Friday 19th April, 2024

One wonders whether the Parliament of Sri Lanka, which is full of self-righteous members who moralise to the point of queasiness, has taken upon itself the task of serving as a moral compass of sorts for the nation. Its sessions are characterised by endless tub-thumping.

During the past several weeks, Parliament has torn some public officials to shreds over matters related to their salaries and perks, which have since been put on hold pending downward revisions on the grounds that the country is facing its worst-ever economic crisis, and the people are undergoing untold suffering. It has sought to win brownie points with the irate public by censuring the Central Bank officials for ‘misusing their authority’ to grant themselves huge pay hikes. But that is exactly what the MPs themselves usually do; they increase their salaries and allowances and enhance their perks, according to their whims and fancies. Worse, while probing salary issues in the state sector and setting guidelines, Parliament has admitted that it is in the dark about ministerial salaries!

The holier-than-thou MPs are now demanding duty-free vehicle permits, of all things. Who guards the guards? This is the question one asks oneself on reading media reports that the MPs are cranking up pressure on the Speaker and others to issue them with duty-free vehicle permits post-haste.

The government MPs and their Opposition counterparts seldom see eye to eye on virtually anything. They turn parliamentary debates into slanging matches, trade insults and abuse liberally, and, at times, even tuck up their sarongs and set upon one another during stormy debates, but they are always united when they further their interests. They speak with one voice when they demand duty-free vehicle permits, etc., and safeguard their privileges.

Earlier, the MPs who were entitled to duty concessions had to wait for five years to sell their duty-free vehicles. Most of them did not abide by that law, and sold their duty-free permits on the sly, but they did so at the risk of facing legal action in case of being found out. Instead of having that law strictly enforced to prevent the abuse of duty concessions for the MP and others, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government amended it, allowing duty-free vehicle permits to be sold immediately after their issuance! Thus, an unlawful practice came to be legalised.

There is no way Parliament can absolve itself of responsibility for the current economic crisis. It did precious little to prevent the economy from going into a tailspin. Now, it preposterously claims that nobody informed it of the deterioration of the economy! The members of both sides of the House, who bluster ad nauseam, are accountable for what has befallen the economy, which is receiving ICU treatment, so to speak. They must be ashamed of demanding duty-free vehicle permits at this juncture, while asking state workers and the public to be mindful of the country’s economic woes.

The least that the members of the current Parliament can do to assuage public anger, which is welling up and likely to find expression in another mega uprising sooner than expected, is to empathise with the people and share in their suffering. These worthies need to be told that the numerous luxuries they are enjoying at the expense of the public will make their counterparts in the developed world turn green with envy.

As we have pointed out in a previous comment, in Sweden, one of the richest countries in the world, only the Prime Minister is entitled to an official car. The MPs including ministers are given only bus and train passes; they are free to use cars but at their own expense without being a burden on the public. Never do they make demands like the ones the Sri Lankan MPs put forth. It is only in backward countries that politicians are deified and pampered.