When luck smiles on MPs
Posted on July 11th, 2016
Editorial Courtesy The Island
July 11, 2016, 8:53 pm
The media informs us people are resentful that they can hardly make ends meet. Life for them is a process of paying bills, which continue to get bloated due to tax increases, the latest being the VAT hike. Traders have been taking to the streets against the unconscionable tax increases. The government has been struggling to stop the VAT protests which are likely to snowball into a popular uprising unless nipped in the bud. It has apparently taken a leaf out of the Rajapaksas’ book; it claims the seemingly ceaseless wave of protests is due to a conspiracy.
The Supreme Court has issued an interim order suspending the VAT and Nation Building Tax increases. The government says it is confident that it can secure parliamentary approval for those tax hikes in keeping with the court order. People are left with no alternative but to dree their weird.
Meanwhile, it looks as though the government thought if it cannot keep more than twenty million people happy it should at least bring smiles to the lips of people’s representatives, numbering only 225 in Parliament. After all, parliamentarians are those who carry out the onerous task of exercising people’s legislative power and are even willing to lay down their lives for their voters. It was only the other day that a deputy minister tried to hang himself in a school in a bid to have some children admitted! Has such a thing happened anywhere else in the world? Look at the way they spend so much of dosh, fight risking life and limb in electoral contests and even shed blood so as to enter Parliament and serve the public.
The Joint Opposition politicians, for their part, is planning to hoof it all the way to Colombo from Kandy, demanding that people’s democratic rights be safeguarded and their economic burden lessened. Such is their love for the masses. Their government counterparts are all out to scuttle the march also for the sake of the people.
True, taxes on trishaws, cars etc have been jacked up and the ordinary people cannot afford them. The government needs money to run the country, we are told. People should appreciate the fact that the present administration like its predecessor is doing its damnedest to keep their beloved representatives happy.
It has been announced that all 225 MPs will get duty free car permits which come with unbelievably soft loans payable in ludicrously low installments. The government has been so considerate towards people’s representatives that it was not deterred by even the Salawa armoury blast and the resultant inferno from moving a supplementary estimate for Rs. 1,750 mn to buy luxury cars for ministers! Any other government would have been jolted into paying compensation to the victims as a national priority! But, the incumbent administration was bold enough to seek and obtain parliamentary approval for purchasing a fleet of flashy limousines for some ministers. If not for protests by the media the ministers concerned would have been moving about in those super luxury vehicles by now. It is only natural that the powers that be vent their spleens on the media at every turn; the press doesn’t allow it to go the whole hog and feather the nests of lawmakers!
Parliamentarians are on cloud nine. The government has solved almost all their problems. It has even attended to minor matters such as the unavailability of pork curry and golden syrup in the Parliament restaurant.
What about the problems the ordinary people are faced with?
The government seems to think they are crybabies and their grievances can be dealt with leisurely after the honourable parliamentarians are given super luxury vehicles. First things first! People richly deserve the governments of politicians by politicians for politicians they elect.
July 11th, 2016 at 6:20 pm
People must be encouraged to throw rotten potatoes, tomatoes and rotten eggs at these new vehicles as a show of appreciation for the services and great deprivations these parliamentarians undergo to make the lives of ordinary citizens better.
July 11th, 2016 at 8:53 pm
Ratnapala!
Great suggestion! Let the people show their disdain for these deaf, dumb and Bling politicos by heaving rotten eggs, tomatoes and potatoes at these luxury cars.
Why stop there, a bag of human waste nicely packaged in a very thin polyethylene bag would be even better!
If the politico can’t go anywhere in his shiny new car without having smelly stuff heaved at it, it would be rendered useless, and the market for luxury cars would fall precipitously in Sri Lanka!
Then even NUSUDUSU people like us would be able to buy one ababdoned by the’s SUDUSU people ….. to permanently keep in the garage of course!
July 12th, 2016 at 12:28 am
One imported vehicle owner had admitted his vehicle costed over half a million USD without duty. That is a tremendous amount of money ultimately paid by the people. At a time when there is a balance of payment crisis, this is a national crime.
The government survives solely because it is a dictatorship. If there was democracy, it has gone home by now.
July 12th, 2016 at 1:06 am
Dilrook,
Cannot be 500,000 USD, may be 50,000 USD. Check your numbers.
July 12th, 2016 at 1:19 pm
If the Executive Presidency did not exist in Sri Lanka, guess who would be calling ALL the shots now?? RANIL, MANGALA, UNP and the TNA!
