Scholarly work on Parliamentary system

Parliament in Sri Lanka: A Study of the working of Parliamentary Institutions in Sri Lanka

Author: Prof. Wiswa Warnapala
Godage Publishers
Colombo 10.

Reviewed by R.A.W. Ranasingha

The Parliament in Sri Lanka is an excellent piece of research by Prof. Wiswa Warnapala who is an eminent political scientist with an equally outstanding research record. His academic record, of course, is in addition to his role as an intellectual-cum-politician and his research had been a continuous flow from the time he became a member of the academic staff of the University of Peradeniya.

In his 33 years long experience in academia what we have noted is that Prof. Warnapala, whatever his responsibilities, can never be stopped from writing and research as his outstanding research record had demonstrated in the past five decades.

In this period of his academic eminence, he has published more than 25 books in English and 10 in Sinhala; this is in addition to varied contributions to reputed academic journals. Prof. Warnapala enjoys the rare distinction of being the only Sri Lankan to have been invited to edit two special issues of the Asian Survey published by the University of California.

A symposium on Sri Lanka, edited by Prof. Warnapala was published in the Asian Survey, Vol. XIII, and No.12 of 1973. Prof. A.J. Wilson, referring to this achievement of one of his brilliant students, wrote that ‘ it is certainly an honour to be invited to edit two issues of the Asian Survey.

Diary

The diary which Prof. Warnapala maintained during his stay in Moscow as the Counsellor of the Embassy of Sri Lanka for three years, subsequently converted into a book titled Sri Lanka - Soviet Relations - A Study in Retrospect. After he entered Parliament in 1994, he was made the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, a powerful instrument of control of finance; he made use of the opportunity to write a book Parliament and Public Accountability in Sri Lanka (2004).

While functioning as the Minister of Higher Education, he immediately noticed the absence of a single publication on the system of Higher Education in Sri Lanka and Prof. Warnapala wrote the book The Making of the System of Higher Education in Sri Lanka (2012). This book has a long chapter on the legacy of Sir Ivor Jennings.

This is the kind of intellectual activity in which he engages in and the present book, Parliament in Sri Lanka has been written making use of his career as a parliamentarian for 12 years and also making full use of the knowledge as one of the leading political scientists in the country. This, undoubtedly, is his career best and this work is his outstanding achievement.

The book is divided into 12 chapters. It runs to 776 pages is a massive study on a very contemporary and volatile subject. The introductory chapter has been devoted to examine the early historical foundations of representative constitutional government.

Methods

The successive chapters have been dedicated to discuss such aspects as Constitution and Parliament, Franchise and Elections, Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Procedure, Financial Procedure, Question Time, committees, Government and Opposition, Parliament and Executive and Whither Westminster Model in Sri Lanka.

The author used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Some percentage, charts, and tables are also used. However, qualitative method is given significant place to analyse and express the view. The author has attempted to analyse the working of parliamentary institutions in Sri Lanka covering the entire period since the introduction of Legislative Council system in 1833 under the Colebrook Cameron reform up to the present parliamentary institutions in the country.

The academic significance of this work is highlighted as no attempt has been made comprehensively to examine the system, though a large number of articles have appeared in journals on the subject.

Even the study made by Namasivayam in 1958 on parliamentary government covers a very short period. Prof. Warnapala, with his sheer interest in the subject and his commitment to quality research, has completed a monumental task by producing this piece of work, as he said, took more than four years of continuous work on data collected throughout nearly a decade while he was in the Parliament.

Therefore, this book of Prof. Warnapala is sure to find its place in all libraries in the world because of the fact that it is an outstanding piece of scholarship. Also more than 2,000 foot notes and the bibliography which he used in this work is equally impressive.

Chapter two deals with Franchise and Elections. The purpose of the chapter is to give a short narrative account of the main developments and changes in the area of franchise and representation.

Westminster model

In this chapter the author has discussed some of the distinctive features of the constitutional developments before the grant of political independence. The author pointed out that, before the introduction of the constitutional reform in 1921 there were no democratic institutions based on elected representation in the island, and the lack of a genuine local tradition was a factor which was taken into consideration in transplanting democratic traditions.

Chapter X which is the most important chapter-persevered for investigating the fact that “Whither Westminster Model in Sri Lanka” is an equally fascinating and it focuses on the reasons which led to its fundamental violations of the model. Sustainability of this model, which, in fact had been exported from Britain to all the former colonial territories has been questioned and all the chapters show his authoritative knowledge of the Westminster model.

He, in the course of his critical analysis of parliamentary institutions, has examined the nature and functioning of the parliamentary institutions from the point of view of the need to arrest the trend towards the devaluation of Parliament as the supreme legislature.

This decline is in the context of the Presidential Executive which too has been discussed in detail in chapter XI Parliament and Executive. The impact of the 18th Amendment has been critically evaluated and the discussion shows that the author is not an admirer of this particular amendment.

Prof. Warnapala often quotes such authorities as Harold Laski, Ivor Jennings, Morris-Jones Edmund Burk and Harold Wilson to prove his arguments; many more authorities have been consulted and Parliament in Sri Lanka, therefore, depicts with all his previous works, demonstrates that Prof. Warnapala is first and foremost a scholar of great distinction, and it above all, is such an eminently scholarly work with which Prof. Warnapala has come to the fore.

Prof. Warnapala has been my teacher and colleague and I congratulate him for the distinctive achievement in producing a monumental piece of research on the parliamentary system in Sri Lanka.

The intellectual community of Sri Lanka, especially those at Peradeniya should now honour this scholar for his extensive academic running to more than five decades.

Main theme

Though quite a lot of historical and contemporary data have been carefully incorporated in the discussion it has not affected the main theme of the book. For instance, all forms of legislative institutions, including the forms of control as committees – all types of committees in the Parliament – have been discussed to find the reasons as to why their effectiveness as parliamentary weapons has declined. Another aspect is the investigation on the ways in which the Parliament has declined and the expanding influence of the Executive has been critically discussed.

I have no doubt that this is an excellent scholarly work on Sri Lankan parliamentary system indeed. Yet one of the glaring mistakes the author has made, I believe either intentionally or unintentionally is the exclusion of the conflict of interest that arose between the legislature and the judiciary of Sri Lanka on the question of independence of the Supreme Court.

The impeachment motion brought by the parliament against the Chief Justice Shirani Anshumala Bandaranayake, challenging the independent role of judiciary is within the province of this study. Yet it has been overlooked in this study.

Had the author been little more careful and had given attention and space in his book to this problem, he would have achieved tremendous success in highlighting social, economic and political context in which the Parliament in Sri Lanka operates today. I hope, in his future edition, he will pay attention to this matter in earnest and make the reality known. Nevertheless this is an excellent work on this subject.

At the conclusion of this work he reveals that the root cause of all ills in politics and governance in Sri Lanka, he mentions that “the demand for the abolition of the office of executive president and the restoration of a parliamentary system of government cannot be resisted as the country remains disillusioned with authoritarianism, which of course, is the major reason for all ills in the country”

Given the breadth of knowledge available in his book I would recommend this book to university academics, students, researchers and even politicians who wish to update their knowledge in the subject.

The writer is Head,
Department of Political Science University of Peradeniya