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People’s P’ment to appoint ‘model’ Cabinet of experts

02 Nov 2022

BY Buddhika Samaraweera The “People’s Parliament”, consisting of many parties including “aragalaya” activists, professionals, trade union representatives, and civil organisations, has planned to appoint a model Cabinet consisting of expert committees, to request Parliament to appoint the chairpersons of those committees as members of the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committees (SOCs). Speaking to The Morning, People’s Parliament representative and College of Medical Laboratory Science President Ravi Kumudesh said that the People’s Parliament was officially launched on 29 October, and that as its initial venture, it has been decided to form a model Cabinet in the form of expert committees. He said that between 15 and 20 such committees are to be formed after studying similar structural frameworks operating in other parts of the world.  “We have currently conducted a number of researches in this regard. In those researches, it has been found that the Cabinet can be divided into 15 to 20 subject areas. Accordingly, we have currently planned to form expert committees and distribute the subject areas among each committee. We also hope to make a request to the Parliament to appoint the chairpersons of these expert committees as members of the Sectoral Oversight Committees,” he said. Kumudesh further said that the purpose of establishing the People's Parliament is to prepare a model with the participation of the public to change Parliament and its governance in order to make the system change that the people are hoping for in reality. In the People’s Parliament, he said that reforms to be done in order to implement certain changes desired by the people will be implemented as models, after which the People’s Parliament will act as a pressure group to get the Parliament to implement such reforms. “Currently, activists of the people's struggle, professionals, trade union representatives, student activists, and many other parties are members of the People’s Parliament. We hope to recruit members through a digital platform in the future. This will work as an institution that strengthens the process that should take place through Parliament. In this, we hope to create a broad discussion on matters such as the appointment of Ministers on a ‘recall system’ and electoral reforms,” he added. Meanwhile, Leader of the House and Minister of Education Attorney Dr. Susil Premajayantha stated on 19 October that there was no provision in the law to establish another national assembly similar to Parliament, and that an attempt to do so would be a breach of Parliamentary privilege. He said at that time that there were reports circulating in the media that there was a preparation to hold a national assembly similar to Parliament. He pointed out that people's representatives are elected to the Parliament through an election, and added that if people’s representatives need to be changed, it should be done through a vote.  


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