Use two-thirds parliamentary majority judiciously

In Sri Lanka, super majorities in Parliament rarely end with a positive outcome for the people or the country. 

All political parties that won a two-thirds majority in the House have acted arrogantly and arbitrarily, forgetting the people’s mandates. The United National Party (UNP), which won a massive five-sixths majority in the 1977 General Election, was soon on a roll, rushing to introduce a new Constitution, punishing political opponents by introducing draconian laws and forgetting that the time in office is limited and a day of reckoning would come.

In 2020, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Government was similarly given a massive majority and that didn’t go well for either him or the country. The end result was his ouster from office barely three years into his first term in office.

The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) was handed a two-thirds majority by voters in 2024 and already, it has become evident that the party too is keen to go the way of others who had this kind of parliamentary majority. 

The NPP called in all its MPs to attend Parliament a few days ago to vote against an Opposition-initiated motion of no-confidence against then Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody. (He has since resigned stating his stay in office would impede a fair investigation into the import of substandard coal). 153 MPs voted against the motion, while 49 Opposition members voted in favour, thus showing that the Government will use its parliamentary numbers to defend those within its ranks, including a person who has been indicted in the Colombo High Court over charges of corruption in relation to a 2016 case.

While the coal case is in the preliminary stages of investigation, the fact that the Minister has been indicted in the HC was enough for a Government which claims to be committed to eradicating corruption to either get Jayakody to resign or President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to sack him before the whole weight of the Opposition and public anger against the Minister began to escalate.  But instead, over 150 NPP MPs voted to keep Jayakody in office even though he faces serious allegations of wrongdoing.

NPP MPs are not immune from corruption. In addition to Jayakody, there are allegations against various other Ministers, including those related to acquisition of assets that far outweigh their incomes. These have been defended by those within the party.  The offhandish manner in which such allegations against NPP members are dismissed by those within its ranks exposes the duplicity of the party.

Ironically, it is these same members of the JVP/NPP who would cry corruption against members of other political parties even when there were unsubstantiated allegations against them. For long, the MPs who voted against a no-confidence motion against former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella were accused of aiding and abetting corruption.

However, in the case of Jayakody, those in the NPP don't seem to realise that they, too, going by their own logic, are aiding and abetting in corruption. Since coming to power, many cases have been filed against Opposition politicians as well as officials who worked during previous administrations to show that the Government is committed to fighting corruption.  This is essential, as whoever steals public funds should be punished under the law. But the law must be applied equally to everyone. There cannot be one set of rules for those in the NPP and one set of rules for others.

The two-thirds majority the NPP enjoys should be used to bring about the constitutional changes it promised as well as abolish laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Misusing the two-thirds majority is a grave mistake, as mightier have fallen in the past by going against public sentiments.