Although after the creation of the executive presidential system the state power which had been concentrated in the parliament has been split and a substantial part has been vested in an executive president who is directly elected by the people and thereby power is effectively divided between the president and the parliament, the parliament may still be considered the supreme political institution in the country. It is the legislature elected by the people that functions as the main legislative body which determines the policies required by the country and makes the laws.
It is at a time when that political institution, viz, the parliament, is in rapid decline that Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, who is an M.P. who had represented the opposition, is elected to the post of Speaker with the support of the government party too. If there has been a deterioration in the dignity of the parliament, the new Speaker has the main responsibility of restoring that dignity. That will be the test of the effectiveness of the new Speaker.
The parliament is the main political institution consisting of representatives elected by the people. However, if some of them have been elected not through the genuine votes of the people but through a system of violent plunder, then such an institution consisting of plunderers rather than of genuine representatives elected by the people cannot be supreme or dignified.
It is absolutely necessary to evolve a method by which such persons who bring the parliament into disrepute can be expelled, and one of the prime responsibilities of the Speaker is to ensure that such plunderers are not permitted to be elected to parliament. It is not possible by merely conducting the affairs of the parliament well to restore to parliament the honor it has lost. That can be done only if the new Speaker is able to find an appropriate solution to the above problem which has had a decisive effect on the parliament’s honor.
For that purpose a parliamentary select committee or a commission consisting of group of persons trusted and respected by the people outside parliament can be set up in order to find out the serious malpractices that have occurred in the last parliamentary election and the persons responsible for them. All those who are found guilty by the inquiry can be expelled from parliament.
At the same time the Speaker can emphasize to the parliament the necessity of setting up by law an elections commission with wide powers like the independent elections commission that exists in India to prevent the recurrence of such malpractices that bring the parliament into disrepute, at any elections that will be held in the future.
The Speaker can take the lead in the process of creating such an elections commission. Even in the case of the MPs who are genuinely elected by the people there is the need to bring them to a position where they are trusted and respected by the people. That too is a fundamental problem relating to the parliament’s honor. For this purpose it is possible to have a code of ethics which sets out the duties and obligations of the MPs. The parliament can create a mechanism through which it will be possible to submit complaints against those who commit offences in violation of that code and the complaints can be inquired into and the offenders punished.
It is also important to ensure the transparency of the people’s representatives who are elected to the parliament. Although there is a law that require the MPs who are elected to parliament to submit a statement of their assets and liabilities and of their wives and children to the commissioner of elections before or soon after taking oaths and thereafter before July 31 every year, that too does not appear to be implemented with regard to MPs. Although refraining from making statements of assets and liabilities, or failure to divulge facts through those statements, is considered an offence serious enough to require the deprivation of civic rights of those concerned, neither the commissioner of elections nor the secretary general of parliament follow a policy of making complaints to courts against the MPs concerned.
Although the authorities are required by law to make available to any interested citizen a copy of a statement of assets and liabilities by a person who is obliged by law to make a statement of assets and liabilities, that law too is not implemented. The new Speaker can take action to make a fundamental change in this state of affairs. He can order the secretary to the parliament to obtain statements of assets and liabilities for each relevant year from all the MPs who were in parliament, and from all the MPs who have now been elected. The Speaker can also order the secretary to the parliament to create necessary facilities for any citizen to get photocopies of those statements at a price equivalent to the cost of making such a copy.
In a democratic political system all activities of the legislature must be open to the public. For that purpose the parliament must be totally open to the media. Today the parliament in Sri Lanka is open at least to some extent to the printed media only. Even then the discussions at committee level are not open even to the printed media. Opening of activities in parliament not only to the printed media but also to the electronic media is an essential condition for broadening democratic freedom. At the same time it is possible to open the gates of committee level discussions where matters relating to public life and state administration, leaving out committee meetings relating to the defense of the state, can be opened to all mass media as is done in other countries.
Although the auditor general must submit to parliament annually an audit report giving the activity of all institutions related to government, for a fairly long period now what is submitted to parliament is not audit reports of all government institutions but those relating to certain government institutions only. There is hardly any auditing of funds like the president’s fund. Although no funds relating to govt. are supposed to be outside the purview of the auditor general, even massive funds like the ‘samurdhi’ fund exist outside the auditor general’s control. Programmes like the sale of state institutions to the private sector are implemented without a proper supervision on the part of the parliament. The responsibility of the new speaker is to change this state of affairs immediately and bring the activity of every state institution ultimately answerable to parliament. It is essential to see that the audit report of every state institution is brought by the auditor general before parliament as required by law, and also to introduce an efficient system by which copies of those reports are made available to the public.
Even by fulfilling these few conditions the new Speaker will be able to effect a revival of democratic freedom that are now in decay and turn the parliament again into an institution trusted and respected by people.
If the new Speaker is able to fulfill this task, the name Anura Bandaranaike will certainly go into history as that of a major figure who safeguarded democracy in Sri Lanka.