Parliamentary privileges and people’s rights

• Sadly, no legal action could be taken against any false, liable, or derogative statements made by the MPs in the Parliament, under the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act.

Media has questioned several recent incidents in Parliament where members of Parliament have wasted valuable time of the House by raising inappropriate and irrelevant issues. 

The recent statement made by Jaffna District Parliamentarian Ramanathan Archuna was prominent  among the incidents raised by the media. The MP said that the 323 containers that are at the centre of a controversy these days contained weapons belonging to Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the outfit that was decimated by the armed forces sixteen years ago. 

He said that the arms cache reached Colombo harbour from Thailand and attributed the shipment to a visit by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Germany last year as the leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) where (according to the MP)  he met the diaspora. 

The ironical part of his speech was that he said he was making this statement with responsibility though he was unable to prove its veracity. If it had an iota of credibility,  it would have really been a bombshell, as it is a serious allegation. However, even  arch-enemies of President Dissanayake do not seem to have paid any attention to it. 

People of the country with whom the sovereignty lies  according to the Constitution, have the right at the very least to ask the MP to explain how he can make a statement with responsibility without taking the responsibility for its veracity. 

However, it would be unfair by MP Archuna to single him out in this regard. Making false allegations against fellow members or the government or the Opposition is something that has become a norm in the House. Another MP recently showed in the House a famous picture of a man being tortured by a group of people during the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983 and claimed that it was the “spiritual leader” of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) torturing a man during the period 1988/89.

Sadly, no legal action could be taken against any false, liable, or derogative statements made by the MPs in the Parliament, under the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act.

The Act says “No member shall be liable to any civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment, or damages by reason of anything which he may have said in Parliament or by reason of any matter or thing which he may have brought before Parliament by petition, bill, resolution, motion or otherwise.”

The purpose of Parliamentary privilege is not to treat the members of Parliament as a group above the people with whom the sovereignty lies, but to facilitate them to express their views in the House without any fear or hindrance. Nevertheless, given various reports from many countries, these privileges are being abused by the MPs to gain political or personal ends. 

Many MPs use the “point of order” to interrupt other members’ right to express views, create chaotic situations in the chamber and disrupt proceedings. Explaining the concept of “point of order,” the Parliament website says: “If a member feels that a procedural disorder has occurred, he can raise the matter then and there. The member on his feet should give way when such a Point of Order is raised.”

Yet, points of order are often used by Members in an attempt to inappropriately gain the floor to participate in debates or to disrupt the proceedings or to disturb the member who is on his feet. Manthri.lk, a pioneering online platform that monitors and ranks all the proceedings and actors in parliament had conducted an interesting survey on the use and abuse of points of order in Parliament some 11 years ago. Its data for 28 months, from May 2012-August 2014, which had 206 sittings, shows that on average six points-of-order were made per parliamentary sitting (a total of 1222) and 53% of them were an abuse of the instrument.

MPs do not have the moral right to abuse the parliamentary privileges at the expense of decorum in the house or the rights of the people whose tax money is spent on maintenance of the legislature. Last year, during a similar turbulent period in Parliament, it was pointed out that approximately Rs. 4.5 million was being spent on a day’s Parliament session. It is high time the government paid its attention to this matter and made appropriate changes to the relevant laws, while protecting the rights of the MPs as well as the people.

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