By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

November 3, 2017, 10:07 pm

The Minister for Poll Delays has given the country a Ball Game. At a time when the country is trying to forget about cricket amidst all the records of whitewash defeats, he has thrown the Poll Ball to the field for us to play the game. It is the launch of the Local Government Ball Game that will take place by end January next year, if the political weather is good for play – for the Yahapalana manipulators of the game.

We have been told the pitch is now ready for the game to commence. What is this pitch like, and who has made it? What is laid out is a pitch of vast corruption with an outfield of fraud and crookedness, prepared by those who won the last big match with a promise to wipe out the corruption that prevailed at the time. But, today’s ground keepers of corruption are not those to give room for any clean play.

The ball of Democracy that has got a battering for the past two years and more by the crooked players of corrupt politics on both sides of the pitch of great expectations; with hardly any chance of anything clean in the game to come.

What is more interesting is to see the prizes on offer in this ball game. The biggest prize is the opening of a new gate for more than double the number of local government players be elected to the local bodies – that will be more than stepping stones to the dirty politics of both government and opposition.

Whoever wanted more than 8,000 local government players in this country? Is there anything that the 4,000 plus players we had till now did with any skill or recognition of quality, that we need to double the size of the winners? It seems the ball has been thrown to the field of building contractors who will have a field day putting up new local government buildings to house the winners. And, the voters who thought they were playing a game will be footing the bills. That is the stuff of crooked politics, where the ball of democracy is smashed out for sixes of great profit, for the benefit of the catchers in foul politics.

Who wants Colombo to have another New Town Hall? Certainly not the voters of the city! But the ball game that’s coming will give Colombo at least 100 councilors, almost double the number today. Can they ever serve Colombo in the limited space inside the Town Hall? No, never. The plans must already be underway for another New Town Hall, with all modern facilities … a Digital Town Hall … and at great cost too, bringing delight to the construction industry… but certainly not to the voters.

The Minister for Poll Delays will not say anything about these realities flowing from the new ball game, but such constructions will certainly be needed in many other cities and towns too. Come on; catch that price, you foolish voters!

How come, if the Parliament that manages the affairs of the entire country can do it with 225 members, Colombo alone needs more than 100 councilors? Are we moving to a double sized Parliament too, which will not be opposed by the Yahapalana duo or the Joint Opposition; because they are all there for the Privileges of Parliament, so why not more?

We are told the game will be colourful with the larger presence of women players, under the amendments rushed by the Poll Delay Minister in that recent parliamentary hookup. How do we to know the new women players are any better than the male players of the past several decades? We are not against equal rights for women in every field of activity, but are we moving to a new sexual confrontation between men and women on how the people could be cheated in the tasks of local government? It has been, and now shows all the promise of being even more crooked in this new Poll Game of twisted local government.

Those who worked out this new Ball Game we are asked to play have looked backward and not forward. They are the type that lives in history, with no thought of the future. They have no idea of the digital and techno revolutions taking place today. They do not know we have far better communication that links our land and people, and that we can move to much better and swifter transport very soon. They have been thinking in terms of the old systems of representation, which is now profitable for the crooked and not for the people.

The Ball Game that is on the way is certainly no joy for Democracy, which will be beaten about to near destruction by the players of crooked party politics – both young and old.