CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

JVP's KEY ROLE

ASOKA S

From time to time we hear of scandals breaking out with the politicians and top government officials in Lanka. Only a few years ago the former GCEC young chairman appointed by Chandrika was indicted. He was alleged to have asked for the big kickback in return to approving a million dollar project in Lanka. Even his newly bought multi million dollars home in Colombo 7 was under scrutiny. And alas! All of a sudden the case went cold. The man is still out and about and found to be innocent of the corruption charges and get to keep all his million dollars assets.

Then there was the case of alleged murder against former minister Ratwatta and his sons. They were arrested and several eye witnesses came forward. One by one all of them came out of jail and free again.

Then there was the case involving the former president Chandrika approving the Battaramulla Golf Course allegedly through a third party crony agency who sold the rights to the actual developer for several million dollars. It went cold too.

One walks into the registrar of companies in Colombo and if you want avoid all the red tape you walk right into the Registrar's office and he will process all your papers in a day, if the price is right -- this is indeed a personal experience in the late 1980s for the writer and not applicable to the current.

One can go on and on....

Except a police constable here or a Grama Sevaka in a village there nobody goes to jail for corruption. There are only two possibilities. One is that all the politicians and top bureaucrats are squeaky clean but the small guys or our system of justice is also corrupt to the point that they dish out justice differently to the rich and the powerful. So not only that the small guy has to struggle to make a living they also has to struggle to avoid jail for the slightest misdeed.
This is more than a coincidence. This is one of the curses brought upon the Lankan people by the two major political parties; UNP and the SLFP. They watch each other's back no matter how much they fight for power in the open. Now why do they watch each other's back? Because they both do the same thing. Rob the people of Sri Lanka. It is sort of an understanding that they don't open each others cans of worms. It is indeed a pity that they cannot extend the same principal to unite to defeat the Evil LTTE.

While JVP itself was an evil and murderous party in the very recent past, they appear to bring in some measure of balance to the play ground. They at least speak out driving some fear into the corrupt and avoid total daylight robbery of the nation by the two major parties. They seem to have moved from Bolshevik socialism to more pragmatic social democracy. Who can blame them. Even the Bolshevik Eastern European block collapsed thereby pulling the rug out of the Socialist JVP. They just had to jump to the middle to avoid falling down. What a blessing to the country to a point.

The JVP leadership seem to display a measure of dignity and optimism to our poor nation. In a rowdy Lankan parliament the presentation and demeanor of their leaders appear to be consistent with parliamentary ethics and standards. The questions they raise are relevant and in the interest of the average Lankan. It appears that today's JVP is a disciplined lot with the right approach to the betterment of the Sri Lankan people. I would hate to imagine a day without the JVP because Lankan leaders will rob the living daylight out of it and there is no one to check the misdeeds.

I only hope they can be more pragmatic with their economic thinking too. In today's global economy countries like ours have only one way out. Try and get the rich capitalist companies to invest in Sri Lanka even if you have to bend over backwards to do so. They bring jobs, technology, 21st century management practices and help expand our economic and tax base. Lankan management practices have to move up to the 21st century realities. No work, no pay. No idlers get promoted up the ladder just for having a university degree or political connections. Talking big wont promote you but delivering results does. Work against tough deadlines and tough corporate standards to raise standards. These are all mandatory requirements for the success of the corporate world. The rich western companies will bring these to Lanka. Well, one may hate the West, but there is only one way out of poverty in today's world. Bring their capital in.

India, China, Thailand,Malasia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam are all doing it. China has maintained an annual economic growth of 10%, India around 6% and both these countries are turning into giants. China is poised to take over Japan as the 2nd largest economy within the decade and overtake the USA as the largest tourist generating country within the decade too. All this was made by giants like Coca Cola, Siemens, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Time Warner, Nokia, Mercedez, Ford, Hitachi, Sony, Panasonic, Boeing, Airbus and the like. Remember China and India were both socialist countries just a 2 decades ago but their leaders came into maturity to realize the hard economic facts of the world. Who benefits from all this? The average citizen of these countries.

A man called JR realized this too in mid 70's only to be squashed by the socialist elements but his dream lived on despite all opposition by the then SLFP only to continue his economic revolution when they came to power.

So today's JVP is vital player that I feel should continue to move right while keeping the eye on the ball to put pressure on the government of the day to do the right thing. Put the laws in the land into practice for all sections of the country; rich & powerful and the poor alike. They should continue to expose scandals, robbery, theft and mischief by the big wigs of the ruling parties and their cronies. They should continue to set the right standards in the legislature and rid it of rif raf. The day they stop the crooks from robbing Lanka would be the day they would be forgiven for the sins in the late 80's.

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