When will the people reach the promised utopia?
Unfortunately the rain that came down in torrents with its thunder and lightning would have dampened the vociferous enthusiasm of the large crowd of people to a certain extent and now we hear that the Sri Lanka issue will be discussed on the second of March.
The question that would bother the politicians would be whether they would be able to assemble the same number of people and how many vehicles would be needed to get the same amount of vehicles to block the roads and disrupt the normal traffic in Pettah.
The traffic congestion that occurred yesterday delayed so many persons from attending to their normal work and also being a Monday morning affected those who would have come for work to their offices from their hometowns.
In fact it would be more practical if these politicians would organise such rallies in their own electorates since at least it would give a chance for the voters to meet their representatives. Especially many of them would not yet have had a chance to express to their politicians the problems they face as they also extend their support for their political views of conspiracy and what nots that politicians love to use against their whipping horses the NGOS!
Meanwhile the price of bread has been increased which means that all prices of flour products too would rise. Sri Lanka’s rupee currency showed a low record of Rs.121 against the dollar. The Central Bank has not intervened in the money market status and yet believes that with the devaluation of the rupee exports would bring in greater returns and imports would decrease.
It appears that the Central Bank has forgotten that the import price would not decrease because according to their own justifications regarding the increase of the price of fuel world prices increase impacts on local prices and as for export, especially tea.
Most of the exporters are yet unable to get the earlier prices that prevailed due to the unsettled situation that prevails in the Middle East and the usual tea buying countries have not yet actively participated in the purchasing mode!
A fuel surcharge on electricity is on its way and perhaps soon water too may have an extra charge. Farmers are urging for a substantial increase in the purchasing price of paddy and this would certainly lead to an increase in the cost of rice.
Most politicians whether they are f rom the government ranks or the opposition appear to be rather ignorant of how many in their electorates live. Often it is the woman who has to bear the burden of the cost of living and the increase in the price of kerosene has made her work more difficult. She is the one who has to see to the needs of
A fuel surcharge on electricity is on its way and perhaps soon water too may have an extra charge. Farmers are urging for a substantial increase in the purchasing price of paddy and this would certainly lead to an increase in the cost of rice. Most politicians whether they are from the government ranks or the opposition appear to be rather ignorant of how manyin their elecorates live
the household.
Often the children are her first priority. Even if she is not working she wonders as to whether she has the money for the transport of her children to school. She worries about how to feed them on the measly salary her husband brings home. If he is a fixed income earner usually when he pays off the loans he has taken the bring-home-salary is scarcely enough to buy a weeks food and it rests on her shoulders to see that the children have a meal to take to school, her husband has to have his lunch and she has to prepare breakfast. Often she gets up at about 3 am to prepare the meals and if she is also working the life sure is hectic, tiring and worrying.
But to the politicians who scarcely bother about how those who do not have the perks and privileges live who visits the electorate when he feels like it and is then followed by the coterie to whom he has provided certain benefits and whose main task is to assure him that everything is just fine since to him he is a saviour who will not bother about their lapses or the level of corruption that exists, he returns back to his house in Colombo or the suburbs and feels well pleased with himself. After all he can make use of these coterie of followers to rustle up a crowd if a public demonstration is needed and can boast to the powers that be that he is well loved and accepted by the electorate.
One tends to wonder whether this was the situation that earlier politicians who drafted the new constitutions thought would happen when they gave higher salaries to politicians and even designed a pension for their retirement!
It is perhaps time that since the government is said to be designing a workshop for politicians whoever in charge of it should first remind them to be true to themselves and the manifestos they proclaimed without finding refuge in external situations which according to them have brought in all the ills we suffer.
One tends to wonder in this contest how many politicians and their side kicks are in Geneva now.