Responsibilities of political parties

Options are usually nice to have. In a democracy, having a choice means that the citizenry is empowered to decide who they want to govern. However, as in most things, reality is a lot more complex. In the past few days, a variety of politicians, including former Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, have put the onus on the public to select clean representatives to Parliament. However, it is also the responsibility of the political parties to set aside their loyalties, and focus on doing what is best for the country by giving nominations to clean members.  

All political parties, irrespective of hues, run on a complex system of loyalties. Top leaders of each party decide on who gets nominations and who doesn’t, based on what can be best described as a tribute system. Therefore, each party member has to ensure they maintain relations with the bigwigs of political parties, and anyone who wishes to gain favours needs to give his pound of flesh. 

This give and take process is based more on seniority and loyalty than on clean politics, as has been evidenced in the past, when party leaders have openly said they have “files” on specific Parliamentarians. Despite multiple claims of this nature, the files in question were never handed over to law enforcement authorities and questionable people have been given nominations time and again.     

This situation is especially unfair for women who wish to get nominations. There have been many instances when women are overlooked, despite many years of service to the party, because the focus is on men who are loyal to the leadership getting nominations. There have also been instances when women have been victims of sexual bribery, and faced numerous issues in attempting to get nominations. This is a key reason why, despite being one of the oldest democracies in Asia, Sri Lanka’s Parliaments have consistently lagged behind in women’s representation for decades. Even the last Parliament saw less than 5% of representation despite about 52% of the population being made up of women. This needs to change. 

There are several things that political parties can do to ensure that there is a better choice for the people. Section 2 (1) (dc) of the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law requires all candidates of Parliamentary Elections to submit an asset declaration to the Elections Commission of Sri Lanka. Individual candidates can unilaterally decide to make this document public prior to the elections, to demonstrate their commitment to transparency, accountability and anti-corruption. If this one document is made available to voters, then it is a critical step in the right direction.        

Secondly, the party can proactively evaluate the track records of their members and reject members who not only have corruption allegations, but have also disrespected Parliament. Reprehensible behaviour that was seen during the constitutional crisis is a case in point. The fact that the relevant political party does not take such a step is indicative that they are not as fervent proponents of democracy as their propaganda machines would have the public believe. This is unlikely, but should nonetheless be stressed. 

Third, the nomination boards of each political party or alliance should ensure that there is fair, if not equal representation, of women and minorities given nominations. If these three steps are taken by each political party, the responsibility of the public will be that much easier and genuine change will be seen in the next Parliament.