Sajith, wake up!

Power cuts lasting seven hours, kilometres long lines for petrol, the same for cooking gas and milk food. Buses stalling on roads for lack of fuel. Throngs of young applicants at the passport office. Empty shelves at supermarkets and pharmacies. Farmers setting fire to their fields, fishermen protesting on the streets. Strikes by every category of public servants. Poor, elderly patients turned away from government hospitals.

A clueless, bankrupt government that has run out of ideas. Or did not have any to begin with, other than a greed for power, a license to fleece and steal. Whose left hand does not know what the right hand does. Surviving from day to day. Buying fuel on monthly loans, like running up credit at the village sillara kadey.

The hopeless despair of ordinary people. A father, unable to feed his children, killing himself. Children set off to school hungry, because rice and bread are out of reach.

Soon, desperate people will storm grocery stores, create a run on banks as the rupee sinks, and steal crops from fields and gardens.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition delivers long speeches in Parliament, carried away by his own eloquence, speeches that remain merely rhetorical. Touring the country handing out cheques to temples (Really! Who cares at a time like this), and medical equipment to hospitals, a good deed, but with no impact on empty stomachs and lost hopes?

A nation crying for hands-on leadership, and Sajith Premadasa appears unable to provide it. Being Mr. Nice Guy doesn’t work anymore. What we need is a leader who can inspire people to pour out into the streets, to march onto Colombo, and lay siege to the lairs of the corrupt. As I write, Hirunika Premachadra has led a protest right onto the doorstep of the leader of the pack.

Sajith, ask people from all corners of the country to start marching now to Colombo. No need to ferry them in buses. They will be fed, clothed, cheered on, and joined by the suffering masses. You must lead from the front. Appeal to the police and the armed forces not to use illegal means to stop the marchers. If you get arrested, Sarath Fonseka or Champika Ranawaka will take over.

A few rats – Wimal, Gammanpila, et al – have been kicked out. Others are leaving the sinking ship. This is the time for action, not rhetoric.

Or, are you waiting for the JVP to take the initiative? Or, if the rumours are true, cutting deals with the ruling family?

GEORGE BRAINE