a Speaker eschews party politics and is expected to hold the scales evenly between the government and the opposition, although he is invariably a member of the government party.

If, however, MPs do not respect the Speaker's ruling, the basis of that code underpinning parliamentary conduct has to break down. It is therefore necessary that all parties co-operate with the Speaker in upholding the dignity and decorum of Parliament.

Responsibility

All our political parties are collectively responsible for the deterioration of standards and norms of behaviour in Parliament.

They seem to be oblivious to the fact that their behaviour was fast eroding the faith and hope of people in the legislatures and Parliament that were built as temples of the aspirations of the people. Parliamentarians are expected to seriously take up the basic questions and problems of people and seek solutions to these problems through a serious and sober debate.

Parliamentary democracy would crumble unless the top brass among politicians see the writing on the wall and take bold decisions to correct the foundations of their politics.

The fruits that we are reaping today are because muscle power, money power, thuggery, and vote rigging have become accepted practices during past elections and the greatest tragedy is that some of our political parties appear to be encouraging these trends.

There is little doubt, therefore, that the time has come when all the political parties should find ways to improve the quality of members' participation in parliamentary proceedings and to ensure that members conduct themselves in a dignified and decorous manner.

Political education

As elsewhere, training is necessary for them to understand the subtleties and nuances of parliamentary democracy.

There is an urgent need for imparting political education to new members, either by the political parties themselves or through some other mechanism as may be evolved on the basis of consensus. In a parliamentary system of government, parliamentarians play a vital role.

The image of democracy as a form of government depends upon the Parliament and the image of Parliament, in turn, depends upon the image of its parliamentarians. In fact, the future of the democratic set-up itself depends upon the way the parliamentarians discharge their duties and responsibilities. Once elected, they are representatives not only of their constituency but of the country and the nation as a whole.

Hence, their behaviour and actions inside the House as well as outside have a great bearing and impact on the national situation.

New horizon

The members of the present Parliament have the solemn responsibility of launching our country into a new horizon.

They have to realise the ideals and goals enshrined in our constitution and to collectively endeavour to set new standards and reach higher levels of parliamentary conduct.

It is said that any institution is as good as its members choose to make it. It is thus that the members have to live up to the people's expectations in heralding a new era in our parliamentary polity.

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