Parliament and democratization

The democratic world could derive considerable satisfaction from the fact that democracy and Parliament would be taking pride of place at the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference currently underway in Colombo. It is our wish that from now on, a renewed debate would take hold in the developing world and outside on the role of Parliament in the fostering and perpetuation of democracy.

A couple of days back, at a function conducted at Lake House, Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody had occasion to dwell on the issue of the vitality of Parliamentary democracy. Among other things, the Deputy Speaker mentioned that a principal perception of the public about the local legislature is that it is a place where wild squabbles occur among polarized sections. This is a highly misleading impression about Parliament and its functions, he said.

From the viewpoint of the democratic process, Parliament is of the most vital importance because it embodies the sovereign will of the people and is the country’s principal legislative organ, but every now and then, some ‘Representatives of the People’ forget these facts of the first importance. The unruly scenes that sometimes erupt in Parliament are the dire results of these bouts of seeming forgetfulness and irresponsibility and the public could not be faulted for nurturing a not too complimentary impression about Parliament, but this is not way it ought to be.

Dignity and decorum within Parliament are sacred requirements and our hope is that our ‘Representatives’ would constantly bear this in mind. We call on them to cooperate fully with the Speaker, his Deputy and other officials in maintaining these standards because Parliament should in no way stand devalued and downgraded in the eyes of the public.

However, indecorous behaviour plays a major role in the perhaps unwitting denigration of Parliament by the ‘Representatives’ themselves.

Another misconception which has been instrumental in preventing the public from seeing Parliament in the correct light is the notion that the local legislature is a mere ‘rubber stamp’ for decisions taken by the Executive President. This notion, while being highly erroneous, is born mainly of ignorance and superficial understanding among some sections.

Parliamentarians are law-makers in the true sense of the word and this needs to be understood by all sections of the public. In fact, the theoretical understanding of the Parliamentarian is that he plays a principal role in framing the country’s laws and in most cases this is really so. Accordingly, the erroneous impressions of the public would need to be erased and the authorities are obliged to spend some time on this task.

However, Parliament remains the principal state institution through which the people are empowered and we hope the CPC would dwell awhile on this very important function of the legislature.

As we have argued, empowerment of the citizen and the collectivity is the end of democracy and it needs to be probed whether this is in fact happening through our legislatures.

If the Member of Parliament is a representative of the people, he needs to work diligently towards realizing the common weal and ways and means must be sought to further facilitate this.

This should be another concern of the democratic world. The necessary institutions and practices should also be in place to enable the MP to play an expanded and enhanced role in law-making, since this is the prime function she or he is expected to carry out.