Article 70 no more welcome

    If one provision of law had to be singled out for its contribution towards holding back our otherwise promising parliamentary democracy , it would most certainly be Article 70 of the constitution. In line with the culture of our political parties, no party in power or in opposition has ever properly addressed the issue of MPs not being allowed to vote against their own party, as Article 70 stipulates. Consequently, this provision has haunted our parliamentary practice for four decades and promises to continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
    Article 70 bars a member of parliament from voting against the decision of his/her party. Originally designed to prevent MPs from engaging in what is known as 'floor-crossing ', the barrier is not absolute , in the sense that an MP can still vote against his/her party.But she can only do so at the high cost of losing his parliament membership and therefore at the same time, ceasing to be a representative of his people . It is, therefore, hardly surprising that an MP has gone against a party decision in parliament and sacrificed his membership only once in our 40-year-old democracy . In a vibrant democracy, democratic practice or power of the people should not end with the casting of a ballot. But unfortunately for us, as soon as we have elected our representative lawmaker, she is out of our hands and into the power clutches of the party that nominated him or her. No matter how much a particular party decision might affect the interests of his or her constituents or push the boundaries of his or her conscience, a 'lawmaker' has no real power to vote against it.
    With this arrangement in place , sadly since the very inception of our country, our parliament seems to have become a rubberstamp to be used at the whim of the party in power. Not only does the opposition never stands a practical chance of winning a vote against the government , no critic inside the ruling party holds any bargaining power against an unreasonable or harmful decision of the government. He is free to speak his mind on the parliament floor but the freedom ends once the Speaker calls for votes. From that moment onwards , a Member of Parliament , the representative of the people , must only blindly follow his herd.