Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella has requested the government to allow MPs exam-free entry to Law College and Universities. This at a time when there is a call for a minimum qualification to run for parliament. Many questions have arisen about the quality of MPs now sitting in the legislature and their competence to do their job.

Let us not forget that the President has established a Task Force to introduce the One Country One Law concept. If entry to higher learning institutions are based on privileged position of some (like MPs who won’t have to pass a highly competitive entrance exam), then from the outset the question of equality of all has to be abandoned.

First let us consider a person who had secured entry to Law College/University in this manner – will he/she find a place for further higher studies elsewhere? No other country will be willing to recognize graduates or lawyers who have received higher education on the basis of parliamentary privilege.

There is a public outcry about declining standards of higher education in the country and universities here do not enjoy the recognition they did in the past. A ridiculous scheme such as that proposed will only aggravate this situation. Suggesting exam-free entry to universities/law college etc. for MPs as a parliamentary privilege is both unthinkable and vulgar at the least and does not merit further consideration.

What is surprising is that this suggestion has come from a recognized lawyer who has entered the portals of higher studies in the conventional manner and not by using parliamentary privilege. In fairness to him, let us believe that he has indulged in some kite flying and not give his proposal a second thought.

University/Law College entrance in Sri Lanka today is savagely competitive and many of those who qualify are denied entry for lack of places. To suggest in this context that election to parliament be a passport for exam-free entry is an abomination.

It has been reported that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was admitted to Law College on the basis he was an MP without having to pass an entrance examination. If that’s true, and such admission is no longer permitted, let’s keep it that way.