In Sri Lanka, the leaders as the saying goes are ‘Fiddling while Rome burns’ hustling around on election platforms with political speeches on unimportant matters neglecting priorities and the international community that got close with the government is facing a problem as there is fear in the minds of investors who think the country will turn unstable after the election. Such problems will not be good for the country and sensing this the Speaker of the House has warned that political hostility displayed will deter good governance needed to fulfill the objectives set with the by the leaders with the Wind of Change in 2015. On February 4, 1948 Sri Lanka as British Ceylon was granted independence to became a dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, the anniversary falls tomorrow on February 4, 2018 and on that day there will be activities of flag-raising, President’s speech, parades, ceremonies, singing and dancing at the Galle Face Green, Colombo City with special religious ceremonies held in many places of worship countrywide praying for prosperity and peace for the country.
As the country gets ready to celebrate seventy years of independence, with the government that came to power in 2015 taking course of actions necessary to end the corrupt political environment practiced by successive rulers from the time one man, one vote that advocates of political equality was introduced to the country seventy years. That resulted in the economy that was in sound footing at the time of independence with the country not having any debt; which by 1985 had grown to SLR 130 Billion and has today multiplied to SLR 10,500 Billion Rupees. For that reason it was necessary for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and United National Party (UNP) the two major political parties with few other minor parties in the government to keep their alliance to face the LG Polls, but the two major parties have opted to face the polls separately. With a week to go before the polls to elect members to the lowest tier of power, matters not relevant have attracts media attention; one such matter was when the UNP leader indicated that it will be proper if the former Finance Minister found implicated in the Treasury Bond Scam and now relegated to back benches, to step down from the assistant leader post still held by him. Whereas the leadership should have been bold enough to remove the former minister from his post, following a commission appointed to look into the action that had to be taken against any UNP member found to have been involved in the bond scam had recommended it. When asked by journalists the former minister has promptly said not to take seriously what is said by the President or the Prime Minister during election time, but they will have to consider these matters in the future. This sad state of affairs exist because of a coalition of very irresponsible politicians (VIPs) led by few veteran politicians that includes extremely corrupt ministers from the last government sprinkled both in the government and the opposition with no mutual respect and affection for the people have on many occasions in the past three years putting spanner in the works to make mockery of the proceedings in the House of Parliament depriving the country of good governance. All these wrong moves confirms that the politicians are still working with the same old mindset of politicians of pre 2015 era and the international community that got close with the government is facing a problem as there is fear in the minds of investors who think the country will turn unstable after the LG election.
To this end people must use the one man, one vote that advocates of political equality wisely at the LG Polls next week to lay a good foundation at the lowest level of political power in the country. Accepting that the present government has managed to restart the economy that was on halt, it needs to sustain the growth of the economy to record the planed budget surpluses before their term ends in 2020. Based on previous experience, possible only if the government grow out of party politics and introduce a secular constitution and to resolve the national problems increase the powers devolved to the provinces; last but not least empower the people by improving their knowledge of languages, the two official and the link language as English. Introduce an all-inclusive national economic plans to optimize utilization of human and other resources from all the provinces, stabilize agricultural production including fisheries and venture into industries for value added food production for export and complete the numerous mega-projects in the pipeline it will for sure bring rapid economic growth.
Northern Breeze 