Thursday, December 8, 2011
My Visit to The Sri Lankan Parliament!
As I
have mentioned before, Harsha Lirne, my EF colleague and also a Member of the
Sri Lankan Parliament, of course asked me when I was coming if I wanted to
visit a Parliamentary session. I of course said “Sure, Why not”. I never mind
seeing how governments work in different Countries and places. So one morning, before a full day of meetings
and events, Harsha picked me up and took me to see the Parliament of Sri
Lanka. Let me back up by saying that I
when I first answered Harsha with “sure, why not”, that response meant exactly
what was said, which in my mind meant “if nothing else has been schedule that
is more interesting or a priority, I will visit Parliament. I want to include
this sentiment in this post because I have visited a couple of Parliamentary
sessions or two in my time, several in Africa and one or two in Brazil, and
they can sometimes be very boring, unable to understand due to language
barriers, and most members end up rambling on and on that a session can become
a moreso just less than better option to the snooze button. However,
it wasn’t until I met the “New” members of Parliament that I realized..”Oh,
these guys are different…this could be interesting”.
The
first night that I came to town, Harsha introduced me to several of his friends
that included Parliamentary memebrs/leaders who were young, passionate,
outwardly ambitious, and very entrenched in making the Country better,
stronger, and a more vibrant destination and place to live. We were all about
the same age and this immediately intrigued me because although I have many
friends and colleagues who are young 30 year olds holding government office
positions and also passionate about politics and the politics that take place
within their districts, I just didn’t think I would find that in Sri Lanka of
all places! So the night went on, the
engagements were great, the discussion was interesting, the energy was alive
and comfortable, and by the time the night was over…..I was hooked. Sri
Lanka….who knew ;-)
So,
to speed back up to my visit to Parliament, I now had more of purpose to go.
When asked again if I wanted to attend, it was a resounding “YES”. I wanted to
see just what all of this endless dialogue, vibrato, private circle discussion
topics at late night hours, actually placed in its appropriate venue. So I went
and glad I did. First, just on
aesthetics the Parliament House is beautiful. An Asian design and openness to
the building , façade, and grounds, is regal, welcoming, striking, and actually
very feng shui.
After
arriving, I was swiftly escorted upstairs, through numerous security checks and
balances, and finally took a seat in the balcony, facing the Opposition side of
the government. At first, it was rather
quiet. Saw my friends, waved hands, and sat there not understanding a thing.
But then something happened, people starting getting up and talking and
speaking in Sinahalese, faster and faster and there were active retorts and comments
being thrown back and forth across the aisle. Well this was definitely not
unfamiliar. As everyone knows in the US, these types of active arguments and
heated discourse are very common, so at that point I began to read between the
language barriers and grasp what may be going on…..a legal debate. Now the
context was foreign, but the actions were not. It was very interesting. Good to
know that in other places around the world the bickering back and forth of
opposing ideologies and positions, take on the same tantrums as constantly seen
in my own back yard. Now in this case, I didn’t know who to liken the
administrations to, ie….what party is more like the US Republicans and which
party is more like the US democrats, but what I did know was that in that crowd
there were hard core facts…1) Not that many women are Sri Lankan Parliament
Leaders ( Maybe 8 or so, out of 50), 2) There are young and very interesting
leaders of note in the government, and 3) There is room for inclusion of
technology to bring a bit of modernization and “pizazz” to the process and
progression of the SL governing structures and bodies.
All
that being said, the visit was a success.
Glad I went and saw for myself what all the hub bub is about. And Harsha
was right, there is hub bub;-) Interest growing….
B
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