A case beyond a class

Friday, 10 May 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

AN exasperated Speaker has decided to hold classes to teach Members of Parliament the basics of decorum when they are seated in the House. This is clearly a long-overdue move, but the public would argue not enough given the deplorable shenanigans that take place not just in Parliament but also at provincial council level.

The frequent insults hurled in Parliament have become such common knowledge that people laugh them off, knowing that objecting is pointless. As a consequence, important debates are often steamrolled over by unnecessary and ugly bickering that leaves the fate of the nation completely unattended. Even the all-important National Budget debates are sidetracked by endless invectives that do nothing to deal with the questions on hand, some even when President Mahinda Rajapaksa is attending sessions.

In fact readers will remember how Deputy Minister of Petroleum Sarana Gunawardane was suspended from Parliament in 2011 for a period of one week for his misconduct in the House during the Budget speech by throwing a bottle of water at the Opposition.

Such littering of invectives has long since filtered down to provincial level with politicians doing their best to outdo each other in the foul-mouth arena. If a contest were to be held, it would be a close call between the various political parties that often ignore the presence of women and children at the venues where they vent the lower part of their vocabulary.

With such behaviour regularly on display, it is little wonder that respect for these forums has been all but lost. Some public representatives even lower themselves to using these cheap tricks to gain media attention, clearly following the adage that any publicity is better than none. Such clear displays of ignorance and uncouthness only serve to underscore how deeply the governance system of Sri Lanka is flawed.

When foul words are not enough, they resort to insensitive actions such as demanding luxury breakfast items when the rest of their constituents can barely put a meal of bread and dhal together for Rs. 80, which is what is paid by Parliamentarians for their lusty meals.

Callousness runs so deep that Parliamentarians are demanding pork even when their Muslim brethren have religious reasons to shun such consumption. Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of this was when the Speaker made an incredibly sexist comment in asking the female MPs to look into the meals. It seems that their task remains limited even though the people who elected them into the House have given them different responsibilities.

Even with such scrumptious food on offer, it would seem that it provides little attraction to MPs, with many ministers being absent for the debate where their funding allocations were to be discussed. If the Government is serious in its quest for development, then the ministers need to understand their weighty task and not blatantly disregard their duties. Such negligence should surely be reprimanded severely and not just by a class!

It is high time that serious action is taken to instil discipline in MPs, which would have the added advantage of being a beacon to provincial councils and could well herald a day when politicians are given a smidgen of genuine respect.