Skills Development and Vocational Training Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said it was time the civil society questioned the quality of candidates the people vote into Parliament.
"It is not only political parties which need to take responsibility for such behaviour, the civil society too should question their public representatives. In other countries when politicians don’t perform or break the rules, the civil society brings down pressure upon them to resign or to be held accountable,” Minister Samarasinghe said.
He was addressed a media briefing at the Government Information Department today.
Samarasinghe added that the government’s move to introduce the Right to Information Bill was a strong move to strengthen civil society and to give them the opportunity to get information on how Parliament and government at every level works.
“This is a sustainable measure to hold public officials accountable,” the minister said. Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Minister Chandima Weerakkody said the SLFP Central Working Committee would decide on any action that needs to be taken against MP Prasanna Ranaweera when it convenes at a later date.
Ranaweera is one of the two held responsible for the brawl in Parliament on Tuesday.
Weerakkody also remarked that the SLFP May Day rally in Galle was the most successful in the recent past and it showed that in the end the people stuck with the party and proved the Joint Opposition wrong.
He added that they hoped to take this opportunity to create a clean party, and then join with the UPFA to clean that up too, thus moving towards cleaner politics in the country.
EmoticonEmoticon