Editorial

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Both persons killed were young men, the first a young JVP worker who was assaulted by a gang at Kirullapone in Colombo, and the other also a youth from Rambukkana assaulted by another gang of political activists in the area. No arrests have been made in either murders.

Is this the trend of things to come in the run-up to the polls on October 10, and who knows even thereafter and why has electioneering become another war? Is it because we have given too much prominence, privileges and power to MPs once they are elected? Have we created a new aristocracy in these people elected to Parliament?

Before the dissolution of Parliament each departing MP got the massive bonus of a duty-free permit for the import of a luxury vehicle. Along with this hand-out which is worth about 3 million rupees each they also have five star meals at wayside boutique prices, huge subsidies for travel, telephone bills and mail attractive Parliamentary allowances with added money-spinners like liquor permits..

All these and other perks and privileges make Parliament not only a legislature but also a profitable business to be in. In addition if the MP is in Government, he or she may be able to make yet another extra million or two by manipulating tenders here and there as indeed they are known to do, or through the benevolence of the village kudu or kasippu mudalalis and the timber racketeers. This is the self-destructive self-before-service approach of putting personal gain first, party interest second and the national interest last.

To ensure victory at all cost, politicians need the support of hoodlums and thugs - the support of the underworld and the boys with the big bucks whether they are heroin peddlers or arms dealers or arrack adulterers.

The Proportional Representations voting system or the district electoral system as we have today has made electioneering a hugely expensive exercise with the elected MP ending up with so many I.O.Us both in monetary terms and in manpower terms. That they can be paid back by the resources that only the State can provide This is called the "Creaming off" process which sets in motion an exercise where State patronage and favours are doled out to persons who are generally wrong-doers but are in the good books at this new aristocracy. In other words the rogues and racketeers are repaid from public funds-funds that are collected from ordinary people who are struggling to pay their bills and educate their children. That is the unfortunate karmic wheel of this country-where the State becomes more and more impoverished due to the strain of maintaining a system of Government that makes a few politicians and their supporting cronies richer, jobs given to the boys who do their dirty work like killing the two youth at Kirullapone and Rambukkana, while the poor are plunged further into an enforced daily grind for sheer survival.

If a ruling elite-the new aristocracy-can deliver the goods to the ordinary people they represent in Parliament, all this is arguably justifiable at least to some extent. But when the political leadership is only expensive without being useful to the mass of the people-that's when people begin to question the system.

The Political Column

Editorial/ Opinion Contents