Curtailing MPs’ pensions: Playing to the gallery

The Government is getting ready to abolish pensions for MPs as part of fulfilling the promises given to voters before the national election cycle last year. Scrapping the pensions and various other comforts of politicians has been a longstanding slogan of the NPP political dispensation – particularly the core members of their ideological parent, the JVP. During the days in the Opposition, the present ruling-party members were advocating that Governments were imposing high taxes on essential commodities to provide perks to the political class apart from spreading the misconception that a colossal amount of public funds is spent to grant privileges and benefits to the elected political representatives.

The narrative that so-called unprecedented benefits and entitlements of politicians was the primary reason for the awful economic mess the island got into during 2022 has been widely accepted by the society though it is not supported by facts. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, a severe resentment exists towards the financial and non-financial considerations paid to MPs and cabinet ministers. Undoubtedly, the initiative to put an end to MPs’ pensions would be immensely popular in a social system driven by jealousy and antipathy in which people resent the success and well-being of others.

A matter of interest would be whether the proposed legislative action would have retrospective effect and deprive the pensions of former MPs who are currently receiving them under the Parliamentary Pensions Law (No. 1 of 1977). As the NPP has a two-third majority in the Parliament, some opine that the intended law could be passed with retrospective effect, while there are others who claim that apart from an endorsement of a two-third parliamentary majority, an approval of the public may also be needed via a referendum to enact it with retrospective effect. 

The NPP-inclined propagandists have been highly successful in convincing the masses that all non-NPP politicians are robbers who have accumulated massive amounts of wealth. Such a generalisation is a grave injustice to some former MPs who would have lived honestly and uprightly during their parliamentary careers. Furthermore, there could be past members of the legislature who could be having modest means in the sunset of their lives and scrapping the parliamentary pension would be a travesty of justice for such former MPs.

Paradoxically though, few MPs, who are now at the forefront of agitating for the elimination of the parliamentary pension system, have also benefitted from the very system which they campaign to abolish, including the infamous politician Ravi Karunanayake who tabled a private motion last February, seeking to abolish the pensions of MPs. The former Finance Minister, who has been indicted by the Bribery and Corruption Commission over alleged rent payments and benefits amounting to over Rs. 11 million between February and September 2016, was a recipient of the MP pension from 2020 to 2024 subsequent to his defeat at the General Election – 2020, as per the letter issued by Finance Director of Parliament, G. Sarath Kumara to the then MP Madhura Vithanage on 23 February 2023. The said letter also includes the two prominent NPP Cabinet Ministers K.D. Lalkantha and Bimal Ratnayake among the list of former MPs who were beneficiaries of the Parliamentary Pension Scheme two years ago. Hence, is it morally justifiable for the aforementioned trio to advocate in favour of eliminating a system from which they too requested assistance when they failed to get elected to the Parliament?

Repealing the Parliamentary Pension Scheme needs to be undertaken only after a thorough and extensive evaluation and not with the intention of gaining cheap political mileage. Worldwide, elected representatives are offered a host of benefits, and there is no reason for Sri Lanka to be an exception. There are many MPs who have come into politics by forgoing lucrative earnings they could have earned from their professions. Drastically reducing the benefits of MPs would result in legislators being financially influenced by forces with vested interest to achieve their selfish objectives that may be harmful to the society overall.