Balance rights with duties

IN the decades-long deliberations on the rights and duties of man in the councils of the world, rights have tended to eclipse duties.

This is most unfortunate because the emphasis on rights to the exclusion of duties has tended to create a degree of irresponsibility in those championing the rights of some sections. It is almost universally accepted now that rights and duties go hand-in-hand. In fact they are two sides of the same coin. It is from this standpoint that we need to assess the rumblings of disgruntlement over perceived salary anomalies and the like in some sections of our working population.

We suspect that the get-rich-quick mentality which has come in the wake economic liberalisation has something to do with this gross neglect of duties. Besides, some occupations and their trade unions which are considered prestigious, have not set a very good example in the discharge of duties. One such is the Government Medical Officers' Association.

The phrase medical profession, incidentally, is a misnomer because the occupation concerned is a vocation and calling and not just any other job. It is a calling in which the practitioner is expected to place the interests of humanity well above personal interests. It is a vocation in which the spirit of self-sacrifice reigns supreme.

The inference, therefore, is that when the more prestigious professions provide a bad example in public - spiritedness by clamouring for what are seen as rights at the cost of duties, one cannot expect other sections of the public to be any different. There is a copy-cat effect which must be arrested.

We are glad that these issues are receiving the attention of the country's political leadership. President Mahinda Rajapakse, for instance, has called on our public sector personnel, including workers, to show concern for their fellow citizens and their duties, before resorting to trade union action.

To be sure, the grievances of our working population could be numerous. The cost of living burden, for example, spares no one, except for the super rich and the glitterati, who seem to have increased their presence over the years.

Taxing those sections whose wealth seems to be disproportionately high is the responsibility of State institutions, such as the Inland Revenue Department and we hope the latter would quickly put its house in order, get to the bottom of the "Vat scam", and go about its legitimate duties.

Meanwhile, we call on the restive sections of our working population to focus on the consequences of actions by them which could prove hasty and irresponsible. Thoughtless acts which could bring greater burdens for the public in the form of, for instance, crippled public services, could in no way be justified. Rather than achieve any good, they have plunged the public into greater misery. How could such approaches to resolving problems be commended?

Considering these dilemmas, the President's proposal to establish Employees' Advisory Councils in State organisations, is a step in the right direction. These could act as fora for airing employees' grievances and play the role of catalysts in their resolution. They could indeed lay the basis for conflict - resolution between these parties. Let us give them a try.