Source : The Island
A first rate editorial on the turd mountain raised by the politicians of Sri Lanka.
The World Toilet Day fell on Monday (Nov. 19), and various programmes were conducted to clean public conveniences in places like railway stations. Those who were involved in that campaign, spending their money and time deserve praise.
Television advertisements announcing the cleaning programmes reminded us of the Great Stink in London, where untreated, stinking human excreta and industrial effluent, got stuck on the banks of Thames in 1858, galvanising the British lawmakers into action; they voted for a mega waste disposal system.
It was from the banks of Diayawanna and a place nearby that the foulest smell emanated on Monday. The UPFA continued to be on the warpath in Parliament, doing its damnedest to retain the power it has grabbed and gain legitimacy for its government. Parliament, had to adjourn till Friday, after sitting for a few minutes.
The UPFA provincial councillors remained quiet at a council meeting in the Western Provincial Council (WPC) auditorium, a couple of kilometers away. But they, too, made their institution stink to high heaven.
Unlike the UPFA’s chandi MPs, whose lust for power has apparently taken precedence over their libido, at least for the time being, its randy provincial councillors were absorbed in watching porn on their official computers.
Our photographer captured some of them in the act of feasting their eyes on nude images. They did not care two hoots about the council’s annual budget being presented by their Chief Minister, we are told.
They may have thought that they did not have to take the council budget seriously as their party had caused the country to do without the national budget by throwing Parliament into turmoil.
It was only a few weeks ago that WP Chief Minister Isura Devapriya got into hot water by ordering more than 100 imported, luxury chairs worth Rs. 650,000 each for councillors.
The main door of the council is believed to have cost more than one of the houses governments build for the needy. Protests by the JVP and bad press the UPFA got as a result made the WP Governor cancel the order for chairs.
We could photograph only a few WP councillors lapping up pornography during the council meeting, but there may have been others who were doing likewise.
Their unspeakable conduct has proved that public funds are still being wasted on facilities provided to them. Why should they be given free computers and Internet connections, which they abuse so blatantly?
The reason given for increasing the number of MPs, creating Provincial Councils, which consist of more than 400 members and 45 ministers, and burdening the public with more local government members, whose number has increase to 8,000, was to serve the public better. But people did without local government bodies for about two and a half years thanks to the yahapalana government.
Nothing has got done in Parliament for more three weeks. Parliamentary ‘proceedings’ only provide the taxpayers some entertainment. (Sri Lankans do not have to pay for cable television to watch programmes like Animal Fight Club.)
The dissolution of most provincial councils has not affected the public in any way. The yahapalana government proved the country could do without PCs. Members of the WPC either skip council sittings or watch porn when they happen to be present.
Why the public should be made to stump up money by way of taxes and rates to maintain so many representatives in Parliament, the Provincial Councils and the local government institutions defies comprehension.
The number of these misbehaving shirkers can easily be halved; that will be a great service to the public.
The time has come for a national effort to clean the Augean Stables on the Diyawanna banks. We must not wait till Nov. 19, 2019 to do so.
