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Champion of grievances of neglected peasantry

The following are the excerpts of a speech made by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prof. Wishwa Warnapala at the Monty Gopallawa Memorial Oration, organised by the Alumni Association of the University of Peradeniya (Colombo chapter) held at the B.M.I.C.H. recently.

Edmund Burke, saw the representative as the representative of interests; according to the Liberal theory, the elected member came to be recognised as the representative of rational., independent individuals who are conscious of their own interests and capable of expressing their opinion on such matters.

In addition, the representative is aware of his constituents' interests and of his duty to prefer their interests to his own, and the elected Member of Parliament, therefore, is expected to act in what he perceives to be the best interest of the people.

The role of the representative, in this case, is to voice the opinions of his constituents. When examined from these perspectives, the ideal legislator needs to be a specialist who has an intimate knowledge of the constituency interest and he, in Parliament, is required to promote it.

In my view, Monty Gopallawa, as the elected representative of a backward rural constituency, fell into this mould, and he, throughout his parliamentary career, tried to articulate the constituency interests with a view to taking public policy decisions to ameliorate their conditions.

In the case of Sri Lanka, the constituency assumed importance since the introduction of the adult suffrage in 1931 and the franchise, when it came in 1931, did not at once transform the political scene to rouse the people into political consciousness.

The delay in the development of a political consciousness could be attributed to the nature and background of the State Councillors who were elected to the State Council under the Donoughmore Constitution. The State Councillors elected in 1931 were men of good family connections landed proprietors, professionals and wealthy men with interest in-land. Yet another feature of the period was that the ordinary voter, though obtained the right to vote, did not know what it meant.

In other words, the masses remained inactive and passive. Therefore, people thought of election to the state council as an honour they were called on to confer on distinguished and wealthy people. With the entry of radical ideas into the political scene, this characteristic began to undergo a transformation, and the delimitation of electorates on both areas as well as population criteria had an effect on the role of the representative.

The weight-age given to rural areas in the delimitation of electorates also had an effect on the role of the Member of Parliament who was now expected to represent and articulate the interests of the rural people. He was now expected to bring in public policy benefits into the area.

Political reality

When this scheme of weight-age was suggested by Jennings, the politicians, Jennings said - called it "giving votes to the elephants and the fishes". The articulation of the interests of the rural people in Sri Lanka paved the way for the political change of 1956, which, in my view, reflected a basic mass urge for social equality and for ending the privileges of the English speaking elite.

It was in the post 1956 period that the role of the MP came to be transformed to such an extent that he virtually became the constituency-grievance man. It was at the 1956 election that the alternative village leadership emerged, and most of the political leadership of the subsequent period came from this strata of the society.

Monty Gopallawa understood the need to come to terms with this political reality, and it was on the basis of the realization of this fact that he built this political career at Laggala. Monty, though he did not belong to his category of the emerging political leadership, wanted to identify himself with that process of change and it was the recognition of this fact, which made him the champion of the aspirations and grievances of the oppressed and the neglected peasantry of Laggala.

Jennings, writing in the Common-wealth in Asia, states that- "the people with the lowest incomes, who are generally illiterate, are precisely those whose influence ought to be brought to bear in elections so as to compel politicians, who are almost invariably drawn from the English educated professional classes, to pay some attention to their needs".

It was this tradition, which influenced all Members of Parliament, irrespective of their social and educational background, to advocate the need to attend to constituency grievances, and it was on basis of the articulation of constituency needs and constituency grievances that the role of the Member of Parliament underwent a transformation; the Member of parliament began to show an interest in the fulfilment of constituency needs and this, eventually interfered with his legislative role.

Yet another contributory factor was that the constituents are not interested in the legislative role of their MP, and no much information is transmitted to the electorate on the legislative role of their representative. The voters, for instance, do not show any interest in monitoring the performance of the elected representative and this lack of interest in his legislative performance; indirectly affects his performance inside the legislature.

Yet another factor is the development of clientelism within political parties and the electorates; what it means is that the MP, because of the need to maintain an active support base in the electorate, establishes a link with a group of clients through whom the favours are extended to his supporters.