Yes, the SAME RANIL who wanted to hand the North & East over to Prabhakaran before. Thank God that CBK, the Executive President then, was there to STOP that by dissolving the UNP government and calling for new elections!
Even NOW, it is the Executive President Sirisena that is FOILING the WORST EXCESSES of Ranil and his UNP govt to sell Sri Lanka and its War Heroes to its enemies.
The Executive President is elected by a SINGLE NATIONWIDE VOTE, in which the Sinhala Buddhist majority cannot be circumvented.
For better or worse, sufficient Sinhala Buddhists voted for Sirisena to help oust MR. After all the woes that have befallen them since then, that Sinhala Buddhist majority will REVERSE COURSE in the next Presidential election and elect a MORE PATRIOTIC President who does not collaborate with the UNPatriotic Party.
IN CONTRAST, Members of Parliament are elected to Parliament region by region, allowing minorities to capture seats with LOCAL MAJORITIES.
A SIMPLE MAJORITY can allow a party to capture the Parliament and form the government. Without the Executive Presidency, the MINORITIES will then become the KINGMAKERS determining which major party will form the government, and for that help they will BLACKMAIL the major parties for CRITICAL CONCESSIONS, usually inimical to the integrity of the nation and the Sinhala majority.
Together with the UNPatriotic Party, the MINORITIES will force the enactment all kinds of laws undermining the unitary nature of the country, and the essential interests of its Sinhala Buddhist majority.
A simple majority of seats in Parliament will allow it to capture power, and a 2/3 majority … with MPs bribed with cars and otherperks and baubles … will allow them to AMEND THE CONSTITUTION … as we see happening NOW!
NO! The EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY MUST BE RETAINED … for it gives the Sinhala Buddhist majority a VETO POWER over the activities of a corrupt PARLIAMENT orchestrated by Sri Lanka’s ENEMIES!
July 12th, 2016 at 7:25 pm
Ananda, true in the case of Lanza and Thalatha but the parliamentary allocation for Fonseka’s car is 70 million rupees which is approximately half a million USD. Of course his car is not worth so much but the loss to the nation is half a million USD.
July 12th, 2016 at 7:38 pm
[Quote] If the Executive Presidency did not exist in Sri Lanka, guess who would be calling ALL the shots now?? RANIL, MANGALA, UNP and the TNA!
Yes, the SAME RANIL who wanted to hand the North & East over to Prabhakaran before. Thank God that CBK, the Executive President then, was there to STOP that by dissolving the UNP government and calling for new elections!
Even NOW, it is the Executive President Sirisena that is FOILING the WORST EXCESSES of Ranil and his UNP govt to sell Sri Lanka and its War Heroes to its enemies. [Unquote]
That is not the case.
If there is no executive presidency, Ranil, Mangala, etc. would be in prison for violating the constitution. It cannot be done today because the executive president (who is above the law) shields them directly, indirectly and through pressure on the courts. Even Chandrika tacitly supported Ranil’s CFA and continued with it. Chandrika brought down the Norwegians.
CFA was challenged in the Supreme Court. But it was assigned to the Court of Appeal by the Supreme Court. Unlike the Supreme Court the Appeal Court is not required to stick to strict timeframes. The case went on for six years from 2002 to 2008. Finally the verdict came that its illegal. A textbook case. Why do you think it took so long and the criminals for doing that illegal act was not punished?
July 12th, 2016 at 9:48 pm
Dilrook,
Regarding the 500,000 usd allocation for Fonseka’s car … is that really true?
Does the car contain 500 oz of 24 karat gold decorations for the Herr Field Marshal or is it an armored car built to foil assassination attempts?
What kind of a car is this, and do they really expect the public to sustain such an extravagance? Where is the public outcry in the vaunted free media under the Yamapalanaya GOSL? ?
July 12th, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Ananda,
The parliament allocated him 70 million rupees supposedly for one car. He later said it usually costs 40 million but he is buying it for 30 million saving 10 million for taxpayers!
Even for 30 million rupees (duty free), that must be a heck of a BMW car. And the remaining 40 million is also lost to the country anyway as that too will be used. So the total cost/loss to the country is 70 million rupees ($500,000) plus on-going maintenance of his cars.
Although 1.7 billion rupees (total vehicle bonanza in addition to a duty waiver for all 225) is not huge in the scheme of things, given the economic crisis and the few vehicles it is used for, it makes no sense at all. I think they know it is all over for them. Make merry while they can. None in the Joint Opposition complained about duty waiver. They too make the most of it.
At last pork has been reintroduced to the parliament free food stall. Technically, that is cannibalism!