ASOKA S.

I just want to pose the following Common Sense questions to all politicians in Sri Lanka many of whom don’t appear to know why the Lanka public elected them for.

I suspect many of them believe that it is their good Karma to be priviledged and the rest of Lankan people are just sinners.

1. When all the major Highways are sardine packed pretty much all day hardly moving why do your motorcades with gun trotting bodyguards whisk through ignoring the fellow countrymen who are pleading you guys for help just to get to work.

2. Does it not occur to the Minister of Highways that the ONLY reason for his fat salary, million dollar houses, staff and bodyguards are because he is supposed to make sure people have roads to drive on and walk on. In this regard how about adding a few hundred traffic lights and mark with non erasable yellow paint a 5 foot edge line so everyday people have some space to walk on with dignity without having to jump to the gutter.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 3. Does it occur to any minister that the roads are full of smelly trash and that one of the 107 ministers job it is to make sure that the trash is picked up daily.

4. Does the Minister of Health realize that trash is in hygienic and make people sick resulting in costing billions of Rupees to treat diseases that can easily be prevented, not to mention the valuable lives lost.

5. Do the Leaders realize that it is almost inhumane for Ministers to be chauffeur driven with an army of bodyguards in super expensive Sport Utility Vehicles when millions of fellow countrymen go to sleep hungry and tens of thousands of fellow countrymen are begging on the streets.

6. Do the leaders also realize that the ministers can just as well be driven for their (very important ?) work in a mid sized regular car that costs ten times less to purchase and to operate.

7. Do the elected members of parliament realize that they too are citizens of Sri Lanka and therefore subject to the same laws applicable to all Sri Lankans.

8. Do the Elected Members of Parliament realize that it is illegal to interfere into police operations (commonly called obstructing justice) and have your henchmen released from police custody or else to punish the Police Officer by transferring him to a remote difficult region for the mere sin of only doing his job.

9. Do they also realize that this sets a very ugly precedent whereby Police are scared to do their job thereby threatening the very foundation of a civilized society subject to the Rule of Law and that it is ONLY the Rule of law that separates us from our four legged jungle friends.

10. How many of our politicians go to goverment hospitals when they are sick ? If they only go to Private Hospitals ( bills paid with public money), dont they feel a sense of guilt that they expect their fellow countrymen to go to goverment hospitals which they themselves dont want to go.

10. Do they realize that perhaps ignoring these obvious but common sense problems of our people by successive governments led to decades of non ending violence in our once peaceful country twice by the JVP and then by Tamil Militants.

11. Cant they realize that writing is on the wall that you can fool some of the people some of the time, all the people some of the time but cannot fool all the people all the times.

12. Finally can our much loved President hold all of his Ministers accountable for their respective jobs and get rid of those who don’t perform. It is a UN-excusable sin in a poor country like ours to reward useless and corrupt politicians who holds their positions for the mere “show.”

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It will be nice to hear some answers…

ASOKA S.