By Chandani Kirinde
The vote-on-account of the UNF government was presented, debated and passed in parliament this week with the other highlight being the announcement by Speaker Joseph Michael Perera that Mahinda Rajapakse has been appointed as the Opposition Leader.
Soon after the announcement on Wednesday Mr.Rajapakse took the Opposition Leader's seat amidst a warm reception from members on both sides of the House.
However, the three-day mini-budget debate was a lacklustre affair with the usual trading of charges and counter charges between government and opposition members with the only agreement among legislators being the pathetic situation the country's economy is in.
PA and the JVP members harped on about the UNF's disastrous performance in its 60 days in office while the ruling party members somewhat backtracked from its 100-day programme of revival saying "one couldn't perform miracles in 100 days."
With the euphoria of the December 5 election victory evaporating among the UNF rankers and reality setting in, the talk was more of what couldn't be done in the "two months, 60 days or in 1,200 hours" they have been office.
"A period of destruction running into 2,555 days cannot be changed in 100 days. We can only lay the foundation for change," said Tertiary Education and Training Minister Kabir Hashim. Similar sentiments were echoed by almost every government speaker stating it was unrealistic to think things would turn around in 100 days.
As to whether the opposition members were speaking true to their conscience or not one could not tell, but 60 days in opposition seem to have made many forget what they said less than a year ago when the PA presented its Budget in March.
The rosy picture of the economy many painted at the time suddenly seems to have turned bleak with the UNF taking office.
The main criticism levelled at the government was that it did not speak on the difficulties it would face when in power during the election campaign but promised the people instant relief from most of their problems including a resolution of the power crisis within 24-ho urs.
Finance Minister K. N. Choksy was forthright when he spoke at both the opening and closing of the debate on the vote-on-account detailing the poor state of the economy and the difficult road ahead to recovery.
Mr. Choksy presented the depressing set of statistics which showed that growth rate was below zero per cent and public debt today stood at Rs. 1,464 billion. There was also a sharp escalation of recurrent expenditure and a shortfall in revenue in the last quarter of 2001.
"Every figure my officials show has a minus sign before them. I have yet to see a plus sign in front of any of the figures," he lamented.
Answering criticism by opposition members that the government had delayed the presentation of the Budget till after the local government elections in order to avoid announcing unpopular economic measures, Mr. Choksy said presenting a budget after being in office for such a short period of time was "a logistical impossibility for any government."
The new government's most vociferous critic of the mini budget was the former PA Minister Sarath Amunugama who called the UNF's two-month old regime the "worst managed administration of all time."
Amidst strong shouts of protest from the government benches, Dr. Amunugama kept up the barrage of criticism saying that there was no clear demarcation of the functions of ministries with three separate ministers handling education-related subjects and at least three others dealing with subjects of irrigation and water resources.
He called the vote-on-account a "shabby piece of work" made by "economics illiterate" persons and said it was the global economic melt down that prevented the PA administration from ending the country's woes and not mismanagement.
JVP's Wimal Weerawansa accused the government of giving into all the demands of the IMF and said the UNF had failed to deliver most of the promises it made prior to the elections.
He referred to newspaper reports that female news readers on Rupahavini would soon be wearing mini skirts and reading news from inside a glass cubicle to lighten up the otherwise dreary atmosphere in the chambers at least momentarily.
"If people want to see women in short dress they should watch the Hindi films. If the news readers start wearing mini skirts, then no one will be concentrating on the news," he said.
Minister Imthiaz Bakeer Markar did not address the mini skirt query but revealed to the House the huge losses that the state-managed media institutions, namely Rupavahini, the SLBC and Lake House were incurring.
Whether the mini-skirts will help turn the fortunes of Rupavahini is yet to be seen.
By Tania Fernando
Police are on the look out for a man who allegedly set fire to a friend and is presently absconding arrest.
N. Thangarajah (48) who was admitted to hospital was found on the road in Wattala with burn injuries on December 2 last year. Wattala police said he had been burnt by two friends who used to work with him in a shop.
They said M. Hussain, a suspect remanded over the incident had allegedly set fire to the man with the help of another suspect who had not surrendered to police or arrested.
Police said the three of them used to work together in a shop. After some time they had given up the job and started begging on the streets. Although they used to beg together Thangarajah had started going off on his own and not sharing the money with others.
On December 2 last year, after having consumed alcohol, the two suspects had found Thangarajah fallen on the road. They had lit a matchstick and left him to burn. However, a passerby had rushed him to hospital, police said.
|
