Time for Govt. to stop blame game and take responsibility

What is the expiration date on which a newly elected government has to stop blaming its predecessors for everything that’s going wrong in the country? That is a valid question to pose to the National People’s Power (NPP) Government. 

While it was known that the new Government would have to carry the burden of the policy decisions of their predecessors, the novelty of bashing its political opponents who are no longer in power for every misstep of the Government is wearing thin and the public too are losing enthusiasm for such talk.

All Sri Lankans know that the country President Anura Kumara Dissanayake inherited wasn’t in the best possible shape, but it was certainly better than what it was during the 2022 economic crisis. Between 2022 and 2024 rapid progress was made to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to unlock much needed foreign aid for the country and the country was just beginning to breathe easy when the NPP was elected to office. Understandably there is frustration among many in the new administration given their staunchly anti IMF stance over the years but, once in office, there is a realisation of some home truths and the President and Government have decided to stick with the IMF program and fulfil the terms of the agreement.

Like for any new government, there are many challenges that come its way particularly in addressing the day-to-day needs of the people. Be it rice or coconuts or fuel or electricity, these are essential items and the public want relief from shortages and high costs, which the NPP promised to do once in power. Then there are the farmers demanding better prices for their crops while unemployed graduates are demanding jobs, woes that every Government has had to face and address.

But many in the NPP are beginning to see conspiracies in everything and not realising that they are now in power, and it is their job to address the problems faced by the public. Instead we have had some ludicrous statements from those in Government, some blaming too many pet dogs eating rice being a reason for the rice shortage, monkeys plucking coconuts being the reasons for the coconut shortage and in the latest fiasco, monkeys being blamed for an island-wide power cut on Sunday.

Such claims are entertaining but only take away from the seriousness of the issues at hand and make the rulers look ridiculous.

Then there are the lists the Government has been making public like the number of people issued with bar licenses by the previous Government, how much compensation was paid for MPs whose houses were destroyed during the Aragalaya, how much was taken from the President’s Fund by politicians, etc. All these are interesting facts but has the Government taken measures to cancel any of the bar licences or to recover State funds if they were unduly given to politicians?

The fact is such disclosures do keep the public occupied for a while, but it will not help ease the very real struggles that the public of this country go through. To address such issues, those in power should stop pointing fingers at past rulers for everything and make decisions that can help solve these problems.

A ‘76 years curse’ was a main slogan of many in the NPP, one that they promised to put right but what the country has seen so far is more of the same or even worse. No one expected miracles from a group of first timers to power but the inflated sense of superiority with which the NPP took power is fast deflating. It’s time for those in Government to stop the blame game and take reasonability for what’s happening in the country under their rule.