The Island Editorial

An opportunity to rectify a grave error

25 August 2016

The government came under fire from the Opposition in Parliament on Tuesday over the Office on Missing Persons Bill (OMPB), which the Speaker is said to have signed into law. Even the JVP, which is for the OMPB, insisted that some of the amendments including those it proposed had not been accommodated. Urged to resubmit the Bill with amendments to Parliament again Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella said he would explore the possibility of doing so. Will he prove that he is a man of his word?

The Joint Opposition (JO) and the JVP accused the government of rigging a vote on a supplementary estimate in Parliament about three months ago. Some of the MPs were not in their seats when the vote was taken. The chair and the parliamentary staff took the count wrong and declared the estimate passed, but subsequently, it had to be submitted again. The OMPB was also ‘passed’ under similar circumstances. The House was in turmoil with some Opposition MPs protesting in the well of parliament when it was ‘ratified’.

A minister told the media the following day that the government had mustered a two-thirds majority for the Bill, but he was unable to say how many MPs had supported it!

The JO’s failure to challenge the OMPB in courts cannot be cited in extenuation of the deplorable manner in which it was ‘ratified’. The government, which claims to practise good governance, should have sought the opinion of the apex court, suo motu, on the Bill and rid it of the section inconsistent with the Constitution and other questionable features the Opposition has taken exception to.

Everybody is at sea as regards the amendments which are said to have been incorporated into the OMPB; it is not clear whether some controversial features thereof such as Section 11 have been retained or obviated. This particular section gives the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) untramelled powers to ‘enter into agreements with any person or organisation, whether local or foreign’ among other things. It is being argued in some quarters that if this provision has not been done away with the OMP will even be able to enlist the support of the International Criminal Court!

As we have pointed out in this space previously the OMPB, in its original form, sought to whittle down the powers of the executive president further by making Constitutional Council (CC) recommendations mandatory in respect of the appointment of personnel to the Office on Missing Persons (OMP); this kind of additional responsibility given to the CC amounts to further curtailment of the powers of the executive president elected directly by the people and, therefore, the OMPB, according to the original draft, was a constitutional amendment in all but name. The OMPB was not consistent with the Constitution. Article 82 (1) states: "No Bill for the amendment of any provision of the Constitution shall be placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, unless the provision to be repealed, altered or added, and consequential amendments, if any, are expressly specified in the Bill and is described in the long title thereof as being an Act for the amendment of the Constitution." What would the legal pundits of the government say to this?

It is a pity that even the self-appointed guardians of democracy including western governments and NGOs have welcomed the seriously flawed OMPB in spite of the controversial manner in which it has been ‘passed’.

The government has set a very bad precedent which has made a mockery of its avowed commitment to good governance. The Opposition’s protests against the OMPB must be heeded and remedial action taken.