Next year parliamentary elections will be held under the proportional representation system. In this system, the choice of candidates is with the political parties and not with the electors. The Sri Lankan polity is besieged with many problems. Indiscipline is the main cause for many problems: bribery, corruption and nepotism; wanton wastage of public funds; demanding unjustified salary increases by staging strikes; organised crime; ragging in universities; non-implementation of the independent commissions under the 17th amendment to the constitution; giving jobs to unemployable graduates when the country cannot afford it are only a few of them.

Indiscipline is evident in all strata of society, but, politicians and public servants are glaring examples of it. Instances where politicians have squandered state money and property have been brought to light in the recent past. Therefore, discipline, in the interests of society, must come from the highest legislature, that is parliament. Therefore, this writer opines that political parties should express their views on the following in their manifestos when they campaign for the parliamentary elections.

1. Repeal the PR system.

2. All MPs to declare their assets before taking oaths as MPs.

3. Lay down minimum educational qualifications for parliamentary candidates.

4. Regulate the payment of pensions to MPs. Public servants get full pension only on completion of a certain years of service. Likewise, MPs should get their pensions proportionate to the number of years of service as MPs.

5. Do away with the practice of giving duty free cars/vehicles to all MPs and public servants.

6. Provide security only to a selected few such as the President, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Minister and Secretary of Defence. The present practice of giving security at state expense to all MPs, provincial councillors etc., must be done away with.

7. Reduce the number of cabinet and non-cabinet ministers and deputy ministers to the bare minimum.

8. Review the Provincial Councils Act, in order to safeguard the unitary status of Sri Lanka. Is there a need to have provincial councils outside NP or EP? Provincial Councils were foisted on Sri Lanka under the JR-Rajiv Gandhi accord. A state in India is many times bigger than the whole of Sri Lanka, and the need to have provincial councils for each of the provinces in Sri Lanka, is incomprehensible.

This writer exhorts every political party that has a genuine desire to serve the country, to publicly declare in its manifesto what it is going to do when they come to power. The abolition of the Executive Presidency is not an immediate necessity.