Cure vehicle mania of politicians
It is sickening to learn again that huge and unreasonable, supplementary budget allocations are being made to purchase luxury vehicles for Central Govt. MPs under a ‘Yahapalanaya’ Govt. using tax-payers’ money.
As reiterated by the writer in his previous submissions, with the advent of the decentralised Provincial Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas in 1987, the sole responsibilities of Central Govt. MPs should have been redesigned to make them only ‘Law-Makers’ or ‘Legislators’ confined to the Centre where the mobility required to reach out to the periphery becomes redundant. If it happened with a well-intentioned political will, the country would have avoided the despicable destruction and mayhem which culminated in a bloody-War. Therefore, we beseech them to rationalise the current moves to spend large sums of scarce foreign exchange to purchase luxury vehicles for the political fraternity at the centre and divert the savings to service the colossal debt burden which is paralyzing the country’s economy.
It is evident that the ‘Preference Voting system’ acted as an obstacle to implementing a productive Decentralised Political Administration system. The entire country including the politicians now agree without demur that the scandalous ‘Preference voting system’ has to be abolished with the forthcoming electoral reforms.
Since it is already an optional system, why can’t it be abolished by a simple amendment to the relevant laws without going for a Referendum which is in keeping with the election manifesto of the ‘Yahapalanaya’ Govt.? However, it should not be re –installed in the guise of a ‘Mixed- voting‘ system applicable to General and PC elections where again the candidates would be compelled to canvass for votes on a district basis under a ‘First-past-the post’ system though on a little lower scale.
Finally, we still hold the hope that only a ‘Yahapalanaya’ Govt. can rationalize and institute a cost- effective Political Machinery in Sri Lanka and accelerate the process of Electoral reforms on the lines as proposed in our repeated submissions to the press and the Public Committee on Constitutional reforms, which in itself was a progressive step initiated by the government.
Why not citizens have a real say in Electoral reforms initiated by a government elected by civilian pressure and efforts? We urge the civil society and concerned organisations to guide the ‘Yahapalana’ Govt. on the correct path.
Bernard Fernando
Moratuwa
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