Letters to the Editor
View(s):Holding the country to ransom through ‘cross-over’ mockery
It is abundantly clear that this is a political issue involving ‘Representative Democracy’ where the voters are the principals and the MPs are only agents under a Principal/Agent relationship. Thus, isn’t ‘cross-over’ a blatant violation of the collective rights of the voters (Principals) who elected the MPs as their agents to the Parliament to represent them for a specific period of five years under a specific symbol? Isn’t it the fundamental duty of the MPs to exercise a social conscience (not an individual conscience) and protect the collective right of their voters which far outweighs the fundamental right of an individual?
If we trace the recent history of ‘cross-overs’, it was the former Chief Justice Sarath Silva who opened the ‘flood gates’ for the ‘cross-over’ mockery.
Considering the foregoing and in order to ensure that the public confidence in our electoral system is not further eroded, I strongly commend in the name of democracy and safeguarding the sovereignty of the people that necessary amendments are brought to the Constitution to prevent these abhorrent crossovers happening during any regime. For this purpose Article 99(13) which seemingly looks after the individual rights and natural justice should be amended accordingly. In conjunction with this amendment it would also be necessary to abolish the ‘Preference Voting’ system and replace it with the more logical, ‘Party list’ system.
Under this method, the burden of selecting preferred individuals will be removed from the simple voter and devolved on the political party concerned which should be compelled to select the most eligible political professionals to the legislature through ‘District Party merit lists’ prepared by using stringent eligibility criteria and a structured interview method laid down by the Elections Commission.
Simultaneously, it is high time that the voter as well as some of our political pundits lend themselves to a paradigm shift in their ‘mindset’ by viewing the Parliamentarian more as a ‘law maker’ and a ‘financial controller’ of the country at large, rather than as a local ‘demigod’ who brings solutions to the public’s sundry needs such as jobs, culverts, lamp-posts and latrines et al.
Last but not the least, the day is not far when the voter will realize the futility of spending billions of tax-payer rupees, time and energy to hold national elections every five years when the balance of power in the Parliament can be changed according to the whims and fancies of a few ungrateful MPs.
Bernard Fernando Moratuwa