Are you keeping the pampered Jades of Lanka happy enough?
Whilst the nation’s masses hover on the brink of poverty’s cliff, the ‘no limit’ self serving spree of their elected representatives THE MORE THEY ARE GIVEN, THE MORE THEY WANT, BUT IS IT ALL OUR FAULT?
Poor sods. Do they understand the responsibility thrust upon them when they become the people’s representatives. Do they not have a clue of their duties or their obligations that necessarily come appended with the job they are expected to do. For them it’s a one way easy street to traverse and arrive at the Eldorado of their dreams at the people’s expense. All take and no give. All talk and no deed.
But, pause for a second, before you fling the first stone of judgment. Hold on before you blame their gross acquisitive nature. We must first cast the light inward and ask ourselves whether we have spared the rod and spoilt the brat; and have only ourselves to blame.
Whether, having created a monster in our midst and given it pride of place - whose appetite knows no limit - we are feeding the ogre enough to keep it happy and sated, simply because we have no choice but to send the bullocks daily for its gluttonous feed. And whether we will have to wait for another David to slay the Goliath in its own Diyawanna den. And until then, keep our lips zipped and keep its unlimited appetite for more, sated. Lest it demands even more of the nation’s dwindling livestock and causes a massive drain of its blood supply.
If blame must rest on someone, it must rest on us, the voters of this land who gave birth to such prodigal sons and spoilt them beyond belief and sentenced them beyond redemption’s pale where they dwell now. Fed and fattened them and smothered them with perks and privileges to such an extent that they have turned out to be not the saviours of the nations. Bloated leeches, without realising that once the mangy body dies, they themselves will perish in the process.
And, as we cater without murmur to sate their ever pressing needs, neither do we understand the reasons that propel them to crave for more and more in their relentless quest to better their lives engaged as they are in the profession of politics - once the past time of the idle rich now turned into the full time occupation of the mercenary class.
Once upon a time not so long ago the landed aristocracy sold their acreage to enter politics and to do public service. The only reward they sought was honour and fame. But today’s breed of sacred bulls is of a different genre. Coming as many of them do from the grassroots they once graced, the ambition of many or the sole purpose is to make money out of politics. And they have done it handsomely.
The only question that has to be asked now, is: are you doing enough to keep them happy? For after all they are your representatives who speak in your name in that august house, professing to advance your interest as a stakeholder in the nation’s wellbeing? Don’t you think that the proxy you send to Parliament to represent your interest, should be kept happy and well fed? So consider the fol- lowing.
Does a basic salary of Rs.65,000/- per month paid to an MP make him happy? Coupled with the other allowances and a take home pay package worth over Rs. 300,000/- per month satisfy him? Especially considering the work hours he or she has to put in which are eight days a month? Even though he or she does not even have to put in an eighthour shift.
Does the license to make a cool 20 million upon entry to parliament by selling off his duty free vehicle permit no sooner he receives it, make him happy? Even though he has his official vehicle to travel?
Does the fact that the tax payer also funds his monthly calls and allows him to chat for hours on end with his Johns and Janes at the taxpayer’s expense of Rs 50,000 per month make him happy?
Does the fact of being provided rent free houses to stay in the Colombo suburbs make him happy?
Does receiving million buck cheques
from dubious sources accused of rob- bing the national treasury make him happy? Even when armed with the convenient answer of saying “I do not know’ which has become the best legal defense in town, make him smile?
Are they worried about the recent fuel hike and the rise in the cost of living and do they feel unhappy that it will burn a hole in their pocket or do they find joy that things that affect the common man do not touch them for its paid for by the common man? Does that comfort make them happy?
Does the glow of popularity, to bask in the spotlight of media coverage and see their mug shot pasted on newspaper front pages, make them happy? When at the drop of a hat the poodle lapdog media rushes to cover their every press conference and record their uttering and publish it as the gospel truth according to Saint Politico? In a land where news is now equivalent to what a politician says at a press conference of his own calling?
Does the President’s recent statement that they should be exempt from PAYE tax to be charged on their parliamentary salary imposed by the new tax law that came into effect on April Fool’s Day make him happy?
Are they happy that fifty five chosen seeds of their brethren – are to be given 200,000 bucks a month as traveling allowance to monitor development projects? This sum will purchase 1379 litres per month. Given the Monitors and such ships they drive in, and given its petrol consumption approximately gauged at 10 kilometres per litre, that would mean these monitoring MPs will have to travel 460 kilometres per day, 24/ 7, including Saturday and Sundays and even miss sittings of parliament. Will that make them happy?
Are you happy that your MP would have been happy to have received with effect from 1st January last year a sum of Rs. 100,000/= per month to maintain an office. And that he has been provided with a research officer, a secretary, a typist, an office assistant and two d r ivers maintained by the Government at the tax payers’ expense?
Are you happy that your MP is medically insured for Rs. 200,000, even though for the slightest cough and cold he will seek a donation from the President’s Fund and fly to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital to be prescribed an Augmenting antibiotic there?
Are you happy that you are giving him a lifetime pension just for being a member of parliament whist you and the rest of this nation’s masses have to slave away day in and night out till retirement age to be eligible to gain their EPF to which one has contributed ten per cent of their salaries whilst the MP has contributed none?
Are they happy that even teachers
must pay worship to?
The above is but a brief list of the perks and privileges an MP enjoys today. But he still seems sad. And asks for more.
Well, if all these things don’t make them happy, what will? What more sacrifice must the public make to keep their MPs happy? God only knows. Apart from 12 million odd voting Lankans who, whilst hovering over poverty’s cliff, await poll’s day to deliver judgment.