The origin of Parliamentary Democracy goes back many centuries to Great Britain where it was founded. Eventually it has been adopted by sections of the global community as the most suitable form of Government.
Prior to the second World War a large number of countries in the East and the West were under the British Empire and after gaining independence all of them observed Parliamentary Democracy and started governing their countries based on democratic policies and principles.
At present most of the developed and developing countries have chosen democracy as their form of Government.
Democracy
Democracy is not an English word but a combination of two Greek terms Demos and Crathos. In Greek Demos means people and Crathos means rule. These two Greek terms formed the English word Democracy which means peoples rule.
For democracy to function effectively there should be two main components or integral parts- the ruling party and the Opposition. It has been observed in the recent past that some democratic parties formed coalitions to capture power at times with the support of even Opposition members which results in weakening the Opposition which is not a good trend in parliamentary democracy.
Great Britain was the first country to practices parliamentary democracy through the Magna Carta. Democracy was practices and strengthened in its purest form in the United Kingdom irrespective of the party in power.
Role of Opposition
The Opposition has a major role to play in the larger interest of the nation under a democratic form of Government.
The Opposition is expected to maintain a good rapport with the ruling party while keeping a close tab on all affairs.
The Opposition should always co-operate with the Government in settling national issues or finding solutions to the problems which threaten national security or the country‘s territorial integrity putting aside party policies temporarily in the larger interest of the nation.
This democratic character was quite evident in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Clement Atlee as the Opposition Leader of the British parliament extended his fullest support to Sir Winston Churchill, the then Prime Minister to win the war for Britain
The Opposition Leader of Sri Lanka during the 1970-1977 J.R.Jayewardene tenure also extended his unconditional support to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to crush the 1971 JVP insurrection against the Government.
There had been several instances in the countries which have democratic form of Governments where the Opposition parties generously saved the ruling parties from political catastrophies.
The Opposition is also expected to actively take part in Select Committees on various vital issues and make contributions for a cleaner administration.
Constructive criticism by the Opposition on important matters which affect the future of the country is always expected to prevent unhealthy measures being implemented by the ruling party.
The Opposition should always scrutinise the activities of the ministries and departments and divulge the relevant and accurate information before the public to disallow the authorities to act in any arbitrary manner which might be detrimental to any section or segment of its stake holders.
The Opposition has a greater responsibility to see that the Government maintains the cost-of-living in the country which directly affects the masses. Some of the main responsibilities of a vibrant Opposition have been highlighted and therefore, the Opposition party is logically termed as the watchdog of the Nation.
Since the 1947 general election up to the 2020 general election the country was ruled by the United National Party and SLFP led coalitions on a number of occasions under different leaders of the respective parties from time to time.
The first Opposition leader of the country was LSSP Leader Dr. N.M.Perera who performed the duties of the post quite admirably sometimes winning the praise of even the Government members although his political ideology was a complete contrast of the Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake.
In all the subsequent Governments, the governing party members and Opposition members had arguments, counter arguments and a hot exchange of words, sometimes verbal barrages on various issues which sometimes even led to a severe uproar in the house where the Speaker was forced to suspend the sittings of some members and adjourn Parliament.
During those olden days, whatever the party they belonged to almost all of them were well educated, decent and cultured politicians from high strata of society who commanded the respect of the people.
They had heated arguments in the house on policy matters but never used un-parliamentary language or made uncouth and repulsive utterances against anybody in the house to denigrate their opponents.
They upheld the solemn parliamentary norms and practices to the letter. We had veteran radical Marxist politicians of the calibre of Phillip Gunawardene, Vivienne Gunawardene, Colvin R de Silva, Peter Kheunamen, and Dr.S.A.Wickramasinghe who used to yell at the top of their voices in the well of the house on some important issues but never resorted to filth, smuts or derogatory remarks against their political opponents.
