The government may have scored a victory by militarily defeating the LTTE, but its behaviour in the aftermath has left it open to criticism not only from the Opposition in Parliament but from other quarters as well.
One of its worst critics continues to be the one time minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, SLFP (M) leader and Matara district MP Mangala Samaraweera, who did not mince his words in Parliament last week when he drew a parallel between the “totalitarian” regime in the novel by George Orwell, “1984” and the present regime.
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| “These camps should not be called IDP camps but should be called Bathiudeen camps.” - Palitha Range Bandara |
He said had the British author been alive today, he would have been shocked to see the little island paradise called Ceylon which gained Independence from the British Empire in 1948, a year before he released his novel, had become “the setting for a true to life Orwellian nightmare.”
The issue of IDPs is one that continues to haunt the government and is one that draws much of the criticism. Mr. Samaraweera too joined the critics saying although today the barbed wire internment camps are called “ Welfare Camps” and the more than 280,000 people incarcerated there called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), they in fact should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained Persons).
The UNP on its part was critical of the Government’s handling of the IDPs and its Puttalam district MP Palitha Range Bandara directed many allegations against the Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, Rishad Bathiudeen charging that the minister’s relatives were benefiting by putting up tents for the IDPs as well as from the number of shops that have come up in the areas close to the camps. “These camps should not be called IDP camps but should be called Bathiudeen camps,” Mr.Bandara charged.
Minister Bathiudeen interrupted at this point saying he would resign his portfolio if it can be proved that any of his relatives were benefiting from the IDP camps. Although it is a common practice among ministers and MPs to threaten to resign at regular intervals no one carries out such threats,
Just last week Minister Mahindanada Aluthgamage and JVP MP Premasiri Manage threatened to resign over allegations that State funds were being used to build a private road leading to the house of a relative of the President. Mr. Manage said he would resign if the allegation was proved wrong and Mr.Aluthgamage said he would resign if it was otherwise.
Similarly, on Friday, UNP Kurunegala district MP Akila Viraj Kariyawasam threatened to resign if the allegation made against him also by Minister Aluthgamage that he had purchased a property in his district using party funds, was proved correct. “This is a blatant lie and if the minister can prove it I will not stay five minutes as an MP, but will resign,” he said.
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“This is a
blatant lie and if the minister can prove it I will not stay five minutes as an MP, but will
resign.” - Akila
Viraj Kariyawasam |
Unfortunately, for the people of this country, their elected representatives suffer from selective amnesia when it comes to issues like fulfilling election promises and threats of resignations, so it is unlikely anyone of them will actually leave their seats of privilege any time soon.
Resignation threats aside, the role of the “Maga Neguma” programme too came in for severe criticism both from the UNP and the JVP who alleged that large amounts of money were being wasted and pilfered in the pretext of building roads.
The government of course side stepped the issue with Minister Aluthgamage saying the “Maga Neguma” was a private concern and the state had only a Rs 100 share in it and hence there was no public accountability where its funds were concerned and therefore could not be queried in Parliament.
It’s a strange reply given the fact that there is a “Maga Neguma” division within the Ministry of Highways and Road Development and the Ministry’s official web which states that “Maga Neguma” is one of the programmes initiated by the President under the "Mahinda Chinthanaya".
But given the lack of transparency and accountability in this government’s dealings with state funds, such replies are not that strange. |
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