For shame!

Monday, 17 June 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SRI Lanka’s curse regarding politicians is a long and heartbreaking one with an entire smorgasbord on offer for the people. They are a pestilence, it is safe to say, on the country with their corruption, insufferable arrogance and complete hoggishness – to use a competent word. The latest example of their excesses regrettably comes from the north western province this time, with a female public servant forced to kneel and beg for forgiveness for having the boldness to advice a politician’s child.

North Western Provincial Council member Ananda Sarath Kumara had allegedly verbally assaulted and forced a female teacher to kneel before him on Friday for advising his daughter on a disciplinary matter.

According to the Police, the teacher who is in charge of discipline in the school had advised the Provincial Councillor’s daughter on Thursday afternoon and it had allegedly prompted the councillor to visit the school and harass the teacher. Reports complete with pictures, showed the politician swaggering about with his entourage of thugs in complete disregard to even the basest morals, bringing to mind Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva’s escapade of tying a public official to a tree.

The only glimmer of decency was given by the police who arrested Kumara and is due to produce him in Court on Tuesday. Whether this will have any constructive results in anyone’s guess at this point but the type of politicians in this country can hardly fall to a lower level – we hope.

Of course, this incident is just one result of overwhelming power and impunity handed out time and again to politicians and their hangers on. The deep politicisation of the public service has meant that once proud professionals such as teachers who were revered in society are little more than puppets in the hands of politicians now. Even though they have attempted to break this by forming unions, these too are politicised and any efforts to free them from this yoke by appointing independent commissions to oversee postings and transfers have been fruitless.

What is evident from this is that politicians, whether they be provincial or otherwise, firmly believe in their bone marrow that they are above everyone’s censure, especially those that voted them into power. This is the grossest and most demeaning understanding of democracy but it is intentionally practiced and promoted in Sri Lanka. The relations of politicians have also grabbed a bit of this power and feel that they too should be allowed to move above the law.

The suspects of the Kahawatta murder, the regrettable incidents in the Baratha Lakshman Premachandra murder and perhaps the most shaming of all, the killing of a tourist in Tangalle on Christmas Day and the vicious raping of his girlfriend, are all evidence of this malady. They are the diseased fruits of a system that has lost all respect and not only fails to protect the people but subjugates and humiliates them.

The absolute power and impunity in Sri Lanka’s political structure has eroded the moral and ethical blueprint of society as a whole and yet, it is allowed to endure because people do not act. There is a saying that people get the government they deserve; the refusal of Sri Lankans to demand better from their representatives has brought the entire country to a sorry pass indeed and for that, we all need to kneel in shame.