There had been occasions where some political leaders cast aspersions in a jovial manner using decent verbose against their political rivals in order to prove their facts and humiliate the opponents but never ventured into using filthy, uncouth or nauseous language.
Finally these remarks were enjoyed by both sides of the house and they shook hands and dispersed peacefully. Those are the bygone days.
Not only in our country but even in the United Kingdom where the Parliamentary democracy was founded there had been such instances in history.
Prior to the Second World War during the most respected Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s tenure, there was a very talkative and vibrant Opposition parliamentarian by the name of Lady Asther who always objected Prime Minister Churchill’s deliberations.
Prime Minister Churchill in return never considered her moves however constructive they may be to be implemented in the Parliament.
In these circumstances once over a heated exchange of words Lady Asther had said: “Mr. Prime Minister if you were my husband I would have poisoned you” the entire house was stunned. Prime Minister Churchill smilingly stood up and said Miss Asther if you were my wife I would have gladly drunk that poison – to the amazement of all parliamentarians.
Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake entered into a peace pact with the Tamil Community known as the “Dudley Chelva Pact “in order to resolve the ethnic issue during his tenure and there was a huge protest against it from the entire Opposition.
One of the prominent figures in the protest campaign was Medawachchiya SLFP Member of Parliament Maithreepala Senanayake who always expressed Sinhala chauvinistic sentiments although he was married to a Tamil from Jaffna and mingled with the Tamil community freely.
He always advocated a Sinhala only policy and had constant arguments with PM Dudley Senanayake for giving undue recognition to the Tamils.
Once Dudley lost his temper in the house and said “Hon. MP for Medawachchiya. Sinhala only during the day time and reasonable use of Tamil in the night“and the entire house burst into laughter.
There are numerous occasions under both party leaders that their members had almost ventured in to fisticuffs over different issues but obeyed the leaders and settled matters amicably without using filth.
After the grand election victory of 1977 during the inaugural ceremony at the Parliament Prime Minister J.R.Jayewardene said: “I am happy about our great victory and at the same time I am sad about the absence of my four parliamentary colleagues in the Opposition”. It was heard that he referred to Dr. N.M.Perera, Dr. Colvin R.De Silva, Peter Keunamen and Bernard Soyza. That tells the degree of respect that J.R. had for his political opponents.
With the passage of time everything changed rapidly and Anura Bandaranaike and Prime Minister R.Premadasa had a hot exchange of words in the house and both of them used unparliamentarily language to attack each other. Anura termed Premadasa as Kaanu Kata and Premadasa said Avajathakaya to Anura.
Present scenario
It is very pathetic and abhorrent to see the incidents and developments taking place in the August Assembly every now and then and the language used by some members of the Government and Opposition and the behaviour and conduct of some of them are far below the standard of hardcore criminals.
Some members do not observe the solemn practices and try to act on their will displaying their ignorance and testifying their low calibre breeding.
This could be attributed to one of the reasons for the beginning of the Aragalaya in early 2022 where the youngsters wanted a system change.
General public opinion is that there are only a handful of thorough politicians in the present Parliament on both sides and the majority has come into politics to amass wealth plundering State properties which had been proved beyond doubt. There were occasions where some female Parliamentarians were verbally abused by some members in the house with extremely vulgar verbosity. But it is doubtful if the relevant authorities took adequate punitive measures to avert similar incidents in future.
Last week also there was a chaotic situation in the well of the house and the manner in which they behaved and the language they used to attack each other was absolutely repulsive and abhorrent. It is very surprising to see that even the Opposition leader stooped down to the level of an ordinary MP and challenged the Government members for a fisticuff using words such as hora, booruwa, wambotta, balla so on and so forth.
The sacredness, the dignity and the prestige of this revered institution had been blatantly sullied by these politicians.
There were a substantial number of school children who were present in the gallery to witness the parliamentary proceedings and they were removed by the respective teachers with utter dismay and disappointment. What a shame.
