March 12th Movement initiates asset declaration project

By Isuri Kaviratne

The March 12 Movement has several new initiatives lined-up after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Convenor of the Movement Rohana Hettiarachchi said. The upcoming projects are meant to reduce corruption among politicians and create transparency in Sri Lankan politics, he said.

These projects include developing MP profiles and listing out their educational qualifications, vision and mission and the services rendered to the community during their tenure. This information will be made available on the official website of the March 12 Movement. "Initial interviews with the MPs and finalising a format to upload the information is under way," Hettiarachchi said.

The Movement will initiate an asset declaration project, parallel to the parliamentary asset declaration procedure between April 1 - June 30. Hettiarachchi said they were determined to make this document public and accessible. "It will not be produced in the format that Parliament follows. It will be easy to read and understand." He said the Movement hopes to make the asset declaration an annual feature.

The MPs who signed the declaration on March 12, 2016 will be subject to these requirements.

Seventeen junior parliamentarians signed the declarations; fourteen of them were UN Pers while the rest were from the UPFA.

The Movement calls upon parliamentarians to engage in clean politics subject to theeight principles; not being a criminal, free of bribery and corruption, free of anti-social trades, environment-friendly, not abusing authority, free of abusive financial contracts, close to their electors and providing adequate opportunities for women and youth. "We focused on first-time parliamentarians, below the age of 50, who were also not ministers or party leaders when we invited them to sign the Declaration this year," he said. One reason for this decision is that most of the Ministers had various allegations them which should be cleared when they pledge to engage in clean politics.