by Dr. U. Pethiyagoda
(June 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) How does one address the electorate except by a manifesto?. Two of our Prime Ministers (no less), the incumbent and his immediate predecessor, have gone on record to declare that manifestos are not to be regarded as serious declarations of intent, but merely as concoctions of lies designed to deceive the voters to make the "right" choice! Anyway, truthful or otherwise, they are a very fancy wish list, impossible to accomplish. A moderately intelligent "A Level" student given a list of headings, the title Utopia" and a couple of hours with pen and paper could turn out a tolerably acceptable version!. Then have an election, of dubious rectitude and inflicted on a thoroughly confused, frightened, bored or misled electorate and you have produced "the Peoples’ Wish"! A ballot paper so designed as to negate true choice of quality persons, completes the local picture. By compelling a choice of "party" as Step one, the choice gets restricted to a single group. If there happens to be quality persons, in a different grouping, there is no way of exsercising this preference.Taking the perverse manner in which party lists are compiled, the exhortation to pick good candidates is patently a cruel fraud. Then, if some scoundrel gets eliminated (rarely) there is always the Appointed List (piously conceived to enable the entry of outstanding citizens) to accommodate such person. Failing that too, there are Corporation Chairmanships and Ambassadorial appointments for such handymen. How conceivably can intelligent people be led to believe and accept such balderdash?
Consequently, the process ends up bringing to the fore, pop stars, singers, television celebrities, sundry delinquents and colourful characters and entrusting them with the important tasks of governance and legislation. Are there many better recipes for disaster?
Further, the fiction of "peoples’ choice" furnishes licence for even the most outrageous errors.
To cite just one example consider the case of the seminal issue of the medium of instruction for children. The obviously best method (assuming one believes that the majority is right) is for a referendum among parents. Instead of this, children were linguistically streamed according to the supreme wisdom of the legislature. Individually of course, they observed the caution of having their own kids shipped off for an english education - the "yakko" natives being compelled to stick to their mother tongue - as being "good" for them. Dr Colvin R de Silva was wrong in his "One language two countries, two languages one country" remark.This is true only if the "one" was one of the "two". Suppose it was not?.German, Spanish, French or Esperanto would give the much touted level playing field! The obvious disadvantage of course is that it suggests that language is primarily a means of communication and little else.Speculation on these issues will only take us to the realm of avoidable semantics.
Without doubt, the greatest problem that confronts our nation is the burgeoning population. A reported net increase of 1.3% of a population of 20 million equals an annual 260,000. This is an increase of no less than 712 children per day. What this represents in terms of the daily increase in needs for food, space, shelter, schooling, health, transport and material inputs is frightening. The social and environmental consequences of crowding are staggering. The quality of life is intractably doomed to dismal deterioration. To draw a totally callous illustration, the estimated loss of 100,000 lives in the senseless war of over two decades, represents the concurrent addition of only less than six months of new births! But not a cat seems bothered! We are engaged instead in what can be considered utterly trivial pursuits. The recent brilliant idea to rename wild elephants as Wan Ali, is eloquent demonstration of our sense of priorities!. Other examples are legion. Meanwhile, crime and violence, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty. garbage and pollution, dengue and TB, NCP Kidney disease and rat fever etc take heavy toll of life and strain medical resources to their limits. In the midst of all these deadly problems, we remain deeply committed to the urgency of Political Reforms and Power Devolution! .
So, demonstrably, "democracy" as conceived, practiced and applied is a colossal fiction.It may be heresy to dare challenge such a holy cow! But challenge it,we must.
It is a tenet of civilised conduct that one does not use words which connote characteristics beyond an individual’s control. Thus it is not "politically correct" to use terms denoting accidents of birth such as caste, colour and race or disabilities such as blindness, lameness or mental deficiency. Fair game is whatever is self inflicted through rectifiable changes of behaviour. Examples would include thuggery, thieving or posibly, drunkenness. It is quite depressing to note frequent reference to "muslim interests", "Tamil or Sinhala rights" etc. Persistence in such verbiage is no way towards national integration. One could even go so far as to suggest that "Sinhalese Sports Club", "Tamil Union", "Moors Sports Club" are neither accurate nor necessary! If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, what of racism?
For example, the bureaucracy discriminates against everyone - regardless. Cumbersome and unnecessary procedures (for example, the much touted fertilizer subsidy is there only till you try to get it! Then sparse and near inaccessible outlets, ridiculous needs for deeds of ownership(!!!) and similar bull, surfaces) Go to a hospital OPD, try to admit a child to school etc etc and it is plain that all suffer "discrimination". So, this issue needs critical re-evaluation.
