Did The 40 Years Experience Destroy Our Country In Four Years?

Mr. President, the way things have been happening under your command, the public are wondering whether you really have 40 years experience or one year’s experience repeated 40 times. On the brink of a major national election, despite various sanguine statements made by you, your stooges and the top brass in  the government, the country’s economy is taking a dreadful  fall. Hundreds of private sector enterprises in a number of fields have been shut down and employees are facing problems they never ever thought could be real.

Even BOI companies with foreign investments are steering in the direction of scaling down operations and retrenching employees. Furthermore, from the betel seller down the street to the top blue-chip organisation, business has plunged dramatically. Production plants are being shut down line by line. Employees are being retrenched by the hundreds and thousands. The story is similar with the local bodies such as municipal councils, urban councils, pradeshiya sabhas, higher education institutions and even government departments, corporations, boards and authorities.

Motor parts businesses in Panchikawatte and elsewhere in the island are trembling. Even the wayside boutique owners are furious. Almost all big and small businesses are besieged through the hardest time they have ever experienced. This phenomenon is rapidly engulfing both urban and rural areas pretty fast. There is an appalling deficiency of liquid cash in the market which has created utter chaos in the system. The horrific monetary management of the government has caused grave starvation of the business sector.

The whole country is fast spinning into a totally cataleptic state of affairs. Of course it is very clear why the authorities are silent about the situation. Apparently the minds of the leaders have been cultured to a system where huge allowances, perks and various deals through corrupt practices are the order of the day. The suffering of the poor masses are not important to them as long as they can deceive the majority of innocent people in the villages just to come to power.
Inefficiency, bribery, corruption, fraud, nepotism, frittering away public funds by the politicians and high ranking public servants have been the foremost factors that made things worse for our country though the president and his family members are riding on the lame excuse of war expenses even months after ending the war.

Squandering away of public funds by the family members and their stooges has been the rule and can be identified as the main cause for the consequential economic hardships that our country is presently undergoing. Taking such matters to court also has shown very little effect; what happened when tsunami relief funds donated to the country were hoarded away in a private account, bear testimony to this situation. Most of the corrupt practices the family members are involved in, come meticulously clothed in legality.
The time has come for patriotic citizens of our country to take the right decision in selecting the right leader for the country. The final chance has come for our countrymen to rise against the dictatorial highway robbery of public funds by the politicians. It is interesting to note that the situation is similar (or worse) to the one that prevailed during Sirima Bandaranaike’s regime. In fairness to Mrs. Bandaranaike it must be mentioned that unlike the present scenario, she became one of the highly accepted, astute and renowned political leaders in the world though she came into politics with no experience what so ever.

Dear Mr. President, in these volatile circumstances, if you have at least a little love for our country, be honest and sincere.  Please tell the truth to the people; the ground reality of the country’s economy. Come down to earth, give up your luxuries that you and your family enjoy at the expense of the well being of our people, add meaning to your life, your service and to the aspirations of the people that brought you into power. Let all citizens of Sri Lanka taste true victory and come out of the mess that you and your family together with the unpatriotic, corrupt and inefficient politicians have put our country into. If this is what politicians with 40 years experience can do, even ordinary folks in the villages would do a better job if the opportunity is given.

Ranjan Ratwatte