Features
Dual Citizens in parliament!
By Rajitha Ratwatte
The proposed new amendment to the constitution is going to allow Dual Citizens to contest for political office. What a terrible thing, the hard core “frog in the well” Lankan says. The carefully preserved, inbred lifestyle of our island will be decimated. When your wealth is measured by the number of bangles on your wife’s hand, when you pawn your jewellery on a regular basis to be able to give “New Year” presents to your relatives, thereby creating an image that you are prospering. Your lifestyle that involves driving around in a car that should be worth around the cost of two houses but that your illegally acquired duty-free permit allows you to pay much less for. Attending cocktail parties where the main topic of conversation is the shady deals that you have done and the people, including your employees that you have taken unfair advantage of. The total lack of a sense of humour, especially the ability to laugh at yourself. Complete and utter disregard for law and order as almost everything is “fixable” and any transgression of the law is easily rectified by a simple telephone call to a “friendly” politician or a cop. Paying no income or other tax at all and thinking nothing of it. All this may CHANGE.
A dual citizen who has earned his place and qualified to live in another country for at least four years has lived in the “real” world. They have understood what it is like to be a second-class citizen. Any pledges and oaths of allegiance they may have taken cannot be held against them. If the second country they are citizens of had requested the same they would have had to oblige. They have paid taxes and know the benefits that can accrue by doing so. The quality of life and how it improves when people pay taxes, the infrastructure developments that they enjoy. These people understand what it is to live within the law and respect it. They have a civic responsibility and think twice about jay walking and littering the areas they live in. In most cases they have suffered the seasonal changes, extreme cold or searing heat, days shortened by Winter and lengthened by Summer. Earthquakes and sand storms are often part of their daily lives.
No one who has received free education to whatever level, sub O level or PHD, who has always taken the settled weather, the gentle people, the beautiful scenery for granted can ever really appreciate what they enjoy in the Pearl. All they do is abuse the system and try their direst to make as much money as possible, give as little as possible back to the land and the society that nurtured them and proceed to ruin it.
If this is not the case, how to explain the 70 odd years of Independence and the total decline that we have suffered? Justify it dear reader, in anyway other than the bogus society that we have created due to our so-called leaders, exploiting the “frogs in the well”. It is very clear that we do not have home grown leadership and are not capable of producing it either. Now there are exceptions to every rule and the more pedantic of those who spare the time to read this will be bristling by now.
Of course, there are exceptions. Some people have qualified for citizenship in other countries by claiming false refugee status. I sincerely hope they are not given dual citizenship but as mentioned earlier since the law is “flexible” in the Pearl, we never know. We do have genuine, honest leaders who have been created at home, surely…… they have to be somewhere! The fact that they cannot be or will not be recognized is also due to the values we are tolerating in today’s bogus society. If someone stands up and says that they will work only for their salary and will accept no kickbacks or shady perks or favours, they will most often be considered insane! Their families and even their children will accuse them of not providing for them. Most often they will be sidelined for promotion by bosses who are already well into the game. Basically, they will not survive.
I vote firmly for letting Dual citizens into parliament. In fact, I think this is essential to try and bring our beloved ex Pearl of the Indian Ocean back to some sort of her former glory. We need fresh thinking and we need discipline and a sense of responsibility from holders of public office. We need people who truly appreciate the wonders of our little Island and those who care enough to build for the future and not simply rape and pillage for short term gain.
When one spends time studying and experiencing life in “developed” countries, one gains a sense of what could have been achieved in the Pearl much better than someone who has lived all their lives in the close-knit environment of a tiny island. Let these people in I say! Let them in if they can be persuaded to come. After all it is the highly “literate” voter of the land who will make the final decision!
The amendment that barred dual citizens from coming into our Parliament was enacted for what could only be perceived as short term political gain for individuals and of course for another behavioural aspect that we have fine-tuned in our current bogus society. Identify opponents who are strong and try to shut them down early! Use scandals, sexual innuendos, paternal or maternal insults or if all else fails use the constitution.
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