Need for a full House

Yesterday it was reported in all the media that the ongoing budget debate had to be cut short abruptly due to want of speakers, one and half hours ahead of schedule.

Members who were billed to speak were not present and even the mover of an adjournment motion from the Opposition had not turned up. Those tuning to the news broadcasts on television these days would be confronted the familiar scene of an empty legislature.

True a Committee Stage debate does not require a quorum but what is unpardonable is MPs who are billed to speak giving the slip. At other times what we see is on screen is heated exchanges between garrulous MPs giving a dose of our MPs antics to the viewer.

The callous regard of such an important subject as a budget debate by MPs who are paid to attend each session of Parliament raises the question of the role of Parliament itself. One should remember that these MPs are paid a hefty allowance for each sitting.

This of course is in addition to their heavily subsidized meals, a generous fuel allowances and other perks attendant on Parliamentary sittings. It is time that these MPs realised that they have been sent to Parliament by the public to be their voice and take up their cause in the country's Supreme Legislature.

The deliberate absence of MPs who have been listed to speak shows the utter contempt to which the August assembly has come to be regarded by the peoples' representatives. The media recently was full of reports of the criminal waste of food in the Parliament cafeteria.

It was only the other day the Speaker was forced a rap an MP who was continually disrupting proceedings by a barrage of invective. It appears that things are going from bad to worse with no one responsible to arrest the decline.

True, Parliament debates are not expected to be dull and they are noisy affairs elsewhere too. But there is a line that has to be drawn even in the heat of debate. The recent US elections showed the quality of debate and the limits to which a candidate could go in attacking his opponent.

Time was when our Parliament was the repository of intellectual genius and was frequented by the professional and laymen alike to grasp onto the pearls of wisdom that poured forth and resonated in the August chambers.

There were certainly cross talk and eruptions, but even these were marked by rapier like parry and riposte which entertained as well as educated. They never descended to the murky depths.

Legislators of yore did not have to stoop down to the vulgar and profane to score debating points. This speaks volumes for the quality of our legislators of the past. That was a time when those who entered politics did so as a public service.

It is time that leaders of the major political parties get together and devise measures to raise the level of debate in Parliament from the pathetic depths to which it has descended. We have been saying this repeatedly in these columns but from what is evident not much has changed.

Perhaps today all political party leaders are obsessed with political imperatives with discipline taking a back seat. If indeed this is the attitude, standards can only deteriorate further with the public losing their respect and regard towards the country's Supreme Legislature.

The danger is this could manifest in harmful forms even threatening the very structures of democracy. Therefore it is incumbent on all those concerned to take concrete measures to stop the rot and act fast.

The leaders should impress upon all MPs the importance of attending sessions of Parliament regularly and participating actively in them. They should study the topic(s) of the day and make a useful contribution to the debate. That is what the voters expect from their MPs.