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Wednesday, 7 April 2010

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Time for introspection

Let us face the truth. The election laws were broken by almost all candidates. No amount of appeals by the Elections Commissioner or the IGP or the media could stop the politicians trampling the law with impunity.

Now that the campaign is over and no further damage could be done it would be advisable for the politicians to make a little bit of introspection. What lessons would others draw from their example? The politician could excuse himself on the grounds that they had done or were planning to do yeoman service to the country as Members of Parliament and hence a little breach of law would not matter much. The fault of this line of thinking is obvious.

Following the example of the politicians what would happen if others follow suit? If motorists plead that in view of the fact that they have a license to use the roads and that they have paid all dues to the Government a little breach of traffic is nothing, could they also escape with impunity?

The same sort of argument could be given by the businessmen in case of a breach of customs law. They could claim that they are contributing to the country’s GDP and bringing new technology etc, and hence minor custom frauds may be excused in the name of development.

This argument could be carried on and infinitum. What would be the result if all could break the law with impunity? There won’t be law and order. Anarchy would reign. The social fabric would burst asunder.

It is often said, mostly by politicians that everybody is equal before the law. It may be a theoretical hypothesis. In actual practice, it is not so. The glaring example was the way in which all politicians could break the law with impunity. Even there were differing levels of impunity as well as different levels of compliance with the law.

In the long-term interests of society it is necessary to respect the law. Either you have the law and obey it or you do away with the law. It is up to the politicians to take a decision in the next legislature. After all they are the legislators.

The law was broken not only in regard to display of publicity materials, there was also open distribution of goodies which could be claimed as bribing the voters. Of course, diverse ingenious methods were used for the purpose but that does not reduce the gravity of the offence.

The law was brought with good intentions and with specific objectives in mind. The legislators who framed and passed the law were going by past experience and wanted to prevent those with more money power gaining an undue influence over voters. There was also a necessity to reduce incidents of violence.

The time has come for a still stricter formulation of laws with reference to campaigning. Loopholes in the existing law should be plugged.

However, no law would be effective if the politicians do not respect them and if law enforcement officers are pressurized by politicians. Political parties should also critically examine their conduct and change their behaviour. The earlier this is done, the better.

As one of our columnists had pointed out the posters used for the campaign had devoured hundreds of thousands of trees for their production. It was a colossal environmental disaster. The extra largeness of the electorates had also given rise to a tremendous usage of fuel and other scarce and foreign-exchange consuming resources. The loss to the economy would be much larger if all related factors are taken into account.

Without prejudice

A sorcerer (kattandiya) is supposed to be in the fray for tomorrow’s poll. Without prejudice to his chances at the poll, it would be interesting to foresee how his presence in the House would affect its proceedings.

If he is in the Opposition he could convert a minority into a majority for his party by performing his magic or hooniyan to disable the Government ranks either by paralyzing the limbs or brains of its members. If he is in the Governing side he could disable the Opposition the same way.

Perhaps the party would have given nominations to him to prevent crossovers. Having a kattandiya in the ranks is more powerful than getting letters of resignation. A loyal Kattandiya could send all those deserters to the next world through his black magic.

A question that should be asked naturally is whether he would give up his profession on being elected. To do so would be a folly since payment for his professional services now far exceed the salaries and perks of MPs. Perhaps the party would have decided to use his professional services in the House to lure their opponents to come begging for admission to the party he belongs to. And turn the tables on the Government as there is no other way for it to come to power.

Mauara reservoir brings prosperity to Ruhuna

Hambantota District’s largest irrigation scheme marks 9th anniversary:

The heritage of Ruhuna includes its golden soil. But it has not been fertile due to the acute scarcity of water. It was to solve this problem that the foundation was laid for the Mauara reservoir at Meegahajandura in 1997. But it did not become just another foundation stone only.

Full Story

Miliband’s baseless allegations

Taking Miliband seriously was a mistake that the British media now generally managed to avoid. It had to be noted that Miliband was an ambitious politician, who had to nurse his supporters, and that several Labour MPs were dependent on the votes of Tamils who they mistakenly assumed were LTTE supporters. There had been threats to withhold support from Labour, and naturally Labour leaders with personal ambitions had to respond. If Labour were defeated at the coming election, Miliband would present himself as the leading candidate to supplant Gordon Brown, and he needed to build up support for this.

Full Story

BACK TO BASICS – Renton de Alwis

Choice before us: Fish or nets to fish

I always admired Chinese pragmatism and the fine blend of India’s idealistic-realism. No nonsense, the Chinese take a way forward based on what’s good for the many and what can work best. Indians, on the other hand give us a blend of spiritual idealism and democratic means of dealing with ground realities; a masala which can not be concocted by any other. All may not seem to be well in both systems, especially when one attempts to judge them using dominantly held western measure-sticks we have acquired recently. Many flaws may be seen and critiques looking at bits of it can without doubt, thrive.

Full Story

 

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