Milk for kids

Friday 11th November, 2022

Parliament has reportedly decided to provide schoolchildren who visit it with a glass of milk each. This is a welcome measure. Milk has become a luxury of sorts that only the rich can afford thanks to the MPs on both sides of the House, who have ruined the country. It is the public who will bear the cost of milk to be given to children at Parliament, and they deserve thanks. What will the MPs give the children at their expense?

They should give back a fraction of what they get from the public, shouldn’t they? We suggest that they treat students to a sumptuous midday meal in the members’ canteen and pick up the tab without passing it on to the public. Ideally, they should skip lunch on the days when children visit Parliament. Only then will they realise what it is like to bear the pangs of hunger like the ordinary people. There is no harm in the horizontally-gifted politicians forgoing a meal or two. Some pro-government doctors have sought to pooh-pooh media reports that many students attend school on empty stomachs; they have said fasting is good for health! We want our MPs to skip meals and be healthy, don’t we? Now that politicians have decided to show that they care for children by giving them milk at Parliament, will they and their leaders make a serious effort to ensure a future free from food shortages and other deprivations for the young Sri Lankans? They will have to carry out their fiduciary duties efficiently and see to it that the economy is managed properly.

This is an uphill task that cannot be accomplished with the help of the elected representatives, save a few, the country is currently burdened with. The political leaders who have failed to rein in their MPs ought to field only intelligent, capable persons of integrity at elections so that the country will be better governed and progress achieved for the people to live happily. The problem of political dregs being elected should be tackled at source. On seeing the lowest of the low going places in politics with others’ money, children may wonder why on earth they should pursue their studies when they can drop out of school, take to politics, amass wealth, and make the educated including university dons kowtow to them. Among the current MPs, there is a school dropout who once made a female school principal kneel before him for having refused to carry out an illegal order!

We have also had many lawbreakers among the so-called lawmakers, such as chain-snatchers, cattle rustlers, killers, bootleggers, drug dealers and thugs. No wonder there has been a severe erosion of public faith in political institutions, and the country is bankrupt. Some of these rowdies were seen in action in the House during the 52-day government in 2018; they assaulted their Opposition counterparts, smashed up furniture, threw chilli powder around, hurled projectiles at the police and lunged at the Chair, prompting the police to take Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to safety. Luckily, there were no children in the public gallery at the time. Unfortunately, no troublemaker was brought to justice.

What people expect of their representatives whom they pay through the nose to maintain is not just milk for their children at Parliament once in a way but the milk of human kindness, which alone will prevent the politicians from enriching themselves at the expense of the public, especially malnourished children. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene was heard, the other day, telling an Opposition MP to take cognisance of the schoolchildren in the gallery and ask pointed questions without beating about the bush. He deserves praise for his efforts to knock some sense into the MPs. He finds himself in an unenviable position. It will be interesting to know what schoolchildren thought last November when they saw the then Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa struggling to read out the budget speech. We suggest that schoolchildren be given milk when they leave Parliament lest they should throw it up in the public gallery in case of gutwrenching scenes taking place in the Chamber: