The voter and a corrupt society

We had a marvellous time in Sri Lanka. People were very friendly. They love to offer food and were helpful wherever we went. Children with innocent smiles loved to play with us and wanted their photographs taken. We played football, cricket and went swimming with them. We loved your beaches, but it’s not clean around the beaches where rubbish is strewn resulting in an environmental hazard.

We have visited both the north an south with friends and seen how peaceful, how nice this country is. It was completely different from the stories we used to hear.

My friend and I wanted to write this letter to the papers simply because we have travelled by bus and tuk tuks. But unfortunately these buses were so filthy, no wonder people fall ill and get all kinds of diseases. Most of these bus drivers were chewing betel and spitting out. Drivers and conductors wear dirty clothes and wear flip flops. The conductors clutch notes between their fingers and don’t issue tickets. If people ask for the balance, they just ignore them or abuse them.

Inside the buses, the drivers’ areas are dusty, obviously not cleaned for a long time.

In this beautiful country, the government should take care of the ordinary people who travel by public transport. The buses should be cleaned, regular health inspectors should check these buses when they start in the morning for the sake of public health. The Ministry should be concerned about this. Private and state buses should show videos on how buses are clean worldwide and the courtesy of drivers and conductors towards passengers. Love your country ! Mark and Jenny

London

The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka specifically stipulates that the sovereignty of the country rests on the people. The voter is therefore the king maker. At every election, be it Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial or Local Government the voter plays the most pivotal role.

We are in the midst of Parliamentary hustings. The king maker, the voter has shot in to prominence. The country has witnessed the spectacle of how this king maker who exercises his vote brings a party of a person into power. The voter fades into insignificance soon after the election. The Parliamentarian takes over and gets into the saddle.

Hitherto it has been a history of corruption and accumulation of wealth by questionable and / or ill-gotten means. This has been made possible by the voter who exercises his vote. If the party of the person builds the empire on ill-gotten money by means of this election through the vote of the voter, then it follows that the vote carries a monetary value. If so it is high time that in this corrupt-ridden society, the voter should be permitted as a democratic right, to sell his vote for valuable consideration. The voter can then call the tune before voting to auction his vote to the highest bidder and be satisfied that he has also got something in the circumstances stated above.

Therefore he can be a shareholder in a corrupt democracy since anti-corruption efforts have miserably failed in the country.

Colombo 8