IS PARLIAMENT A “KOLAM MADUWA”?

The Parliament of a free democratic country is expected to be comprised of elected members who are called Honourable MPs and who are charged with great responsibilities including lawmaking for the benefit of the public who vote for them.  It is also referred to as the House and August Assembly signifying the respectability and importance attached to it.

Therefore, it is really a shame to see these Honourable (?) MPs behaving in despicable manner whilst inside the House with some MPs trying to run away with the Mace and behaving like common thugs by assembling in the well of the house, despite exhortations from the Hon. Speaker not to desecrate the August assembly. This shameful practice was again evident a couple of days ago when an important Bill was being debated.  In this instance, the Hon. Speaker had to admonish the members not to do in the dining room what should be done in the toilet which is an indictment on the conduct unbecoming of these members who all belong to the so called Joint Opposition.

One recalls with much disdain the shameful behavior of some Ministers and MPs inside the House immediately after the election of the current President in January last year when these members used the premises as a disco hall and a bedroom with some ageing actresses acting out move song and dance sequences with equally ageing Ministers of the previous government in drunken stupor.  What a shameful act indeed. 

There have also been instances of some Ministers of the previous government engaged in fisticuffs with colleagues some of whom happened to be Buddhist monks, and also coming out with unprintable filthy words aimed at their opponents.  Many have been instances of school children  watching these antics of their legislators and needless to mention the opinions that these young minds would be forming about the so called elected leaders of the country.

One could say that the people deserve the representatives they elect but then there is another aspect to this since the voters are unfortunately forced to elect the candidates put forward by the political parties, in a case of opting for the lesser evil.  So, it is definitely upto the responsible major political parties to put forward candidates who are educated, civic conscious, with decent family backgrounds to come forward as elected MPs.

If that does not happen, the day is no far away we all start referring to the Parliament as a “Kolam Maduwa” or even a Den of Thieves.

Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason. ~José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, translated from Portuguese