DISASTERS GALORE

The recent deluge which brought so much misery to the country exposed the crass mismanagement by those in authority. 

The Disaster Management Ministry proved to be the biggest disaster with its Minister winging back from a conference in Mexico where he boasted in a speech to an international audience about preventive and corrective measures taken by his Ministry in Sri Lanka to minimize natural disasters.  The same Ministry later had to shamelessly admit that they were unprepared, with the result that the government leaders had to beg neighbouring countries for basic needs such as blankets, water etc.

Whilst the government was more or less sleeping, the ordinary public took matters to their hands and volunteered for donations heeding calls by media institutions.  The TV stations meanwhile got massive publicity for their institutions by distributing the stuff donated by the public, which gave reasons for people to question if at all there is a government here in spite of having a Jumbo cabinet.  Even the prisoners were magnanimous enough to donate a day’s lunch.  It is a shame that not a single cabinet minister had thought of skipping their meals and donating the money to those affected, especially when one considers that they are privileged to have sumptuous meals below cost in the Parliamentary canteen.

In the midst of all this misery, all what the MPs were thinking of was how to get monetary allocation passed to import new luxury vehicles for themselves whilst the country was reeling with disaster. 

Whilst some politicians came out to hand over relief materials to those affected beaming to television cameras and other media, there were a handful such as MP Palitha Thevarapperuma who genuinely assisted the hapless victims out of sheer love to the people.

The lesson learnt here is that ordinary people have to learn to live by helping each other at times of disasters and forget that there is a government elected by them and the so called people’s representatives are only interested in their own welfare and enjoyment of luxuries. 

The biggest Disaster here is that the voter who is considered to be sovereign (the Boss) and the elected MP (the servant) have got their roles reversed.

That is the real tragedy that we are forced to live with.