Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Retired Ministry Secretary and Ex- President Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association 22. 9. 2017

Now that Pradesiya Sabha, Nagara Sabha, Mahanagara Sabha are closed for more than 2 years, Provincial Councils are dis-functioning  and the Parliament is destroying the country through illegitimate and unpatriotic legislations at the behest of Western powers and NGOO representing their personal interests,

Why not close down the Parliament also for the following reasons before, this Government makes it permanently irretrievable and irreversible?

1 It is illegally constituted with defeated candidates holding Ministerial positions therefore the Cabinet itself is illegal

2 The Prime Minister was also illegally appointed

3 So is the Leader of the opposition (a man having 6 seats is appointed as the Leader when there is a     group of 52 MPP in the JO who actually deserves it as democracy has laid down)

4 MPP do not attend its sessions. It is revealed that attendance is less than 25 %. Even the bribe of  Rs 2500 per sitting by Ranil appears to have had no effect

5 So–called elected members in this assembly do not represent the people at all as none of them represent an electorate.  They are called district MPP. They have just collected votes all over the districts by dubious mean like bribing. Since people have no representatives it has ceased to be a legitimate body of representative democracy and become a disgrace to the very spirit and concept of democracy

6 The MPP don’t represent the people who elected them, instead they only carry out he agendas of their real maters in the West and India

7 MPP have ceased to be the representatives of the people, they are only puppets in the hands of the party hierarchies; the parliament on the other hand ceased to be the supreme legislature of the country, and since it represents the interest of the West and India, foreign funded and manipulated NGOO the Parliament has virtually got reduced to be a mere puppet of these elements. Therefore the Parliament is only a mere rubber stamp of those foreign interests serving their interests by leasing and selling national assets. The electors who have put them there is now a forgotten lot

8 It has ceased to be the supreme body of the country making laws long time ago. Today it has virtually turned in to a disgraceful Mariyakade Malukade, rampant with catcalling, bull fighting and obscene visual displays

9 Today under this Government it has been reduced to a mere contracting agency of the Colonial West, NGOO the Tamil Diaspora and the minorities for its survival

10 It also makes legislation through dubious means for the betterment of Politicians only and never for the good of the country or the people who have voted them in to power to get their problems solved. This trend started in 1977 with the election of the UNP in to power

Now look at the following legislations it has enacted in the recent past.

1 Act No 1 of 1977 Pension rights for the MPP after 5 year that was extended later to their spouses as well. This was the priority no 1 of the then UNP Govt., whereas it was not even mentioned in the manifesto of that Government. This privilege was given to them  after 5 years and it was a gross violation of the Govt pension minute whereas a professional public servant is qualified for a pension only after 30 years of service of hard work.

2 Setting up Ministers personal staff units of 25 Officers with a Private Secretary (Wife, son, daughter or an in-law) with another Public Relations Officer, Media Officer and Coordinating Secretary named by the Minister from outside the Public Service with facilities like Official vehicles with drivers etc. All these were recruited outside the public service.  They were also made pensionable after 5 years like the politicians

3 Almost all the Amendments to the 1978 Constitution up to date were made for their benefit and survival, most of them were made on flimsy grounds like keeping a defeated MP in Parliament (Pilapiya) or to legitimize a crossing over or to take in defeated candidates through the National list 14^th Amendment. The same could be said of the 16^th 18^th A and the 19^th as well. The 20^th  A is the latest political manipulation designed to postpone the Local and Provincial Elections.

4 Again have a look at the enormous salary increases of politicians, sitting allowance from 500 to 2500, increases in various other allowance culminating in the latest 100,000 for an Office as if they don’t have a house to live where they can have the offices and what is more is as if they run an office at all, Then the fleet of vehicles with drivers and fuel for all politicians  Official residences foreign pleasure trips and duty free vehicle permits worth Rs 20 to 80 million every five years enabling them to sell and make money We all know what they do with these facilities and the nefarious activities they are involved in with these facilities at the expense of the tax payer. To name a few attending weddings for attesting, funerals, functions in temples, schools, sport meets, opening ceremonies of what others have started (very often), and the latest holding the longest wedding saree (As the chief Minister was seen doing last week end in Kandy) where he had ordered 250 School girls of  Alawatugoda named after  him as reported in newspapers.

This is not an exhaustive list as you all know. The tragedy is all this is done at public expense with zero benefit to them. Are these the duties expected out of these politicians is my question? Number of Politicians has increased 15 by 20 fold, so are the institutions and public servants and their privileges. Sri Lanka has the biggest cabinet in the world. The Parliament, Provincial councils and all other political institutions are alarmingly overstaffed. Public sector staff is also equally gone up. It is said that today every sixteen people have one public servant. But in all these spheres compared with the expenditure the return to the country is almost nil. This is the tragedy we are appalled with. Imagine a country with so many Ministers, politicians and public servants now rests at the bottom of poverty in Asia where as it had the highest per capita income in 1948 when we got Independence.

So much so today our Parliament that was once the  supreme legislative body of the country has got reduced to a den of monkeys as H.L Mencken once has said and it has virtually become a mere den of power hungry and self-seeking thieves, thugs and rogues who have no concern or love for the country.  Their only concern is personal aggrandizement, wealth and power. They bleed the nation to virtual death with sky high taxes both direct and indirect for their power and their un-satiable comforts perhaps putting the masses in to similar or even worse situation than that was their in pre revolution time France in the 18^th Century where the rulers had everything before them but the masses had nothing.

So much so today this den of monkeys called the Parliament has virtually got reduced to a mere den of thieves and rogues robing and slaughter tapping the whole nation by extractive an bleeding taxes both direct and indirect with no concern for the suffering masses.

So in sum our Parliament is a big fraud and a classic joke. Keeping it opened is only a colossal wastage of the tax payer’s money amounting to billions every day for a no return situation and it is only a mighty and unbearable burden to the country. It has ceased to perform any useful function especially to the country for the past 2 years. As H.L.Mencken said it has become a mere monkey cage from where the circus called Democracy – the art of deceiving the people is run.

For the past two year its performance is appalling, disgusting and alarming. While it has violated the Constitution which is expected to be protected and upheld for more than 15 times it has passed laws only to suppress the opponents, put them behind bars and enrich the purses of those who are in power and their cronies. The best example is the Central Bank robbery.

Therefore I call upon all responsible patriotic citizens of this country, especially the Mahasangha, who were once dubbed as the Muradevatavo of this Island nation, the intellectuals and legal luminaries both at home and abroad who love this country to rise up to the occasion and save this sacred institution or start a vigorous agitation to close down the Parliament before, this Government makes the situation permanently irretrievable and irreversible?