A terrible mess this country is in. We have a country that was unfortunate to have been taken over by a fight for separatism for over thirty years, that is regularly ravaged by disasters like flooding and landslides and exploding armament stores and so on. At the time then that the ‘war’ was won, there was euphoria and a real expectation that the country will prosper and that peace and stability would be the cornerstone of life in Sri Lanka. Only a few steps short of a tropical utopia. The expectation of prosperity democracy and transparency was a legitimate expectation of the people of this country.
Unfortunately for all of us, the Rajapaksa King veered slightly off course and fell victim to the actions in the main of his own offspring. Enter a proxy President and a wannabe President who sold the people a tale of waste, sleaze and corruption by the Rajapaksas.
In spite of the best efforts of the private media who encouraged transparency, accountability, responsibility and democracy, the incoming so-called good governance team have failed miserably to uphold the peoples’ legitimate right – to be heard and to be served.
The Prime Minister gave assurances and we do not know if he gave undertakings that Arjuna Mahendran will not be up to no good as claimed by his new colleagues in Cabinet that included President Sirisena.
Inside of a few weeks the Central Bank took a blow described by the Attorney General as the largest financial fraud since independence.
The former Governor Nivard Cabraal claims in an exclusive carried by this newspaper today, that the losses suffered to the government in higher interest rates is in the region of Rs 144 Billion. That’s an awful lot of lolly in anyone’s currency.
Arjuna Mahendran is now the best known fugitive in Sri Lanka except he is not here but in Singapore. His pal the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is silent and broke that silence to declare that he had no clue as to the whereabouts of his buddy. RW was helpful – explaining to all of us that there was no easy way to extradite him from Singapore inter alia priming us for his never returning or taking years and years and years to reach conclusion.
Then there is the issue of the Members who appear to have received cheques or cash or both from the Principal Scammer a la Bond!!
What a tragedy indeed. We have the Minister Kiriella who got caught red handed abusing tender procedures and continues to hold cabinet roles – claiming he has over RS 400 million so no need to rob was what he implied.
Kabir Hashim and Malik Samarawickrama face allegations directed at them but they carry on.
Cricket is in a mess, National Procurement is in shambles – check out what has happened a la Highways, Coal procurement, Power stations, Land, building permits, customs duties, the price of coconuts too.
The taxes have risen and the people are being hammered from all sides.
How can this prime Minister continue with any modicum of integrity? This man declared very recently that he called for tenders wit respect to the highways. Oh Really? He called a lopsided tender which he ought to have cancelled and re started. He did nothing of the sort. Instead it was awarded to a party that failed to make a bid bond available at the outset. Kiriella trots off to see the Chief Prelates at the drop of a hat expecting the, to stem the negativity he attracts with his own actions.
President Sirisena is better but not that much. He has displayed a remarkable penchant for procrastination and prefers the comfort zone of reactive decisions rather than to be proactive. His failure to stand his ground and refuse Mahendran as the initial Governor in January 2015 has cost this country around Rs 1 trillion. Again a lot of money.
There really is no need for the people to suffer in silence for any longer. At least let President Sirisena gather his troops including the Prime Minister and agree to dissolve parliament and call an immediate general election. Let the people decide again, now, just who they wish to see lead them out of this abyss of despair and corruption.
Certainly for starters those in power should get out – now.
