Strikes and politics
The Cost of Living has gone through the roof, and probably nobody feels the pinch more than workers such as the minor employees of hospitals. When their superiors - the doctors - demand higher wages and resort to strike action that takes the poor patients hostage, it can only be expected that these workers will follow in tandem.

In the midst of this 'labour unrest' there has been a good deal of crowing about artificial indicators of an economic boom - such as the bullish Stock Market - but notwithstanding these very sanguine benchmarks, there is no doubt that the ordinary folk are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their bills.

But can we support such strikes at the expense of the larger segment of the public who are held to ransom by a coterie of "public servants" who want to jump the gun and secure all public sector benefits for themselves by dipping into the public purse.

Such wildcat insolence is not tolerable. But the conundrum is how one warns a Government of the impending implications of strikes instigated by political opponents when its own conduct - especially by its Cabinet Ministers and the charmed circle, considered its business friends (who line the pockets and perhaps the bodices of political leaders of this country) -- is increasingly becoming shocking to the country's hapless voters.

The Bribery and Corruption Commission has gone to sleep since February this year and there has not been a single prosecution since, giving a clear indication of the Government's stand on bribery and graft.

Cabinet Ministers are being discussed in public as "crooks", and one Minister takes the cake for not just having murdered a historic tree but also for having been accused of making money hand over fish. He also takes the icing on that cake for good measure by going into his Ministry Secretary's office and throwing a tantrum -- along with the Secretary's files -- in a public spectacle.

And the Prime Minister talks of a code of conduct in Embilipitiya yesterday and says the party has acted against four persons from the Praadeshiya Sabhas and Provincial Council. Another set of Cabinet Ministers are perpetually abroad spending their time catching connecting flights. Some are doing the work of others. Others are doing some work.

But despite all this, there is a reason to oppose strikes and support declaring certain sectors Emergency Services for the simple reason that the public, being as they are in the frying pan, mostly due to the actions of the politicians, cannot also be condemned to a ritual deep-frying by the professionals who serve them.

Even the trade union leaders, yesteryear's champions of the working classes, have succumbed to 'money-talk'. The workers these leaders supposedly lead on strikes are often left stranded, while strange things happen overnight to so-called campaigns of trade union action.

A copybook example is of the case that was filed by the ruling party's trade union - the JSS - on the recent flour milling project in the Colombo port. The case was withdrawn with no reasons given, and the striking members were left stroking their chins, with only stories of scandalous bribery and corruption to keep them company.

The Government cannot meet every strike situation by deploying the Army. That's not the way to deal with runaway strikes, particularly when political leaders are running amok today - uncontrolled by the governing party - while their posts and positions are coveted by the Opposition waiting to wallow in the bog of filth and lucre which is the excrescence of a country's absurdly mercenary political culture.

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