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Holiday mood

The Sinhala and Hindu New Year were celebrated on April 13 and 14. After several years the New Year holidays coincided with the weekend.

If such an event happened anywhere other than in Sri Lanka, normal activities in the public and private sector establishments would have returned to normalcy immediately after the weekend.

In Sri Lanka, life is still limping back to normalcy, even after seven days.

We are drawing up grandiose plans to reach the status of a Newly Industrialized Country, to become the economic hub of Asia, to become the gateway to India as Hong Kong is to China, to become another Singapore etc. etc.

All these plans will come to nothing, if we do not cultivate a work ethic that places emphasis on time management, productivity and eradication of lethargy in the work place.

In Sri Lanka holidays have become a fetish. The loss of man-hours at work places during the last week would have resulted in a massive loss to the economy.

Now that the Government has announced administrative reforms and reform of labour laws, it should also look into the problem of large-scale absenteeism and other matters connected with enhancing productivity and turn over at our productive institutions, both in the public and private sectors.

While holiday mood is good for festivities, a working mood is an urgent necessity at our work places. The example must naturally come from the top for the mass of the working people to emulate their leaders.

Liberation of conscience

We have good news, news about the liberation of conscience. Three cheers!

Our parliamentarians will be offered an opportunity to vote according to their conscience. No more fetters. No more party whips.

Does this mean their conscience was fettered or shackled at present? If it were so, none would have followed them. Who would vote for a man with a fettered conscience? Who would believe their promises?

How do we account for the massive mandates given to our leaders by the Punchi singhos and signoritas? Perhaps, the voter too has a fettered conscience. Yes, in the world of money, power and the bullet, it is hard to be free.

Anyway, now there is a beginning. The road to liberation will be open soon. It will be the next big event after the A9 opening.

We hope and pray, that beginning with a solution to the ethnic question our parliamentarians would vote according to their conscience. In doing so they would take into account the nation's conscience, which unequivocally desired peace.

We do hope that our good Samaritans will go further. They will bare their conscience more often and on many other matters too, whether they were national, provincial, domestic or marital. After all transparency is a cardinal principle of good governance.

Let conscience reign and not conscience money. 

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