Way forward

Saturday 30th December, 2023

Sri Lankans are gripped by an anticipatory dread of another surge in the cost of living owing to the crippling effect of enhanced VAT and the expansion of its application. Hardly a day passes without people being shown on television cursing the government for the untold suffering it has inflicted on them. Their consternation is understandable, and there is no gainsaying that they deserve redress. Sadly, it is equally undeniable that they deserve the governments they elect, as a truism goes.

In fact, one found oneself in a rare situation about a year ago; one could not but agree with Basil Rajapaksa, of all people, when he argued the blame for all what the incumbent government was accused of had to be apportioned to the electors who had voted for it! SLPP Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa insulted public intelligence, the other day, by claiming that he was confident that the people would vote his party back into power at the next election!

Not that the other political leaders are paragons of virtue, driven by altruism to help the hapless masses, but a vote for the SLPP will definitely be a vote for rampant corruption, chronic economic mismanagement, blatant abuse of power, and the aggrandisement of a single family and its cronies.

If the country is to achieve any progress with the people’s lot improving significantly, the public will have to act responsibly when they vote at future elections, without being swayed by patronage and other factors such as blind political allegiance, caste, and freebies. Voting for crooks and then rising against them is certainly not the way to set about the task of hoisting the country out of the current politico-economic mire. The need for the public to stop deifying politicians cannot be overstated.

There have been several uplifting media reports during the past several weeks. People in some parts of the country have come forward to repair a number of potholed roads leading to their villages without the help of either the government, the Provincial Councils or the local government institutions; they have warned politicians not to visit them ahead of elections, and some of them have gone to the extent of issuing threats of violence.

What these stories signify is that the public has realised that no benefits accrue to them from the taxes they pay, and something drastic needs to be done about the crafty politicians who have been living the high life without caring to look after the needs of their electors all these years.

The latest instance of people volunteering to carry out road repairs and warning politicians to keep away from them has been reported from Kahatagadigiliya. Hundreds of villages have undertaken a project to repair a stretch of the Dematawewa road, which links 28 villages to the nearest township. They were shown on television yesterday working on the badly-damaged road and warning politicians against visiting their villages.

There is something terribly wrong with a country where the people have to repair roads themselves while paying exorbitant taxes, but that could be considered the best way to canalise their aggression. Instead of setting politicians’ houses on fire, the people ought to learn from their past mistakes, assert their power and keep the politicians in their place. The positive attitudinal change reflected in the aforesaid people’s projects is welcome and must be sustained.

In dealing with politicians, Sri Lankans ought to emulate their counterparts in other countries, especially the affluent ones, where elected representatives respect their electors, and are not allowed to act according to their whims and fancies at the expense of the public. Sweden is the best example; only the Prime Minister of that country is given an official car.

All other Swedish MPs including ministers have to take public transport or use private vehicles at their own expense. They receive only bus and train passes free of charge. But in this bankrupt country, politicians enjoy luxuries of all sorts and the poor public pays for them through the nose.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Minister of Finance, has reportedly allocated about Rs. 11 billion for what is described as development work at the district level. The Opposition has said its members will not get any of those funds, and the District Development Committees are without any no development plans.

Thus, the ruling party politicians are likely to utilise the aforesaid funds to hoodwink the public by effecting shoddy repairs to rural roads and resorting to other such vote-catching exercises ahead of the next presidential election. It will be a mistake for the public to fall for them again.