Rs.14 billion down the drain?
“Holding the General Election (scheduled for June 20), amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, could result in costs doubling to Rs.14 billion, Election Commission Chief Deshapriya had told 34 political party representatives,” saw in a news item. Therefore next parliament would be appropriately named by people as “Covid20”, if elections are held spending such an extravagant amount.
I think the current system of governance is good for the country with less spending due to less upkeep for the few numbers in it. It is running smoothly, so why spend Rs.14 billion now? This intellectual group could be modified to add some more brains into it from the opposition side and could run for a year or so, till Covid threat is over, if necessary, as a trial, till we recover fully from the economic cum corona crisis. All politicos, from top to bottom should work with lower salaries without any perks to help the country in the time of crisis. Reduce the number of vehicles and security people to save money – if you really want to work for the masses don’t expect high salaries and perks. Reduce number of ministers, assign several ministries to one person only few cabinet ministers no other ‘this and that’ ministers to pacify henchmen.
At a time when government coffers are almost empty of people’s money, are the people of Sri Lanka going to spend such a colossal amount of money with high risk for voters, to elect the same politicos – this time may be in different coloured attire and symbol – same old stale wine in new bottles. Would it solve our economic ailments, when the same group sits in parliament neck to neck?
Most of the senior citizens (more than 50% of population) who did not go out for last three months, due to Covid-19 fear, would never take the risk of coming to polling booths to elect the old bunch of good, bad and ugly - bad and ugly percentages being higher) at the risk of their lives.
All politicos, from top to bottom should work with lower salaries without any perks to help the country in the time of crisis