Hello, Prosperity!

Wednesday 26th May, 2021

The government has drawn heavy fire over its broken promises, which are legion. But we think it has fulfilled its much-advertised election pledge to usher in prosperity; the beneficiaries thereof, however, are not the ordinary public; they are the so-called lawmakers, who are living in clover at the expense of the taxpayer. The government has sought to make the lives of the members of Parliament still more comfortable by providing them with luxury vehicles while the pressing need is for economic assistance to the poor, ambulances, PCR and gene-sequencing machines, liquid oxygen plants, and ICU facilities to cope with the rapidly increasing Covid-19 caseload.

Thankfully, the government has shelved its vehicle import plan owing to criticism; in fact, it has only made a virtue of necessity. It is now in the same predicament as the proverbial cat that eased itself on a rock surface; it is struggling to cover up what it has done. It has failed to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by including a few ambulances in the list of vehicles that were to be imported. If it had succeeded in its endeavour, the MPs would have got brand-new V-8 SUVs, we are told.

Strict import restrictions were imposed to shore up the country’s foreign reserves. Such measures had to be adopted, given the deteriorating economic situation. The tumble of the rupee continues. So, why did the government seek to import so many vehicles, which would have caused millions of US dollars to flow out?

Government propagandists are trotting out absurd excuses in a bid to justify the failed vehicle import bid. We can only hope that they will not cut even more pathetic figures by claiming that powerful SUVs are needed to beat the superfast virus. It may be recalled that when a JHU monk MP’s duty-free vehicle permit was once used to import an expensive Mercedes, the then Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe stirred up a hornets’ nest by asking whether the monk needed a luxury car to ‘travel fast on the Eight Noble Path’. Ironically, in May 2016, the JVP revealed that two bulletproof cars worth Rs. 600 million had been ordered for Wickremesinghe, who was the Prime Minister at the time.

Not even disasters deter the shameless members of Parliament from importing duty-free vehicles. They obtain huge loans at ridiculously low interest rates from state banks while farmers are languishing in the clutches of loan sharks. Supplementary estimates to the tune of billions of rupees were presented to Parliament for buying ministers luxury vehicles in the aftermath of the Salawawa armoury blast (2016) as well as the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse (2017) while the victims were crying out for assistance.

The Opposition and the government are always at loggerheads. They do not see eye to eye on virtually anything that is beneficial to the public. They are not united even in fighting the current pandemic; they are pulling in different directions, and inveighing against each other. They resort to fisticuffs at the drop of a hat in Parliament. But, strangely, the Opposition has not uttered a word in protest against the government’s attempt to import more than 200 SUVs. The government and the Opposition sink their differences and get on like a house on fire when it comes to their privileges, salaries, perks, etc. The Opposition, which claims to be privy to even what the government leaders do in private, has denied any knowledge of the latest move to buy vehicles for MPs. It seems to have taken the masses for asses.

When the health authorities locked down Piliyandala, a few weeks ago, to prevent the spread of the pandemic, Minister Gamini Lokuge intervened to have the township reopened, claiming that travel restrictions would adversely affect the daily wage earners in the area. Now, the entire country is under a lockdown. Government politicians like Lokuge would have us believe that they are ready to do anything for the hapless public struggling to dull the pangs of hunger. If so, the question is why they did not oppose the government’s vehicle-import bid.

Shame on all MPs!