COL: Stop the rhetoric, it will never save us

The JVP thinks that the Cost of Living could be solved by posters. Some of their posters are ludicrous, asking Bush to quit Iraq or showing solidarity with cricketers, who are millionaires, not with the poor.

When the government came into power, ministers boasted that they will not have anything to do with the world market and that multinationals would be taught a lesson.

Now multinationals have become more cocky. Sri Lankans are 90% literate and know that our CoL is tied to the dollar and oil barrel. Rhetoric cannot save us. I ask the JVP, are you foolish or do you think that the voters are foolish?

Take the case of powdered milk. The world market price doubled. Our milk producers also doubled their prices. Did they import fodder from abroad? How did the production double? A JVP'er had an excuse that the government failed to plan milk production. The simple truth is the farmer will never reduce the price of rice, coconuts, milk, vegetables and so too soap, biscuits, sugar, toothpaste prices will not come down. The government is not going to reduce stamp duty and taxes.

How do the foolish politicians expect to bring down the Cost of Living? They think voters are fools.

By R.H. Perera, Matara