A transparent president - at last!

Finally we have a transparent president who has put the nation before party and working for fairness, equality and protection of public property. These qualities are truly public friendly. It may not, however, please some officials and politicians who thrive on secrecy, unfairness and inequality. Almost all of our politicians including 'Yahapalana' leaders fall far short of above bench mark. This is because most have two tier agendas - one for the public and the other hidden.

The civil society should openly support the commitment for fairness, equality and transparency in public matters. If not, we as a society will easily fall back to our previous dark era of undemocratic governance with a democratic appearance. We need to keep the current momentum and promote public expressions of comment and criticism. In fact, this is the secret of develop- ment that is prevalent in developed societies. They do not tolerate nonsense by anyone, high or low. Nobody is protected against mischief. They are not afraid of expressing their thoughts in broad daylight even against the first citizen of the country. We need to promote this culture as our foundation for development.

It is our duty to maintain this trend. The President alone cannot do it. Civil society, please keep up your good work. Commit to maintain a continu- ous and competent critique to propagate this trend, which is really, even at the present time, is hanging on a thin thread. Media, your role in this regard is paramount. Please provide a small fraction of your time, protected and consistent for the expressions of the civil society daily. Whenever there is a national issue, please do not just ask the opinions of politicians but also that of the subject experts for equal broadcast.

cgoonase@sltnet.lk