Columns

Bribery corruption, cheating, laziness, dereliction of duty, wastage, revenge and crime dominate news these days in newspapers and news bulletins. An in-depth look into these stories will give us an idea as to under what conditions people live.
In any society, there are young, old, sick, deformed, mentally deranged, learned, ignorant, capable and incapable people.

oliticians, businessmen, and employers must understand this. They must help these people in some way. Some have no time to attend to their own work let alone help the old, the sick and the destitute. They say they have no time. Perhaps, they are so busy doing service to society. We begin to realise that it is not because they have no time but because they are lazy. Some are so lazy that they do not even wash their own clothes.

There is an age old saying that the Sinhalese are a lazy race. We are not sure how our people became lazy. This may have happened over time. Or it may be due to chemically processed food that we consume. Or it may be due to drugs. Whatever it is, some of us do not want to walk even 10 or 12 feet. Visionaries like Anagarika Dharmapala, Henry Olcott tried their best to awaken this sleeping nation. We must also be grateful to Madam Marie Higgins who started the Musaeus College to educate our future mothers.

In Japan, people were trained to do everything in a systematic manner. The two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reduced to ashes after the atomic bomb attacks during World War II. But they soon recovered. They arose and developed. But today, even they seem to be lazy. It could be the case of people becoming lazy, when their country is at the peak of development.
But what has happened to us is different. Instead of development, we have seen decadence with an increasing number of people resorting to begging and criminal activities.

Our ancestors started the day with the crowing of the cock. They worked in their fields and farms till late in the evening. They had a simple routine of living. They were independent. Today even beggars have smart phones.

According to Buddhist teachings, if we are working under someone, it is because we had robbed someone in our previous birth. We are paying in this life for the evil deed we committed in our previous life. To work under someone is no joy. Whether we are working seated in a comfortable chair or doing a labourer’s job, if we are found fault with by the employer, it is not something to be happy about. Workers have little freedom. It is time for us to think seriously and develop a just and fair working relationship with our employers. For that, we have to shun laziness, work with sincerity and have a keen sense of what is right and wrong.

It is also necessary that we eliminate or minimize waste. I know of a Tamil gentleman who would eat the banana and take the skin home to feed the goat or the cow. There is a lesson for everyone in this. But look at most of us. When we want to serve ourselves rice we serve more than what we can eat and throw away the left over. It is time to stop this. A large number of people work in the private sector today.

Salaries or allowances of private and public sector workers were raised recently. However much our salaries are increased, we will still complain of the rising cost of living. So the solution is not in increasing wages. It lies in tackling the cost of living. Since a majority of our work force is in the private and public sectors, there is a dearth of people to work as farmers, carpenters or masons. This has affected the development of these sectors. Many paddy fields and estates remain uncultivated. Farmers’ children do not want to work as farmers. This has affected paddy, tea and rubber. Most developed countries owe their economic success to agriculture.

In certain Western countries there is a system of insurance. This does not affect the employers mostly. In Sri Lanka both employer and employee contribute to the EPF while the employer also contributes to the ETF. In certain Western countries the employer does not contribute. Instead of that a certain amount is collected from the employee by the government. The government invests this in banks and other financial institutions and earns a higher dividend for the employee. This helps everyone. The money is available when the employee falls ill or when there is a funeral. Even unemployed people can join this scheme. Such schemes not only help the employee in times of crisis, but also the government. We also can try out a comprehensive scheme like this. If every member of Sri Lanka’s work force, employed or unemployed, is brought under this, it will become a powerful mechanism for the government to find the money needed for development.

VAT is making news these days. But some time ago, some Inland Revenue Department officials were found guilty for their role in a VAT scam, said to be the biggest ever financial scandal in this country.

What happened to their confiscated wealth? No one is questioning! These days, protests are held against the VAT increase, but no protester is asking about what happened to those who played out VAT earlier. People have come to realize that officials played out money, but we should protest about giving money to those who played out. Devotees drop money into the till in the temple or the church in the hope that the money would be used for a worthy cause. But if the people come to know that the tax paid to the Government is robbed, will they willingly come forward to pay taxes? We have to be transparent on this.

We also have to be aware that there is a link between the lack of agriculture labour and the excessive use of chemical fertilizers on agriculture crops. Earlier, the farmer killed the weed manually. Today unable to find a worker, he depends on weedicide that causes sickness. So we need to work out a mechanism to fill the labour vacuum in the agriculture sector. It won’t be a bad idea to get grownup school children in villages to work in the village fields.

If we cut a tree we must think of planting at least three more in its place. Today we are on the path to industrialisation. In years gone by, arecanut or bamboo tree was cut to make ladders and scaffoldings. Today we have iron scaffoldings. Gangaramaya started a tree planting campaign and so far planted more than one million trees. The campaign is modeled the Tree Bank concept in India. We encourage people to grow trees such as mahogany and teak. As a result of this campaign, timber prices have not gone up drastically.

But sadly, timber thieves are felling growing trees to be sold as wooden props. We also hear tree planting rackets. Many had given money to various companies that promised them high returns from tree-planting investment projects. They actually planted the trees and the people were happy. But after a few years when the people went to see their trees, they only saw the bare land. The growing trees had been cut by timber thieves and sold to timber merchants. I complained about this to authorities, but little or no action was taken. In the end, the companies and those who invested in the trees have become debtors.

We have to stop crimes such as this by imposing deterrent punishments. Otherwise we will all suffer. Any tree cut must be taxed and the money used for cultivation. Please write your views and send them to:

Ven Galboda Gnanissara Thera, Podi Hamuduruwo,
Gangaramaya, 61, Sri Jinarathana Road, Colombo 02