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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Let's have more Mace in the House Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake That a man is judged by the company one keeps is a well known aphorism. The Sinhalese have an even more pithy way of saying it. One who sleeps with dogs will get up with ticks on his body. There is considerable discussion these past few days about the incidents that took place in parliament when a new Buddhist monk member of the Jathika Hela Urumaya entered the House to be sworn as a Member of Parliament. Suddenly, there is more than the usual amount of concern about behaviour within parliament. It appears that this interest is being kept alive and fed by sections of the media with their own interests as well as political forces seeking to achieve their own narrow ends. There are reports of assault and injury to some Buddhist monk MPs, and also reports that at least one monk MP used language that was not only unparliamentary but also not expected in any decent company. The explanation given is that the monk MP concerned referred to some lay MPs involved in the commotion as "sons of women". Now who among us are not the children of women? Whether lay person or monk, saint or sinner, king or beggar, Bush or Saddam Hussein, we are all the sons of mothers. It is best left for the people who heard him judge whether the monk MP was making an innocent remark or had only forgotten himself. The Sinhalese are often said to have short memories, but the time was not so far away when these monks of the JHU explained to the people their reasons for wanting to enter Parliament. They said it was the first step in establishing a Dharma Rajya, instead of the present "Minis Rajya" that we have been used to for so long. Their description of parliament was full of contempt. It was often described as an "asoochi vala" or a pit of human excreta. It was to such a dirty stinking place these monks had the courage to seek entry, as the stepping stone to a Dharma Rajya. No one forced these monks into this "asoochi vala" with its contemptible lack of discipline and decency. They went there of their own choice. In fact more than 500,000 people in the country voted them into this stinking hellhole. Therefore, if men are judged by the company they keep, they have also to be judged by the company they chose to keep. Just as the case of the man who sleeps with dogs, these monks in their wisdom, must have known they would also be infested by the political ticks found on the lay members of parliament. Ticks have this habit of jumping from one body to another and are no respecters of persons, whether in robes or not. One recalls these monks, in their pre-election statements on TV how they will make Parliament decent and civilized, by ensuring that members pledge to follow "Pancha Seela" or the five precepts at the beginning of every sitting. They told us how they would calm the anger of lay members with the ever soothing chant of the "Karaneeya Mettha Sutta". They would be armed with compassion towards those who had made an abomination of what should be a highly respected assembly. It seems strange that these very commendable aims were not put into practice from the first sitting of Parliament, when there was enough of commotion over the election of the new Speaker, and the monks of the JHU carried out a de-mining or "nishrkreeya" operation on the votes of two of their members, by two other members voting for the rival candidate. Was it really impossible for these monk MPs to use their ever present influence for good last Tuesday, by making the courageous move of being in their seats and chanting the "Karaneeya Mettha Sutta" to help calm the nerves, reduce the levels of anger and mood of rivalry among MPs of both the Government and Opposition, instead of themselves being seen in the well of the House, right in the midst of the melee and mayhem that was taking place? Such an act would have stunned all other MPs and made them feel so foolish and ashamed of themselves for their rowdy behaviour. One would have seen the strategy of the Dharma Rajya in practice. That would have been a real "satyakriya" the need of the hour at the time. Last Tuesday was not the first time the Mace was removed by an MP. It was first removed by the LSSP's Edmund Samarakkody in the late forties, who later sat on the Speaker's chair and presided over a short mock session of Parliament. The Mace was later carried away by Vasudeva Nanayakkara, when he too was an MP of the LSSP. Vasudeva Nanayakkara was also injured needing medical treatment after manhandling and being trod upon in the well of the House, by a member of the UNP in the Parliament elected in 1994, and was even threatened with stabbing by a member of the rival side. The lowest depths to which Parliament was dragged into was not last Tuesday. It was on August 3, 2000, when the Opposition UNPers played mayhem in the House, burning copies of the Draft Constitution, and other documentation too, as the President presented the Draft Constitution to the House. All this took place when the then leader of the Opposition calmly looked on, with no attempt to control his members. Most of the fuss about Tuesday was made by the UNP to make people forget those incendiary acts of hooliganism that threatened the safety of the House itself. One cannot expect Parliament, comprising representatives of the people, to be anything other than a reflection of the society it functions in. In a society where there is so much violence, where cheating and corruption even among all clergy, keeps climbing ever higher, with little done to curb it, Parliament alone cannot be a beacon of all that is best that is not found in society. With the prevailing instability in Parliament where the mandate of the people is not properly reflected, and very little being done by anyone in the Opposition to even let the party with the single largest number of seats function as a minority government, as happens in many democracies, it is most likely that serious tensions will continue in Parliament. Unless opposition leaders who claim to be democrats realize the necessity of governance, even by a minority party, as being better than the current instability, clashes as seen last Tuesday may even be the norm and not the exception in Parliament. In such a situation, it may be necessary to supply MPs with cans of Mace, that irritant chemical used in aerosol to disable attackers, to be sprayed against any MP who comes to attack him or her. Threatened JHU monks too can whip out cans of Mace from under their robes. The Sergeant-at-Arms will also need a can of Mace in his pocket to deter members who try to carry away The Mace, the symbol of the Speaker's authority. In the absence of moves to calm down angry or angered MPs, there seems to be no solution other than more Mace, short of having a special exorcism ritual to drive away any demons that may be haunting the place. The Speaker may have to consider that option as well. But that may drive away some elected demons too, so one will have to act with care. |
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