Saturday 24th August, 2024

Has Christmas already arrived? This is the question Sri Lankans must be asking themselves on seeing politicians’ boundless generosity; the self-proclaimed do-gooders in kapati suits are giving away various things including state-owned lands and houses.

Government politicians had been saying, until very recently, that they could not consider workers’ demand for a pay hike because they were without funds, but they have suddenly realised that they can grant a salary increase.

Elections are the best of times in Sri Lanka because the people are given some relief; they are also the worst of times, for the cost of such relief is recovered ‘with interest’ after elections through tax and tariff hikes. The much-dreaded imputed rental tax, which will send the public reeling again, is lurking around the corner.

In the estate sector, political parties contesting the upcoming presidential election are distributing artificial toddy to attract plantation workers to their rallies, we are told. The Election Commission is reported to have received a formal complaint to that effect. This deplorable practice, however, is not of recent origin although some estate sector trade unions have sought to deny the reports that toddy is used to entice workers to political events.

Alcoholism is the bane of the plantation community and one of the main causes of abject poverty in the estate sector. Sadly, it has gone unaddressed. Plantation workers are whipsawed by alcoholism and poverty, but successive governments have only paid lip service to the need to improve their lot; nothing has been done to empower them economically and politically. There cannot be a graver sin than to exploit these people for political purposes and treat them as mere ‘hands’ that pluck tea leaves, tap rubber, fill the war chests of exploitative political parties, and deliver block votes to crafty politicians who live in clover. The poor have had to settle for politicians’ saccharine smiles and rotgut during elections.

Politics, rotgut and rice are as inseparable as conjoined triplets, in Sri Lanka. Liquor is among the goods showered on poor voters in the run-up to elections. State Minister Chamara Sampath Dissanayake, who has sided with President Ranil Wickremesinghe, is obsessed with liquor, which he seems to consider the elixir of happiness. He speaks ad nauseam about arrack in Parliament and has embarked on a mission to have its price slashed. He says making arrack available at affordable prices is the way to keep the public happy. Sri Lankan women, who constitute about 52 percent of the country’s population, do not consume liquor at all, and the same goes for children. How do Dissanayake and others of his ilk propose to keep the women and children happy in this country?

The incumbent government has been distributing rice free of charge during the past several months with an eye to the presidential election, and now the poor workers in the plantation areas are being given artificial toddy, which is injurious to their health. This is how the self-righteous politicians who promise a radical departure from traditional politics are trying to muster popular support to win elections!

State Minister of Finance Tilak Siyambalapitiya has gone on record as saying that the government has issued more than 500 liquor permits during the past few years and the excise revenue from liquor is on the rise. The government has also promised duty-free vehicles for the MPs, and the ministers are living the life of Riley while the people are struggling to feed and clothe their children. Its policy exemplifies a popular political slogan in this country—emathilata kaar, golyanta baar, janathawata soor (‘cars for ministers, liquor bars for their henchmen and inebriation for the public’).