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Political
expediency The messages to the voters are two-fold; the Government asking voters to strengthen the Central Government by voting their parties to office while the Opposition thrust is that this is an election about your local problems; your garbage, your rates, your road, your street lights etc., and therefore people should vote for their local representative. But
increasingly, local councils are getting more and more mired in
the muck of Sri Lanka's national politics, and once again, as has
been the case for some time as well, this is nothing but a power-struggle
between political parties. And as we can see in some quarters, even
an intra-party power struggle. Last week, this newspaper published details of a surreptitious move on the part of the new Government to bring in urgent legislation that would enable two parties to combine their strength after an election and form a coalition administration -- just like the way President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as President, and has control of Parliament with the support of the JVP and JHU. This provision is not there now. According to the Local Government laws that exist today, the single party that gets the most votes, or the party that comes first wins the Mayoral post in the Municipalities or the Chairman's post in smaller councils. But in the proposed move, No. 2 and 3 can join to oust No. 1. The Opposition UNP is screaming that this is not fair -- and referring to it, quite correctly, as the adoption of "political expediency". But they may well have adopted the same strategy had they been in office and faced with the same dilemma. On
the other hand, had the UNP introduced such legislation, the PA
and the JVP would have howled in protest calling it an undemocratic
and fascist act. Today, even if one party is in the minority numbers-wise (though being the single largest party), the spirit of local government permits a Mayor or Chairman from that party to continue because the Minister of Local Government rarely wishes to upset the applecart so to say, in local administration. But what is most unfortunate is that these proposals on electoral reforms emerge, and submerge according to political expediency. If the Dinesh Gunawardene Committee was able to get consensus from all parties, that in itself being no mean achievement -- then the Committee's findings should not be implemented piece-meal, but in to-to. Important recommendations have been made about the existing proportional representation system, which while providing equitable distribution of the people's mandate among all parties (the JVP would never have reached their present strength if not for this move by J.R. Jayewardene) also breeds never-ending back-stabbing and a reservoir or bottomless pit of financial resources for candidates-- all IOUs that have to be cashed to the big businessmen once that candidate is elected. It breeds not only political intrigue but rank corruption. There
is a desperate need to bring back at least a half-way house, the
old Ward member in the local councils. There is an urgent need for
a resident to know who his 'Ward member' is; a man or woman who
represents a defined geographical area in that council. He represents
that Ward in the council, and is responsible for the welfare of
all citizens living in that geographical ward. Parliament's inability to push legislation - especially in recent years with the rise and fall of governments has been a major worry for this country's general legislative programme. And this might be a good time as ever to look at this aspect -- so that all these elections, and all these MPs and Councillors who are sustained largely (though not entirely ) by the tax-payers and all these elections utilising millions and millions of rupees of public funds -- mean something tangible to the ordinary citizen. |
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