More stimulating parliamentary debates – Comment
View(s):When Chandrika Kumaratunga was Western Province Chief Minister, she requested the CISIR for details of loads of research it has undertaken. She didn’t get a proper reply for many weeks and related this incident at an event subsequently when as President she was presiding over awards being presented to Sri Lankan inventors.
The message was that in an era where innovation has taken many countries forward, Sri Lankan scientists were backward and unwilling to part with their valuable research which was lying as documents and files in dusty cupboards without being put to use.
It was during the 1990s that the Science and Technology Development Act No. 11 of 1994 was promulgated. Under that the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) became a statutory board in April 1998 and the successor to the CISIR (Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research). ITI is now far more advanced and forthcoming in its research compared to the fossil-like CISIR whose contributions that the public was aware of was the 1965 Ceylon Industrial Exhibition where the planetarium designed by the late Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe, one of the Sri Lanka’s pioneering inventors, was a main draw.
Quite a few politicians in the past knew the value of good research to further the country’s progress and joined Prof. Tissa Vitharana, later Minister of Science and Technology, in efforts to increase the budget allocation for R&D from a dismal proportion of GDP.
It is in this context that the proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to set up a Parliamentary Research Institute should be lauded, encouraged and enabled. As succinctly put by new Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan in parliament, the decorum and dignity of parliament has eroded in the past decade. He expressed hopes that there would be a sharp improvement under the new Government, a hope that can be delivered through rich, well-researched speeches, proposals, repartee, argument and debate.
While just a few of the handful of parliamentarians in recent times have taken the time and effort to read up, study and research on topics that they intend to speak on, particularly during budgets (once parliamentarian Sajith Premadasa, to the pleasant surprise of the Sunday Times Business Editor, called the business reporting desk and sought information and clarification on economic issues to make sure he was making the right message), most of the statements made as ‘fact’ are based on hearsay, gossip and unconfirmed reports.
It is critically important for parliamentarians to delve into economic, social and political issues with facts and background using local and international research and data to not only strengthen their arguments but also earn the respect of the public that they are indeed ‘caring’ public representatives (too much to ask?) and showing a level of intelligence that the legislature has lacked for many years.
While the setting up of a research agency in parliament is the first step, hopefully, towards ensuring dignified and intellectually illuminating (too much to ask?) presentations of the likes of Colvin R. de Silva in the 1970s or Sarath Muttetuwegama (an unstoppable, one-man opposition in 1977 when the UNP-controlled parliament whittled down the SLFP to just eight representatives), the next step is in hiring suitably qualified people for the job. It should be the best and for this purpose a decent budget allocation should be made to provide for well-equipped research unit that would be the best or ranks among the best in Asia for the people’s representatives.
Research in the government sector comes through agencies like the Central Bank, Board of Investment, Census and Statistics Department, Treasury, Sri Lanka Tourism and many other institutions and much of it is accessible to the public including parliamentrians through interactive websites if one spends a lot of time wading through, often, complex and technical economic data.
In the semi-government and private sectors too research is playing a big role in charting Sri Lanka’s political, social and economic discourse with the many research units in local universities, the Institute of Policy Studies, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Fundamental Studies, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Law and Society Trust, Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Centre for Poverty Analysis to name a few.
The proposed research centre in parliament shouldn’t be modelled on the lines of the parliament library which has voluminous books and journals taking space and hardly finding readers. Like the Kindle reader, the portable e-book, convenience is the key challenge in providing information in a fast and efficient manner which is doable under today’s technology. Laptops or desktops with high speed connections and links to research libraries and agencies across the world which are free to use or based on subscription are required. As per technology and what information is required to feed hopefully information-thirsty MPs, the help of the research community in Sri Lanka could be sought.
With these new developments, the level of debate will hopefully rise and result in solutions-based discussions and presentations. Or will parliamentarians resort to the old practice of shouting and screaming during farcical debate and once again prove that they are concerned only about themselves and not the nation and its people?