THE BANE OF SRI LANKA’S POLITICS!

If there is one exercise our Sri Lankan Politicians are brilliant at it is ‘Power Struggle’ and the struggle is on!!! All the Rajapaksa brothers are in the forefront, CASES PENDING IN COURT AND ‘DUAL CITIZENSHIP’

NOTWITHSTANDING!!! How can we forget our erstwhile President presenting himself probably as the candidate par excellence!!! With all his new found theories, not forgetting the Death Penalty, he must indeed see himself as the star candidate, the saviour who plunged this country into unprecedented chaos a short while back!!!

The unconstitutional crisis that Sri Lanka was faced with should teach us that, as a country, we have a lot to learn from such a sad episode!!! Numerous questions are still left unanswered; primarily, what caused it??? Was it a power struggle within a power struggle or sheer force of circumstances beyond control??? It was such an unexpected and unprecedented comedy of errors, most probably brought about by wrong legal advice as the President clearly stated he had sought legal advice!!! The political media naturally went berserk imputing startling agendas with gruesome headlines while the TV stations did their own dramatic handling of events as they unfolded!!! The bigger the gatherings, red, blue, green or startling multicolored, the louder they shouted and the more they believed they were heralding DEMOCRACY!!! IN THEIR INNATE STUPIDITY LITTLE DID THEY REALIZE THAT THEY WERE HERALDING THE DEATH KNELL OF DEMOCRACY!!!

Who suffered as a result of this gross stupidity??? The people and the economy of the country; the stock exchange dwindled, foreign investors suspended projects, international monetary agencies refused aid and most of all, the tourist industry went flat out with cancellations, as happened with 21/4!!! We had the added shame of most countries declaring Sri Lanka a “NO GO COUNTRY,” at that time!!! The rupee continued its downward spiral while the House continued to sit amidst all the pandemonium with the HONORABLE MINISTERS GIVING AWARD WINNING STELLAR PERFORMANCES!!! At that time, the supposed Government boycotted Parliament and the Opposition continued to pass resolutions with a majority!!! Therefore, in the context of the Power Struggle then, what can we, as citizens, expect in the upcoming Presidential melee???

After 70 long years of independence from colonial rule, we as concerned citizens may well ask ‘Who is running our country?’ Just look at this bunch of immature heartless politicians intoxicated with greed for power what are they actually looking for??? In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy!!! What this country needs is to pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble; intelligent but not SLY!!! We need a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines but more importantly, families from losing their homes!!! It is imperative that we choose a leader who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, the student, the environmentalist – a leader who can go down to grass root level, who can walk with kings and not lose the common touch!!! How does one find such sterling qualities amongst this brood of monkeys???

Looking ahead, rightfully assuming we can, where does one find clean politics, genuine political leadership??? The problem here seems to be that it is difficult to find a clean politician, the ones we have, with a few exceptions, have blatantly abused and embezzled state funds, misappropriated state property and proved by their erratic way of life that it is difficult for the common man, the ordinary citizen, to identify clean and honest politicians who would actually be servants of the people!!! Selfaggrandizement is the order of the day!!! The scams our country has had to deal with still remain unresolved, leaving the country impoverished!!!

Aside from the politicians themselves, we, as citizens, must also learn lessons from these tragedies!!! We need to accept that multi-party politics is a basic tenet of democracy but we also need to look squarely at the regression due to the recent divisive and disruptive instability caused to the country!!! WE NEED TO THINK CLEARLY OF WHO DID WHAT, OF WHO WAS RIGHT AND WHO WAS WRONG IN DESTROYING THE IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY??? MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE NEED TO VOTE FOR THE RIGHT PERSON!!! WHO IS THAT PERSON???

We need to learn to judge our politicians and understand who we are voting for!!! Our country is bordering on economic bankruptcy, political instability, no law and order, the worst of the white-collared criminals still at large and more expected to join them!!! The most crucial underlying question is that we need to know most of all whom we can trust, who we can vote into positions of power!!! We need to know who will give us better standards of education, make education easily accessible to the poor children, who will think of the Forces children, would a single Minister come up with a plan to help poor kids who sometimes come to school hungry and could at least be given a glass of milk, which Minister can ask all the multimillion dollar corporations to come up with a wholesome sandwich or snack for poor kids, which one of them can garner up worthwhile community projects, get the schools involved in school gardens and distribute the crops to the children, healthcare is the next vitally important issue, what kind of health benefits can be given to the disabled, the elderly who are already in Homes and particularly those who are not, the poor who desperately need medical attention, a law and order Minister who can ensure that court cases, especially of the poor, do not go on for intractable periods of time, formulate some kind of an insurance scheme which will benefit the poor and downtrodden, make employment abroad safe for the countless women who through sheer force of circumstance are compelled to work abroad, especially in the Middle East and who eventually end up not getting paid, being raped or brutally treated and even murdered!!!

There is SO MUCH, SUCH A DEVASTATING AMOUNT TO BE DONE, THE BURNING QUESTION IS WHO IS GOING TO START IT ALL??? WHO WILL BE GENUINELY CONCERNED TO START ONE OF THE ABOVE OR EVEN START MULTITASKING FOR THE BENEFIT OF SRI LANKA??? WE WONDER, INDEED WE WONDER WHO??? THE COMMON GOOD OF THE MOTHERLAND IS THE UNDERLYING FACTOR HERE!!! IT IS INCUMBENT THAT ALL POLITICIANS, REGARDLESS OF PARTY, RISE UP FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR MOTHERLAND!!! IF, THEY COULD JUST TRY TO ACHIEVE WHAT MUST BE DONE, THERE IS HOPE FOR OUR COUNTRY!!!