This kind of clientelism has developed because of the nature of the bureaucracy, which is functioning at the divisional and village level. The MP, upon his constituents' request-such requests are numerous-intervene in bureaucratic procedures for his own political ends. It is the inefficient nature of the bureaucracy, which caused the MP to intervene on behalf of his clients, who are his voters.

In the context of resource scarcity, the bureaucratic relationships become highly personalised and politicized including those relating to the most trivial administrative procedures. In the electoral competition in a given constituency, the disbursement of patronage is an influential source of power.

The personalization of bureaucratic function is also related to the fact that the bureaucracy itself has become a basis of patronage in the form of jobs; the MP is sought after to obtain necessities of day-to-day life, and they are not easily obtained though the bureaucracy; they, instead, would like to enter into a relationship with the Member of Parliament who, as an influential intermediary, intervene on behalf of the party supporters who are his voters.

The introduction of the Decentralized Budget and the allocation of an annual grant to the Member of Parliament, gave him the opportunity to determine where the funds need to be invested. This scheme introduced a new dimension to the bureaucratic decision-making process in the electoral districts, where the Divisional Secretary functions as a Development Officer whose task is to work in close collaboration with the political leadership with the area. Yet another related fact is that the electorate is coterminous with area, which comes under the purview of the Divisional Secretary.

Bureaucracy

In the past, the bureaucracy was not that close to the development process; but with the introduction of the Decentralized Budget, the MP was able to focus on the constituency needs through this process; the insensitive bureaucracy, which treated the poor with contempt, now showed sensitivity to the needs of the constituency.

The bureaucracy is manned mainly by people belonging to the middle classes, who traditionally look down on the poorer classes, disadvantaged by their illiteracy. In turn, the bureaucracy is prepared to give preference to a particular client of a politician, and the bureaucrat perceives himself to be dependent on the politician's help for appointments and promotions and possible employment for family members.

This kind of relationship between the bureaucrat and the politician is now the emerging pattern where politics of clientelism flourish.

As a result of this development, the bureaucrat's fate is dependent on loyalty or at least cooperation with the MP regardless of which party is in power. If we make a close examination of the nature of the relationship between the MP and the Divisional Secretary, and the way in which the decentralized funds are disbursed, one could easily see a dependent relationship between the elected representative and the bureaucrat.

This, in other words, meant that the bureaucrat distributes resources and dispenses favours to the voters and his clients to satisfy the patronage obligations of the political elite. The constituency needs demand this kind of obligation, and the MP, because of the importance of this relationship at the very constituency level, is expected to articulate constituency needs and grievances as his main platform.

To a grate extent, he is expected to give expression to those constituency needs even inside the legislature and in the Committees which function as instrument of legislatures. Today, the Consultative Committees in Parliament are primarily forums where constituency issues are raised.

Yet another feature,which strengthen the constituency politics, is the emergence of a group of brokers for political parties and they are influential men with links to the party apparatus or with personal links to the Member of Parliament.These brokers are different from the brokers of the Donoughmore period.

The poor in an electorate have the tendency to bring their problems to these brokers, and while confiding in them often becomes dependent on them to find solutions to their problems. These brokers, though they have some active relationship with party apparatus at the local level, are not entirely dependent on the party machine for material survival. They have much to gain from the party system. In return for being party brokers, they get status within the community for acting on behalf of the constituents.

They get appointed to positions of power,influence and prestige and they also get preferential access to State resources. This circle of brokers is very important for the external support network of the Member of Parliament.

Loyalties

In Sri Lanka, as in other countries where the Westminster model has been tried, political loyalties have evolved along party lines, and it is largely due to the competitive nature of the party system in the country.

Yet another feature of the system is that a party-centered system of patronage is acting to exclude from the benefits of the State those who were not party supporters. It is in association with this process of activity that the MP is expected to paly a role in activating the constituents to find solutions to the varied problems in the constituency.

The preceding discussion amply demonstrated that there is a close relationship between interests of the representative and the promotion of constituents' interests. Monty Gopallawa, in the course of his political career as an MP representing a backward electorate, was engaged in the promotion of constituents' interests.

He was able to identify the interests, and took measures to satisfy them on the basis of the importance of the interests. In an electorate, several significant interests exist, and they are mutually compatible. As in developed countries, we do not find a 'constituency opinion' in respect of a matter, which the elected representative could use in the course of deliberation inside the legislature.

