Mere words will not get votes Mr. President

from Disgusted Citizen

(December 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Our President seems to have taken for granted that the Sri Lankan voters are buffalos, cows, goats, and asses. I can remember during my school days when we wanted to bring the calf back to the garden what we did was to take a bundle of grass, show it to the calf and dropped a little of it on the ground to entice the calf. When it came close we repeated the process until the calf came into the garden and then closed the gate.

Similarly President Mahinda Rajapakse does the same trick. He keeps shouting at the top of his voice from inside a bullet proof cubicle "Do you want me to save Kilinochchi? Do you want one undivided country? Then vote for the government."

He is hoodwinking the masses. For the President, Kilinochchi was 4 km. away during the last provincial council elections, and for the PM "it could be seen by the forces," and for the Army Commander "every inch of the area was surrounded by the forces."

Now when the chief of the defectors left the camp after holding on for two years, the President has thought of another ploy to deceive the masses to win the other two provincial elections. It is the ordinary man's sons and daughters that sacrifice their lives for the motherland while his son who is attached to the navy is on a 'scholarship' about which people know very little. People are under the impression that the young son of the President is undergoing training in 'warfare' in the north to save the country.

Is there anything for the President to boast of the 'services' he has rendered to the country? He and his jumbo cabinet have ruined the country. The President has utilised EPF funds without cabinet approval to fund an airline which for all intents and purposes is bankrupt. He wants to pump some more funds into it to be managed by his brother.

His projects such as Mihin Lanka, Weerawila Airport, the southern harbour, the oil refinery and finally the CPC hedging have all crash landed.

The chief of the 17 defectors has left the party knowing that in another two or three months the people would be on the streets demanding the dismantling of the 'Company.' I will not be surprised if the other 16 come crawling back to Ranil's feet.

The electronic media recently showed a group of expectant mothers from a remote village hanging on to a van to get to the maternity clinic - the reason, there were no proper roads and vehicles for them to get to the clinic. But in Colombo the top heavy cabinet of ministers enjoy luxury vehicles, and whenever they travel the common man is made to stand in the hot sun or rain and grin and bear. What a shame Mr. President! Come the next election, mere words will not do. - Sri Lanka Guardian