If anybody still needed proof that the representatives who claimed to be holding the  legislative, executive and judicial powers of the people have turned their backs on them and have pursued a path of individual well-being, the developments during the past two weeks would have furnished enough evidence. All three wings of governance are packed with people who are corrupt, incapable and self-centred. The legislature has been sold to multi billion scammers while the executive remains so engrossed in a battle for survival and future preservation. The Judiciary, well, they need a lot of mettle to win the confidence that has been lost with regard to public perspective.   

Imagine the scenario when the former President says that the PM calls Prez a rogue and vice versa; that 118 have been called rogues while the fact that he himself was called a rogue once, which led to his ignominious removal, is forgotten. The rub is that he doesn’t say that he isn’t a rogue. Simply that it has now been forgotten that he was branded a rogue by the present governing lot. After all, how can the pot call the kettle black?   

The parliamentarians who have been in the payroll of Bond scammers think it a trivial matter that they received cheques from these dubious businessmen

On whose side are they ?

Joining the parliamentary debate on the ETI Fixed Deposit crisis, the JVP Leader asked one crucial question i.e. when it comes to the rights of the deposit holders of ETI and their group of companies as opposed to the interests of the Directors and owners of those companies, on whose side the public representatives were? This is a question that might sound redundant in a country where the representatives do champion the rights of the public. Yet things are so different in this nick of the woods, isn’t it?   

The top three national leaders of this country have lost their credibility beyond reparation, but do not seem to have the decency to admit it. All three are like the proverbial king who walked naked in public yet feigned to be ceremoniously dressed with the most precious of garments. All three are very old, worn out and out of sync with regard to what this nation needs to pull itself out of the socio political and economic quagmire it has fallen into. A fresh face with a non political mindset aimed at developing this country while not sacrificing the hard won liberties for a democratic way of life is a burning need of the hour. They have not set up a credible second string leadership, either, a thing they seem to consider a threat and anathema to their interest of coming or remaining in power.   

The way politics are done, or more aptly put, played, has not taken the vast segments of our society anywhere; a superficial increase in per capita income is a misnomer created by highly concentrated wealth in a select few. