Personal & Political Insecurity of our Politicians

Shenali Waduge

Insecurity holds the key to why Sri Lanka’s leaders keep repeatedly failing its people.

To “represent the wishes of the people” may be a genuine reason to take up politics but greater than that is their inner desire to fulfill a hidden passion to relish the fame and fortune that power yields. It is their deceitful conscience that inadvertently produces dire decision-making that ultimately carves the fate of the people.

Undeniable is the ability of our politicos to attract people. It is not surprising how like bees to honey people stand and listen to their empty rhetoric. Promising mega roads, mega airports, annihilation of poverty – they just stop short of promising the heaven and earth. They have mastered the art of simply telling what people want to hear. If politicos are blamed for their distasteful language and insensitivity of their opponents – they simply echo what those in the audience want to hear.

No sooner results reveal that they have been placed upon the saddle of power then the reality of having “coaxed” the voters by making false promises begins to surface & they realize that they are unable to deliver any of the promises. Those who toiled to bring them to power soon realize that they too are being sidelined and imagination will reveal their fate.

Looking back at the Presidential candidates of the past and present we realize how insecurity plays a major role in their decision-making. Bringing in those near & dear, sidelining them when they don’t conform to their thinking, brining a new set of “trusted friends”, conferring undue power & control on them – we have seen this repeatedly happening. It is this decisions that give rise to the allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and the “sob stories” of those thrown out of power.

Those who hold power or once held power are only interested in one thing alone. Remaining in power, retaining power or returning to power.

For the people of the island the only wise conduct remains is to completely ignore these people who enter the political arena, make them realize by not voting & do not fall prey to their false promises.

Yet, with the power of attraction that the politicos today wield and the way even the worst are able to make people bow down in affection it leaves very little to the imagination where Sri Lanka will be headed.