{"id":56466,"date":"2016-07-11T14:44:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T21:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=56466"},"modified":"2016-07-11T14:44:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T21:44:35","slug":"when-luck-smiles-on-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/11\/when-luck-smiles-on-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"When luck smiles on MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

July 11, 2016, 8:53 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019 book; it claims the seemingly ceaseless wave of protests is due to a conspiracy.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s representatives, numbering only 225 in Parliament. After all, parliamentarians are those who carry out the onerous task of exercising people\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The Joint Opposition politicians, for their part, is planning to hoof it all the way to Colombo from Kandy, demanding that people\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019t allow it to go the whole hog and feather the nests of lawmakers!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What about the problems the ordinary people are faced with?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial\u00a0Courtesy 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}