WHEN IDLERS BECOME LEADERS

ASOKA SENEVIRATNE
USA

Sri Lanka can claim to have sufficient democratic rights to be called a democracy despite murders, intimidation and voter rigging during election times. Furthermore the current President Rajapaksha, a man from the commonstock from the South can also claim to be doing a decent enough job at the present time.

However it was very disturbing to see that he was swearing in as a deputy minister a son of a once very powerful minister of the United National Party who has now crossed over to the other side perhaps with an eye to move up the ranks faster. I will tell you why.

Since independence Sri Lanka has been slowly but surely moving out of the practice of Western Educated Lawyers (most of whom never practiced it) and settling into the family owned comfortable wealth and taking into Politics pretty much as a hobby to avoid boredom. While many countries in the world including the United States and Great Britain went through these very stages, we as a younger democracy can learn to avoid this ugly scenario, and to the most parts the developed world has embraced the practice of working professionals becoming national leaders. This allows these leaders to fully appreciate and understand the issues of the everyday working men and women when laws national decisions are made.

Former President Premadasa is a classic example of this process, and indeed he was a clever man gifted with hard work and skill. I also think it is fair to say President Rajapaksha follows next and displays fairness and skill on many fronts, but not all.

There is a quite a few such young idle rich kids of former Political leaders in our country who definitely have not done a day's work to earn a living. They have been silver spoon fed in 5 star hotel environments and night clubs having the time of their lives.These younger people are now slowly emerging into the national political scene dressed in the national dress (but surely enjoying a free Hennesy XO at night) and soon will be instrumental in making the laws of tomorrow of our beloved country. Now one can really dig and find out how much massive wealth some of these kids have been left behind by their beloved parents by smart wheeling and dealing using their political office. I dont want to go there as it is too ugly and insulting to our impoverished nation who still depend on a huge hand out from the rich world to feed its people.

I would like to suggest to our honorable President to move away from this very ugly practice and lay the foundation to bring into the political fore a bunch of professionals from everyday stock who truly represent the Sri Lankan society and have a heart for the poor and the underprivileged. One such person who comes to my mind is Arjuna Ranatunge who is a classic example of what an ideal tomorrow's politician should be. He worked his way up by sheer talent. A Legislature and an Executive made up of working men and women who rose to be our leaders through their education and skills will truly fill our halls of power with men and women of wisdom and fair play; not of hollowness, arrogance and injustice.

Now I have nothing against being rich. I strongly believe every country should encourage their people to be rich, and the rich to be richer. But that richness must be earned lawfully; not be stolen out of the poor by using political power or connections. This allows feudalism to flourish and the society to be unjust. Needless to say this breeds Marxist youth movements and one cannot blame the youth in all fairness.

Every leader can move our country in the right direction ; a bit during his or her time. It is that time now for our current President to do so. He looks to be the type of leader who can clearly do justice to the very people who elected him to the highest office of this serene land. I am certain that the idle rich never voted for him either. Sri Lankans are smart enough to take note too if he does that and hopefully give him a second term in office. So he too has a lot at stake to make just decisions.