CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Who really pays in the end?

Shenali Waduge

Mark Twain:
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may.

How is it that our heroes and heroines are able to suddenly do a googly on the people that placed much faith in them and simply function with an air of “I don’t care” attitude?

We have been privy to disastrous faux pax by our leaders and once they pass through the flirting phase with the public they enter a phase of “I will do as I will – whether you like it or not”. This practically stamps the future for the country & sets in motion detrimental changes that the people end up having to endure and pay for. And this has been so with practically all the leaders that Sri Lanka has had & probably will have too.

Before elections they come to our mercy with angelic faces portrayed & sponsored by media moghuls & hawks waiting to make their nests. These leaders carefully ensure that the people remain fixated to their “visions” & then something somewhere suddenly ends up creating a legislative monster that the people have no control over.

Appointments, Cabinet portfolios, Perks, privileges are given & even removed at whims and fancies. If you are in the “favored” list you have much to gain. So there is much tango to ensure that one enters the “favored” list.

It is extremely sad that our small nation cannot put personal perks aside to have a national agenda to bring about development. We prefer running to neighboring countries pleading their interference to solve our internal problems. If we cannot solve problems created by us why should we have a jumbo parliament anyway? We may as well outsource the development of the country to another nation.

No amount of appeals to our administrators and leaders have resulted in opening up their conscious to make them realize how pitiful their actions have been & we can but empathize for what they have become. From simpletons to simply not caring is what makes up their actions. The recent weeks has seen plenty of strikes and protests. Where is this all leading to – in the end it will only be the ordinary man & woman who ends up footing the bills for losses to the national economy.

Mark Twain:

The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

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