260 MPs ? Reform Process Should Be Democratic First

By Kusal Perera –April 20, 2015

Kusal Perara

There are close door deliberations among leading politicians of many hues (hardly any shades of political differences in them now), none of whom can be taken as serious and honest wo/men to decide how our Constitutional and Electoral reforms should take shape.

The very arguments/reasons attached to their decisions to either postpone or fast forward the process prove how selfish they are in sticking to power. These wo/men have proposed to increase parliament numbers to 260, with a hybrid of FPP and PR systems.

Unfortunately some Colombo men and women who have chosen to wear the mantle of “civil society” representation, wants to push electoral reforms with any large parliament as long as they can be part of the reform discussions. And these reform discussions are never made open to the public and almost all drafts are in English only. Thus leaving the Sinhala and Tamil polity completely out of the scene. The most tragic part is that, this co-habitation could make the people carry the burden of a still larger parliament in the name of “democracy” as they wish to define, for their own self satisfaction.

SO, let’s quickly run through pros and cons of this proposal to have a still larger parliament of 260 dud coins, in all possibility.

1. This present parliament elected in 2010 April is no more a legitimate institution to decide for the people.

In 2010 April when elected, the UPFA as the Govt. had 144 MPs. The Opposition had 81. In 05 months, September saw the Govt. increasing to 153 MPs. Thereafter with Shirani Bandaranayake as CJ agreeing to allow the 18 A to go without a Referendum, the Govt. number increased yet again to 161 in November 2010.

In December 2014 Govt numbers came down to 152 and the Opposition increased to 73 MPs.

All these changes in numbers deformed the will of the people decided in 2010 April, for no good of the people and with no people’s wish. Is it wrong to assume all changes took place with black money rolling, for perks and privileges and for sheer personal gains? Worst was what happened after the Jan 08 presidential poll. PresidentSirisena appointed Leader of the Opposition as PM of the government with only 64 MPs in a 225 member parliament. With no legal challenges, another 25 from the SLFP joined to be appointed as Ministers and Deputy Ministers, thus making the Wickremesinghe govt still a minority with 89 MPs.

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