WILL VOTERS BELIEVE IN PROMISES AGAIN?

‘A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts,true faith and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill;men who the lust of spoils cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will;men who love honour, men who cannot lie.’

Here we go again with a string of promises which will never be kept. One cannot fool all the people all the time! Will there be among us those foolish enough to believe that those who were in power at the helm of the ship of state for two terms and never kept their promises will ever keep their word? Leopards don’t easily change their spots. State resources were used and wasted as never before. Election laws were ignored. State vehicles, helicopters, buildings were used in election campaigns. Official residences were used to feed people. Unprecedented amounts in billions have been spent on trips abroad by the former president who travelled with huge delegations on public funds.Millions were also wasted on the President’s House in Embilipitiya and in the North.It is alleged that billions were misused from the Divi Neguma and Samurdhi funds. Today we have a prime minister who pays for his use of helicopters and vehicles and who has insisted that his Cabinet does the same. Looking back it is obvious that every development scheme that has benefited the country from Gal Oya and settlement schemes by the Father of the Nation to the Mahaweli, Mahapola scholarships, land given to the poor, housing projects, Samurdhi were all done by successive UNP governments.Recently, one who has designed international airports told me that he had never seen a worse airport than Mattala which he said was a colossal waste of public funds. Recent exposures of other hair-brained schemes merely to satisfy personal vanity are many . Roads were carpeted at enormous expense and the carpets rolled off the road with heavy rains. Who pays for all this? The innocent masses and the tax payer. The murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge one of the most talented journalists of our time,his wife having to leave the country, other abductions, threats, intimidation all took place with no sincere effort made to inquire, control or stop these horrific incidents.Owners of property were threatened with takeovers unless they parted with millions to stop it. There are recorded cases of suicides of those who couldn’t pay and didn’t give in to these demands. We have never had a situation like this in this country. A war hero who fought on the front and was responsible for the war victory was locked up like a criminal,humiliated and given inhuman treatment. Is this democracy? Victory at war must lead on to peace and reconciliation towards which no sincere effort was made. Those who made ridiculous statements about families being able to live on Rs 2,500 a month are now waxing far from eloquently on bonds and billions and are reputed to be launching a book on the subject. Do they even understand what they are twittering on about or writing? Is one who was far off the mark in his concept on what a family could live on capable of writing a book on any subject at all. A further inane statement made by the same person was that Ranil Wickremesinghe became prime minister each time because of the SLFP. His first tenure as PM was after the tragic assassination of the late President Premadasa. We have to ask ourselves whether this drivel then implies that their party was in any way responsible for that tragic demise?

Voters must take a look at the past, delve into promises kept and those unfulfilled and who did what before they cast their votes. One must ensure that we get educated candidates of integrity who will give us good governance. Flamboyant lifestyles for families at state expense must not be allowed and those who practised this must be thrown out by the voter. This government has honoured most of its promises. Those they failed to do were because the Opposition managed to vote against and stop those benefits being given to the people.

Do we want leaders who lose their tempers, lack self-control, discipline and lash out at people with crude abuse and their fists on the least provocation, with a band of uneducated men famed more for brawn than brains and integrity? Or do we want politicians known for good governance, integrity, vision,intellect with a team of educated honest men? That is the choice for us which seems to me to be quite clear.

‘A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts,true faith and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;men who the lust of spoils cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will;men who love honour, men who cannot lie.’