More on Sam W’s experiences in Parliament

By D.C. Ranatunga

By the time Sam W became Secretary of the House of Representatives; I had ended my stint as a Parliamentary reporter and was in charge of the ‘Dinamina’ news desk.  Yet whenever there was an important debate, the seniors in the newspapers too used to get to Parliament and see what was happening.

It was customary to pay a courtesy call on Sam W (usually during the afternoon tea break). Then he would always sit with us and share his tray. We often sat in his office and listened to the debates on the sound system if the galleries were full.

After his retirement whenever there was a talk by him, I tried my best not to miss it. He was so interesting to listen to. The talks were full of anecdotes and he would present them in the most appealing manner.

I had not met him for quite some time when I read about a book released by the Council for Liberal Democracy. Desperate to get a copy which I knew would be fascinating reading, I called him to find out from where I could get a copy. “Come over and I will give you a copy,” was his answer. When I went he insisted I should have lunch with him. It was a simple lunch – typical ‘game kema’ which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The book ‘All Experience’ is a collection of ‘Essays and Reflections of Sam Wijesinha’. To me it’s a very useful reference book, particularly on constitutional history, freedom fighters and Parliamentarians. His observations and interpretations of Parliamentary affairs are fascinating.

Discussing the ‘Changing Face of Parliament 1960-87,’ to which I have already referred to in the previous article, he talks of what the voters expected from their MPs. The MPs were expected to attend funerals, go to weddings, arrange marriages for the daughters and find jobs for their sons. Later they were expected to arrange transfers and finally to protect and preserve the employment of those who are appointed to the jobs and stay at home and do nothing.

“And MPs have indeed played ball and tried to do those kind things, at the expense of thinking of things on a larger scale. But to do all these, the MP has to have the sort of authority that was never initially envisaged for a legislator. So the bureaucracy is brought under the MP who sees himself as executive officer and even judge, in addition to being a legislator. And so he ensures his continuity. So the role of the Parliamentarian has changed and now he thinks he is responsible for the actual activities in all these areas himself.”

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is an important arm in Parliament. Once the budget is passed, controlling the expenditure is dome through the PAC. Sam W sees another aspect. “In actual fact, I found that, for many MPs, the actual working of the committee provided unique opportunities. Many members in fact like to get into the committee for the simple reason that every year all the heads of government departments are brought to parade before the committee. And the members realising the value of knowing these heads of departments naturally liked to be in the committee. Then quite apart from the public sittings, once they come to know them they can take up the telephone and ring them up and ask for something.”

Sam W had sat in the PAC for 18 years and had observed that year after year the same problems came from the same departments in spite of the corrective measures suggested by the Treasury.

He traces the history of the PAC back to 1921 when it was set up on a proposal by E.R. Tambimuttu, the member for the Eastern Province in the Legislative Council. It gave the Ceylonese representatives authority to question officials who till then had been responsible only to the British colonial administration. It was effective then because it was the only committee where the members of the Legislative Council could take the heads of departments to task.

The quality of MPs has been a subject of discussion in many quarters in recent times. Sam W relates an interesting story about a particular MP who was in Parliament in the early 1980s. (He met with a tragic death while being an MP).

“He was sometimes held up as someone who was everything an MP should not be. He had studied only up to the third standard and had no pretensions to learning or intellect, his language was crude, and he did not always rely on language, to the point where he could reduce any gathering to his level quite forcibly. His connections to people in illegal trades were well known. But on the other hand, in his electorate there was not a single culvert or bridge, a school or a temple or a hospital, which was not attended to. For practical efficient work, he was an amazing man.

“Once somebody came and told him, ‘So now you are an MP, you have forgotten us and you don't treat us the way you used to.’ His reply was, ‘So you want me to treat the way I did?’ and he gave him a slap. That was the kind of person he was. He knew about the smallest matter in the electorate and he acted. It was known that he never made empty promises. If he promised to get a man a job, he got it. But he would first ask what the man’s qualifications were, and sometimes he would say ‘no, you are not fit for it and I cannot do anything.’”

Questioning as to why such persons should be looked down and the need for more qualified persons are impressed upon, Sam W says that in the end they all have to vote the way they are ordered to by their party. “What is the difference, given the present role of an MP, between a man such as this and one who reads books carefully and can talk about economic diagrams and time frames and the subtleties to policy,” he asks. “And if such a man does little for his electorate, you can see why voters would prefer someone like that person.”

Stressing that there should be a mix of different types in Parliament, he says: “You cannot have a Parliament that only has people who are educated or academic or who can go to any international gathering and talk convincingly. Of course, on the other hand, you should not have people who have no conception of anything beyond the area they represent. You need a mixture of both, where you get different types for different purposes. But you should be clear what these purposes are.