Hora Police – Season II

Thursday 20th August, 2020

The new Parliament is scheduled to have its inaugural sitting today. The legislature has been in a state of suspended animation for nearly six months, but nobody missed anything, not even the live telecast of its stormy sittings; many people watched the Nat Geo Animal Fight Club, instead. But being political animals, people voted very enthusiastically at the recently concluded general election without caring two hoots about health risks. They love elections. A cynic says in a social media post that New Zealand postponed a general election because of the second wave of COVID-19, and Sri Lanka postponed the second wave of COVID-19 because of a general election!

The composition of the new Parliament reminds us of a popular children’s game—Hora Police or Cops and Robbers. There has been a role reversal. Those who played cops and embarked on a knightly mission, during the yahapalana government, to catch the lawbreakers among their predecessors have become robbers, and those they pursued tally-hoing are now ensconced in the government benches. We are now watching Hora Police – Season II.

Worryingly, two of the newly elected MPs will come to Parliament in prison vehicles, today. (There are many others who deserve Black Maria rides.) Premalal Jayasekera (SLPP) has been sentenced to death over a murder. Chandrakanthan Pillayan (TMVP) has been charged with killing a Tamil politician. Their presence will take the gloss off today’s ceremonial sitting. Curiously, people had no qualms about voting for those on the wrong side of the law. One may argue that Sri Lanka’s record is better than India’s where the presence of lawbreakers among lawmakers is concerned; more than 40 per cent of Indian MPs face criminal charges, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms. But this does not make the trend here any less disturbing.

The biggest challenge before the new government is to present a budget, spelling out how it intends to steer the economy, which is like a storm-battered schooner with tattered sails. Sobering economic reality is bound to dawn on the new dispensation before long. Let the public be warned that the interval in hell, as it were, they have been enjoying all these months, will be over soon. The government is all out to increase its revenue; its desperation knows no bounds.

Meanwhile, State Minister Prasanna Ranaweera (of the chili powder fame), has done something commendable—for once. He has reportedly ordered that his ministry be shifted from the World Trade Centre, Colombo 01, to the state-owned Ape Gama complex so that Rs. 8 million currently paid as monthly rent can be saved. This example is worthy of emulation. Likewise, the MPs should be urged to help the country overcome its foreign exchange woes, which have led to import restrictions. They should say no to duty free vehicle permits. After all, they would have us believe that they are even ready to die for the country.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is reported to have said the cleaning of buses is the point where the process of developing the bus service should commence. One cannot agree with him more. The need for a radical attitudinal change on the part of the bus operators cannot be overemphasised. Another prerequisite for improving the public transport sector is making the members of Parliament travel by bus or train, and see for themselves the suffering commuters undergo in silence. The MPs should be asked to emulate their counterparts in Sweden, where even the Speaker of Parliament has to travel in buses and trains; only the Prime Minister of that country is entitled to an official car.

We do not expect most election pledges of the SLPP to be fulfilled. (The promise given was a necessity of the past and the word broken is a necessity of the present – Machiavelli.) We are not so naïve as to hope that the bond racketeers will be made to pay for their sins. We also do not expect the pro-government crooks that have crawled out of the woodwork to be kept on a tight leash. Why hope against hope?

Instead, we will consider Sri Lankans really lucky if one of the bond scammers smooching with the government is not appointed the next Central Bank Governor, and roads in Colombo and Kandy are not closed for car races, where Lamborghinis zoom past people who are struggling to dull the pangs of badagini.

Let’s enjoy the circus where laughs are raised at our expense.