By Saman Indrajith

JVP has called on youth to join its campaign to make Sri Lanka a better place to live in.Addressing the JVP-led NPP’s electorate organisation at Ambalantota recently, party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the youth had to fight for their righst instead of leaving the country.

“It could be done. You should not live as second class citizens in other countries. Instead, you must make this country a liveable place. For that purpose we must launch a struggle to change this system.

Once this political culture is changed, this country could be taken up to the level on par with other developed nations. None of those countries in the developed world had rulers similar to the thieves that we had been putting up with for the past 74 years. We must get rid of them and work to save this nation,” Dissanayake said.

He said that system changes should be introduced to all sectors to make them assets rather than liabilities on people. “One such is the state sector that should be made more efficient. Over the years, politicians have used the state sector to provide employment to their supporters. Out of every Rs. 100 coming into the treasury, Rs. 58 is spent on salaries and pensions of State sector employees. Every election application is accepted to provide employment opportunities,” he said recalling the manner the SLPP asked its supporters to fill out application forms for jobs at the Hambantota Port during the election period.

The state sector institutions are not organisations existing to merely provide employment to supporters of a particular political party. “Take the University of Sri Jayewardenepura for example. Political party supporters have been provided employment in excess of the requirement for entry-level jobs. There are 600 academic staff members at the university while it has over 4000 non-academic staff. Another example is Colombo Harbour. Five buses leave Matara daily with workers bound for the Colombo harbour after they have been employed by a politician who was from Matara while he was the Ports Minister,” Dissanayake said.

As it has been seen during the recent protests and agitations, people are demanding a system change. “However, nothing has really changed as far as the Government is concerned. The Government was still following the same old policies and corruption was rampant as before. Therefore the government should be sent home as a precursor of all other changes,” Dissanayake said.