Wealthy beggars

Saturday 3rd September, 2022

Never a dull day in Parliament, where its members debate everything except what requires their immediate attention. On Wednesday, some of them wasted much of their time on a debate on begging, of all things. This particular subject may look quite appropriate, given the situation they and their leaders have landed the county in, over the years, but they were supposed to discuss the interim budget, which may have warmed the cockles of the hearts of a group of visiting IMF representatives more than anyone else’s.

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha went ballistic in the House in response to a derisive comment his former Cabinet colleague, Wimal Weerawansa, had made on the manner in which he had received a consignment of food aid from the US. Weerawansa said Premajayantha, wearing a full suit, had symbolically received the donation by cupping his hands like a beggar for the US diplomats to pour some grain thereinto. A visibly incensed Premajayantha tore into Weerawansa, disputing the latter’s claim and declaring that he was even ready to panhandle, for the sake of the poor children, whose nutritional needs had to be taken care of.

We thought modern-day Sri Lankan politics and beggary were conjoined twins. Begging has become a lucrative trade in this country, and many ‘mendicants’ even own big houses and vehicles and have huge bank balances. An elderly beggar, taken into custody by the railway security personnel for being a nuisance to commuters, in March 2019, admitted that he had utilised the funds raised from begging to build three houses for his daughters and was constructing a fourth one to rent out. There are some male beggars who claim to be suffering from serious chronic diseases that prevent them from engaging in any physical activity to eke out a living, and passionately appeal for funds to look after their young children numbering four or five each. On listening to their tales of woe, one cannot but ask oneself how come they have managed to father so many children if they cannot exert themselves! There are beggar mudalalis who effectively market others’ disabilities or deformities and pitiable looks, and make enough money to live in clover. Most Sri Lankan politicians are doing likewise; the nation’s misery has been a kind of Golkonda for them and their progeny who have been leading the life of Riley without doing any work. They even siphon off part of foreign aid to pay for their expensive lifestyles.

Sri Lanka is a mendicant state in the eyes of other nations, but its political leaders are having a whale of a time. Look at the luxurious Parliament, where our honourable representatives are paid for meeting, gormandizing and fighting, and doing little legislative work if they have any spare time. Their super luxury vehicles and other attractive perks will make even their counterparts in affluent countries green with envy. In Sweden, all MPs, save the Prime Minister, have to use public transport. They are given only bus and train passes; they are free to use private vehicles at their own expense. No wonder those countries have achieved progress and their people’s rights are protected.

While Minister Premajayantha was ranting on, someone from the Opposition benches asked him about a missing fuel shipment during his tenure as the Petroleum Minister in a previous government. Denying any responsibility for it, he blamed it on the UNP. But one may recall that when he was the Minister of Petroleum Industries, in 2011, Premajayantha gave some evasive answers about a consignment of petrol found to be substandard. The problem with such rackets is that they are never investigated properly and the perpetrators thereof including politicians and bureaucrats get off scot-free. If those petroleum frauds had been probed and the culprits brought to justice then, politicians and other crooks would not have been able to line their pockets by purchasing Russian oil and coal at much higher prices than those in the international market at present.

Premajayantha claimed that he lived in a small house. One may recall that he travelled back home in a trishaw after losing his ministerial post due to a tirade against the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government at the Delkanda fair, early this year; he sought to have the public believe that he was without the wherewithal to buy a vehicle. It may be recalled that Basil Rajapaksa also once claimed he had no assets other than a few milch cows!

The country is bankrupt, and why can’t Minister Premajayantha continue to travel in a trishaw and urge his ministerial colleagues to do likewise, thereby helping keep the cost of maintaining ministers low so that savings therefrom could be utilised to provide midday meals to schoolchildren? He and other ministers are duty-bound to lead lives of austerity by way of penance because they and the governments led by their political parties have been responsible for the country’s bankruptcy and people’s suffering.