In Sri Lanka, one cannot perceive such a 'constituency opinion' as it consists of co-centric circles where his geographical constituency is fragmented into a 'primary' and 'personal' constituency. This leads, finally, to question of the role of a modern Parliament for its own members.

Obscure

Can Parliament be described as an institution in which an elected representative is able to make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of his electorate? In the system based on the Westminster model, the position of the ordinary Member of Parliament has become not only obscure but impotent; this deficiency is overcome by taking a keen interest in representing and articulating the constituency needs.

There are Members of Parliament who represent personal or sectional interests over and above that of their party, their constituents or the nation.

The electoral politics in Sri Lanka underwent a transformation with the introduction of the PR scheme of representation; the post-PR political culture had a devastating effect on the constituency politics, lack of responsibility and accountability to the electorate - as in the days of the first-post the system-distanced the MP from his own base which was not identifiable as the constituency was a large district.

Under the single member constituency system, the Member of Parliament could successfully articulate the interests of the constituency.

As electoral system which emphasizes preference for caste, race, communal and ethnic loyalties place loyalty to the nation as secondary to all other factional loyalties.

Sri Lankan PR system amply demonstrates this and it has been a place where all the negative factors have been tested. All evils in the PR system, including the decline in the quality of the elected representative, have become legitimized in the efforts to consolidate the support base.

The process of constituency politics has got itself diluted and the MP, instead of concentrating on a small electorate, is now called upon to campaign in a large district.

Under the existing PR system, though no constituency exists, the nexus between the constituency and the candidate has aggravated all the melodies, such as caste, race, and communal and family affinities.

The voter, as in the past, does not vote for the interests of the constituency but for those social factors, which safeguard his personal interest. Such social factors have become covertly powerful under the PR scheme and they are sometimes directly articulated by the candidate himself.

Money power

Therefore, it is widely accepted that the constituency needs has become secondary and they are not articulated as in the past. The Decentralized Budget, though technically expected to function in the interest of a constituency, is now diverted to the entire district which, in fact, is the constituency.

Members of Parliament, who distributes funds, does it on the basis of the support enclaves in the district and this, in my view, interferes with rational allocation of development funds, In other words, it is the political criteria - the need to collect preferential votes - which determines the disbursement of funds, and this kind of distribution of funds, eventually, interferes with the process of development.

It is my view that the scheme of PR has, therefore, consolidated castelism and communalism, and it led to increased manifestations of such forces in the legislature, and parochial interests begin to dominate legislative action. Under this scheme of representation, the divisive factors have been given prominence.

Yet another feature is the endemic nature of violence in the system, and the PR scheme, compared to the first-past-post system, paved the way for more electoral violence, which, in the end, destabilizes the entire political system.

The present electoral process has made elections a contest of money power; money buy elections in Sri Lanka, and legislators elected with its support cannot become responsible instruments of economic and social change.

Black money, goondass, and the mafia, the underworld and the underclass elements have now become the important actors in the electoral process and all these forces have prevented the emergence of the representative who is a true constituency-grievance man.

Malady

In all democratic societies, the political power is wielded by the elected representative of the people and they need to be representatives of acceptable quality.

An electoral system which produce representatives with links to the underworld, and underclass elements may find it difficult to sustain an interest in constituency needs as they are expected to cater to interests of those groups from whom they sought assistance to win the election.

The reliance on such groups, which has become a necessity purely because of the size of the electorate and the system of preferential voting, interferes with the process of development of political parties. Such electoral trends do not help in the construction of a healthy democratic society.

Unlike in the past, the entire system is functioning in the interest of a small segment of the people who have developed a vested interest in the electoral system.

The feeling has gone into the minds of the people that a large segment of the people have been marginalized under the system, resulting in an erosion of popular confidence in the system. The malady in the system is so deep and will require the support of all in the system to remedy it.

Therefore, the political career of Monty Gopallawa and his role as the champion of the grievance of the constituency provides ample evidence to the effect that the MP elected under the first-past-the post system was the true representative and it is this model which needs to be resurrected for the purpose of making parliamentary government meaningful and relevant.

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