Take colonization. Surely, if certain parts of the country are relatively unoccupied while others are over-crowded, is it not logical on the grounds of equity (and optimum land use) that persons from the latter should move to the former? Does not the "Thesavalamai Law" not conjure visions of the dictum "What is mine is mine, what is yours is ours"? Even in married life such attitudes spark divorce!
One could go on in this strain but for now, enough is enough!
Click here to read Part One
(Footnote: Lovantsky - cease searching!. This is a fiction designed to display non-existent erudition!)
Consequently, the process ends up bringing to the fore, pop stars, singers, television celebrities, sundry delinquents and colourful characters and entrusting them with the important tasks of governance and legislation. Are there many better recipes for disaster?
Further, the fiction of "peoples’ choice" furnishes licence for even the most outrageous errors.
To cite just one example consider the case of the seminal issue of the medium of instruction for children. The obviously best method (assuming one believes that the majority is right) is for a referendum among parents. Instead of this, children were linguistically streamed according to the supreme wisdom of the legislature. Individually of course, they observed the caution of having their own kids shipped off for an english education - the "yakko" natives being compelled to stick to their mother tongue - as being "good" for them. Dr Colvin R de Silva was wrong in his "One language two countries, two languages one country" remark.This is true only if the "one" was one of the "two". Suppose it was not?.German, Spanish, French or Esperanto would give the much touted level playing field! The obvious disadvantage of course is that it suggests that language is primarily a means of communication and little else.Speculation on these issues will only take us to the realm of avoidable semantics.
Without doubt, the greatest problem that confronts our nation is the burgeoning population. A reported net increase of 1.3% of a population of 20 million equals an annual 260,000. This is an increase of no less than 712 children per day. What this represents in terms of the daily increase in needs for food, space, shelter, schooling, health, transport and material inputs is frightening. The social and environmental consequences of crowding are staggering. The quality of life is intractably doomed to dismal deterioration. To draw a totally callous illustration, the estimated loss of 100,000 lives in the senseless war of over two decades, represents the concurrent addition of only less than six months of new births! But not a cat seems bothered! We are engaged instead in what can be considered utterly trivial pursuits. The recent brilliant idea to rename wild elephants as Wan Ali, is eloquent demonstration of our sense of priorities!. Other examples are legion. Meanwhile, crime and violence, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty. garbage and pollution, dengue and TB, NCP Kidney disease and rat fever etc take heavy toll of life and strain medical resources to their limits. In the midst of all these deadly problems, we remain deeply committed to the urgency of Political Reforms and Power Devolution! .
So, demonstrably, "democracy" as conceived, practiced and applied is a colossal fiction.It may be heresy to dare challenge such a holy cow! But challenge it,we must.
It is a tenet of civilised conduct that one does not use words which connote characteristics beyond an individual’s control. Thus it is not "politically correct" to use terms denoting accidents of birth such as caste, colour and race or disabilities such as blindness, lameness or mental deficiency. Fair game is whatever is self inflicted through rectifiable changes of behaviour. Examples would include thuggery, thieving or posibly, drunkenness. It is quite depressing to note frequent reference to "muslim interests", "Tamil or Sinhala rights" etc. Persistence in such verbiage is no way towards national integration. One could even go so far as to suggest that "Sinhalese Sports Club", "Tamil Union", "Moors Sports Club" are neither accurate nor necessary! If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, what of racism?
For example, the bureaucracy discriminates against everyone - regardless. Cumbersome and unnecessary procedures (for example, the much touted fertilizer subsidy is there only till you try to get it! Then sparse and near inaccessible outlets, ridiculous needs for deeds of ownership(!!!) and similar bull, surfaces) Go to a hospital OPD, try to admit a child to school etc etc and it is plain that all suffer "discrimination". So, this issue needs critical re-evaluation.
Take colonization. Surely, if certain parts of the country are relatively unoccupied while others are over-crowded, is it not logical on the grounds of equity (and optimum land use) that persons from the latter should move to the former? Does not the "Thesavalamai Law" not conjure visions of the dictum "What is mine is mine, what is yours is ours"? Even in married life such attitudes spark divorce!
One could go on in this strain but for now, enough is enough!
Click here to read Part One
(Footnote: Lovantsky - cease searching!. This is a fiction designed to display non-existent erudition!)
 How does one address the electorate except by a manifesto?. Two of our Prime ...){kind=link}
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