People’s participation in governance: ‘Janatha Committee’ – a suggestion

This successful effort of the protesters and the lessons learnt should be made use of to prevent a recurrence of the corruption and abuse of power by any future government. This force should be converted to a permanent vigilant organisation for consultation and regular dialogue with the Government

By M.H.M. Farook

The need

The dollar crisis, drop in the foreign reserves and the default of the repayment of the foreign loans, which aggravated in the first quarter of 2022, led to the curtailing of imports of essentials – foods, drugs, gas, petrol and diesel and many more.  

The suffering the people are undergoing is the cumulative effect of the mismanagement of the economy, corruption, abuse of power and threat to life, over a long period. Despite several warnings by those who are knowledgeable both in the Parliament and outside Parliament, successive governments continued doing these atrocities by creating a fear psychosis. The two-third majority in the Parliament the people gave the government is grossly abused with impunity. Therefore, the need of the proposed organisation.

The hardships of the people to live, increased day by day and the Government became ineffective and unable to make essentials available in sufficient quantities to the people. The situation so deteriorated that the people came to the streets in protest on or about 8 April 2022 and the crowd kept increasing not only in Colombo but in other towns as well. The protest was peaceful. The people are continuing the protest despite the Government’s various tactics to disperse the protesters.

The main cause of the crisis is bribery, corruption, robbing, wasteful expenditure and total disregard for fiscal management by successive governments, particularly after 2005.

The protesters and others want the President and Prime Minister to resign and dissolve the Government.

The protest was so effective that the people were able to get the ministers of the Rajapaksa family to resign and the Prime Minister resigned on 9 May, 2022. The President also agreed to the alternatives suggested by the Bar Association and the protesters. 

This successful effort of the protesters and the lessons learnt should be made use of to prevent a recurrence of the corruption and abuse of power by any future government. This force should be converted to a permanent vigilant organisation for consultation and regular dialog with the Government. This should be done immediately.

If this organisation is to be effective and prevent any recurrence, the most important thing to be done is to set up a Commission with appropriate powers and all those who have been involved in any type of fraud, bribery, corruption, robbery or any act of financial crime should be penalised without any delay. If this is not done expeditiously, all other efforts alone will not prevent any recurrence.

The purpose

The purpose of the proposed organisation is to prevent a recurrence of this in the future. Prevention is better than cure. A repetition of this in the future should be prevented at any cost. 

The people voting a party into power and assuming that the Government will deliver what they promised and minding their own business without any knowledge of what is actually happening is a disaster. This lesson is the purpose of forming this organisation is to keep a constant watch on the performance of the Government. 

The proposed organisation

The following is a suggestion of the structure of the proposed organisation. 

There should a committee in each of the 160 electorates in the island. The number of members in each committee should have relevance to the number of electors in each electorate and should be a manageable number. 

Suitable representatives from each of the electoral committees should be elected to form an electoral district committee, in each of the 22 electoral districts in the country. In addition to the representatives from the electoral committees, key persons from each electoral district may be also elected. The number in each district committee should be a manageable number.

Suitable representatives from each of the electoral district committees should be elected to a national committee. In addition to representatives from the district committees, members may be also elected from professions and experts in various fields to the national committee. 

Electing of representatives to all these committees and the mode of selection should be based on certain criteria to be decided.

The functions of the committees

Electoral Committee (EC)

All government services within each electorate, all projects, appointments and transfers of government or government-owned enterprise employees, budgetary allocations for expenditure within the electorate, nominations to PS/UC/MC and Parliament should be in consultation and approval of this committee. No commitment shall be made without the approval of the committee. 

Progress reports should be provided at regular intervals to the EC. The EC should study these reports and carry out inspection of the work of all government institutions within the electorate. They should also peruse documents calling for quotations/tender and project proposals, if necessary, call the authorities and experts who prepared these documents to explain and justify the need for it and the expenditure. 

Electoral District Committee (EDC)

All government services within several electorates in the same electoral district, all projects, appointments and transfers of government or government-owned enterprise employees, in several electorates in the district electorates, budgetary allocations for expenditure in relevant electorates within the EDC should be done in consultation with and the approval of the EDC. Progress reports should be provided at regular intervals to the EC. The EC should study these reports and carry out inspection of the work of all government institutions within the electorate. They should also peruse documents calling for quotations/tender and project proposals, if necessary, call the authorities and experts who prepared these documents to explain and justify the need for it and the expenditure. 

National Committee (NC)

All national policies, national plans including revenue proposals for the national budget, all government services involving more than one electoral district, all projects, appointments and transfers of government or government-owned enterprise employees, should be in consultation and approval of this committee. No commitment shall be made without the approval of the Committee. 

Progress reports should be provided at regular intervals to the EC. The EC should study these reports and carry out inspection of the work of all government institutions within the electorate. They should also peruse documents calling for quotations/tender and project proposals, if necessary, call the authorities and experts who prepared these documents to explain and justify the need for it and the expenditure. 

Contribute to the formulation of national policies after consulting the electoral and electoral district committees, and participate in the implementation of approved policies.

Legal status 

This organisation should be responsible to the proposed council of state.

(This is a basic structure, if this is accepted refinements have to be made.)