Proposed system changes to achieve the real objectives of LG machinery

I was energised to pen this piece after having read with interest several articles in the press. One of them was an article by veteran journalist Kusal Perera which exposed the manoeuvers by power hungry political party leaders abusing the very objectives of the LG machinery, to achieve their selfish and ulterior political motives, underscoring the need for 'System Change'.

- By Bernard Fernando

Furthermore, political parties delaying the submission of names of their selected nominees up to the time of penning, have added insult to injury, pointing again to the flaws of the system.

On ground, the participation of voters at a low 61%, amplifies the fact that Sovereign voters have detested the heavily politicised LG machinery for the last several years as they are compelled to consider local politicians as Middlemen/Brokers rather than as Representatives/ Facilitators of the people.

Ways to rationalize 'Representative Democracy'

After the addition of nine Provincial Councils (each consisting of 2 or 3 Districts) armed with 455 politicised PC Members and 9 miniParliaments, as a new gigantic layer to the Political Administration system in 1988, an alternate proposal was floated to establish District Councils in line with Public Administration through Government Agents (now District Secretaries). The proposal still remains in a state of flux. Kusal Perera notes with concern that the real objective of LG bodies to closely deal with day-to-day affairs and future needs of the people in the localities, from 'womb to tomb', was continuously subverted by selfish political leaders.

Thereupon, writer's 'Out of the box' proposal titled 'An alternate system for Local Government Elections based on the 'Grama Rajya/Gam Sabha' concept appeared in the press, 28 years ago in April 1997. As usual, it also ended up in the dust bin of successive governments which continued to exploit the LG system for political advantage with enhanced vigour drawn from some 8,327 politicised members. This too was forthrightly exposed by Kusal Perera.