Political ping pong

Wednesday, 25 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Open letter to the Prime Minister

The catch as catch can political wheeling and dealing continues unabated. According to insiders, it would appear no one’s hands are clean. So they continue shaking each other’s dirty hands, striking reciprocative self-protection treaties to continue their political legacies, surely on the self-proclaimed belief that they themselves, criminal warts and all are still the best and only choice for the people. All the while secure in the knowledge that other honest, intelligent, honourable people won’t venture into politics because of the inherent violence in the system. What else would these political desperadoes do otherwise anyway? One truly wonders how many of those in politics today could actually eke out a living on their own if left to their own devices, let alone live high off the hog as they do as politicos! How many can actually find a job? Quite apart from the proposed code of conduct for parliamentarians, should there not be minimum educational background and character criteria stipulated for admission to politics as for public service? As is, it would appear only the biggest thugs and criminals in each electorate are allowed to contest elections simply because they can intimidate all around them. Although Sri Lanka finally has a long lost opportunity to clean up its act and become a true and worthy democracy, it also faces its biggest challenge since independence, since it depends entirely on the political diaspora which is corrupt to the core to garner the necessary votes to pass legislation to hold themselves to account, enforce political discipline and eliminate their primary income sources derived entirely from corruption, when such illegitimate earnings potential was the only reason they got into politics. It is laughable that the Sri Lankan race which is by far better educated and intelligent than most of its neighbours in the region cannot find a dozen honest, capable individuals to run the country! If the same alleged diligence were applied in choosing politicians as in cricket teams we may well be better off. Unless perhaps cricket is more important than governance. Otherwise it would be governance “of the corrupt; by the corrupt; for the corrupt!” as usual. T. E., Kotte