{"id":64056,"date":"2017-03-11T13:07:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T20:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=64056"},"modified":"2017-03-11T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T20:07:10","slug":"bonds-of-the-crooked-and-privileged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/03\/11\/bonds-of-the-crooked-and-privileged\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonds of the crooked and privileged"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

March 10, 2017, 9:25 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

Haven\u2019t you heard enough of these bonds?<\/p>\n

Depends on what bonds, you are talking about; there could be some bonds one may like.<\/p>\n

I mean the bonds we hear and read about every day \u2013 these big money bonds.<\/p>\n

You mean the Central Bank and Treasury bond stuff?<\/p>\n

That is not all, but thinking of those, it looks as if each time a new Treasury Bond is announced, there will also have to be a Presidential Commission of Inquiry.<\/p>\n

That seems a good idea, without waiting for a COPE Report and other inquiries before a serious probe is launched. These Treasury bonds look like the stuff of corruption, made much worse by delayed gazette notifications.<\/p>\n

But that is not all I am talking about.<\/p>\n

What are the other bonds you are thinking of?<\/p>\n

I am thinking of the bonds of bad governance\u2026the yamapaalana stuff\u2026 don\u2019t you see how the people are being tied up by these bonds that go through so easily in Parliament?<\/p>\n

\"article_image\"<\/p>\n

Bonds being passed by Parliament?<\/p>\n

Why not \u2013 they are the Privilege Bonds \u2013 the stuff that no one dares to oppose. Not even the so-called Joint Opposition or the JVP.<\/p>\n

This is the huge expenditure meant for the Members of Parliament- both elected and appointed \u2013 that are now considered Privilege Bonds.<\/p>\n

Such as?<\/p>\n

Well, just think of the 143 million, to allow the payment of a 100,000 rupees per month per MP to equip their electorate offices…the money is to be given without any check on the attendance record of the MPs in Parliament\u2026 They consider it a privilege payment and the Yamapaalana leaders fall in line. Ever ready to please this privileged few.<\/p>\n

That is too much for these political catchers who never told the voters they will need money from the State to have political officers in their districts.<\/p>\n

C\u2019mon, don\u2019t talk of it as money from the State\u2026it is money from the people\u2026 from the VAT they pay and all the other revenue the government gets from the people.<\/p>\n

I just realized\u2026some of them were not even elected by the people\u2026 they crept in or were pulled in through the back door.<\/p>\n

Well, they are about to get millions more by way of the cost of luxury vehicles to do their political and mostly personal rounds. That is hugely privileged transport in overly privileged comfort. The vehicles for some are more than 40 million rupees. There is no privileged bum that will be seated on anything less than 25 million rupees. There are 58 such vehicles to come. Don\u2019t you think of this as bondage for the people?<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t you think they deserve to be considered as privileged people?<\/p>\n

You mean the usual Parliamentary Privilege?<\/p>\n

No, no. The usual Parliamentary Privilege will not cover any of this. What I am thinking of is the special privilege of their behaviour. Don\u2019t you see it on TV \u2013 in what is now considered a privileged telecast of parliamentary proceedings?<\/p>\n

Do you think they deserve all this because of Privileged Rowdyism or Favoured Hooliganism?<\/p>\n

You may not like it. But don\u2019t you agree that they do represent the rowdy and hooligan classes in our society? Those are people who have never been officially represented\u2026and have now found their time\u2026<\/p>\n

Are you thinking of this after the riotous time in parliament this week?<\/p>\n

Well, when you look at it\u2026one can say it was a privileged riot. These people, whether they were involved in the rowdyism this week or not, are all earning their keep, through what you call these Privileged Payments.<\/p>\n

You are going back to what I first said about these bonds.<\/p>\n

What has this got to do with bonds? There was no such rowdyism in the Central Bank bond issues.<\/p>\n

There was no rowdyism, but it was all crooked\u2026and the hidden truths are now coming out: The elephantine crookedness of green politics.<\/p>\n

My bigger concern is about the bondage the people are being put into by all this huge waste of money on a privileged few \u2013 just 225 of more than 20 million. How much more and for how much longer are the people to be held in such bondage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake March 10, 2017, 9:25 pm Haven\u2019t you heard enough of these bonds? Depends on what bonds, you are talking about; there could be some bonds one may like. I mean the bonds we hear and read about every day \u2013 these big money bonds. You mean the Central Bank and Treasury bond […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,6,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-politics","category-106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64056","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=64056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}