An onerous task

Editorial-June 26, 2015

Civic-minded people are coming forward, as never before, to help cleanse politics. Among them are civil society activists, captains of industry, trade unionists, university dons and priests. Their active participation in this kind of social movement has been possible because both the government and the Opposition are in crisis and too weak to hold their own. But, the problem with such ad hoc campaigns is that after functioning as pressure groups in times of crisis they disintegrate and politicians consolidate their positions. Therefore, proper leadership is a prerequisite for maintaining the momentum of the ongoing pro-people campaign which needs to be transformed into a national movement without a partisan political agenda. Sadly, most of those who have the capacity to lead it failed to remain independent at the last presidential election. They plunged into politics and compromised their credibility.

The biggest challenge before the social movement that has taken upon itself the onerous task of ridding politics of criminal elements is to survive the next Parliamentary election and continue its struggle. Nonetheless, its tireless efforts to crank up pressure on political leaders to refrain from nominating bad eggs to contest elections are to be highly appreciated.

Preventing unsavoury elements from securing nominations from recognised political parties is, no doubt, half the battle in making the next Parliament less bad. But, there are other measures which the campaigners for clean politics should not lose sight of.

A cap has to be placed on campaign expenditure. At present, the sky is the limit and some politicians even give away money, mobile phones, alcohol and dry rations in return for votes, mostly in the poor quarters of the city of Colombo, where more than one half of the people live in slums and shanties. Similarly, politicians must be made to account for their campaign funds which amount to billions of rupees.

Besides clean track records, educational qualifications must also be made a criterion for contesting elections. A candidate need not necessarily have universities degrees or post graduate qualifications to enter Parliament or any other political institution. But, he or she should have a decent education if he or she is to carry out his or her legislative duties properly. An MP who has failed GCE O/L mathematics cannot be expected to understand the national budget and the accounts of public institutions he or she is required to scrutinise as part of his or her fiduciary duties. The late Finance Minister Dr. N. M. Perera once refused to talk to a hectoring journalist about his budget as the latter failed to explain how national income was calculated!

The need for a recall mechanism cannot be overemphasised. At present there is no way electors can deal with sitting MPs in case of wrongdoing. A recall system will serve as a sword of Damocles for misfits who enter Parliament by pulling the wool over the eyes of the voting public. Now that it has been decided to adopt the German electoral system, there is no reason why we should not emulate other countries which allow electors to recall their errant representatives. The campaigners for a clean Parliament ought to study the British Recall of MPs Act 2015 with a view to introducing something similar here. After all, we are great fans of the Westminster system, aren’t we?

For the first time a serious effort has been made to implement an election manifesto. The new government was left with no alternative but to strive to make good its promises with a general election staring it in the face. It has sought to use its 100-day programme as a stepping stone, but the fact remains that some benefits, albeit temporary, have accrued to the public. There is a pressing need for making election manifestoes legally binding so that political parties will be cautious in making promises and action can be taken against their failure to implement their election pledges.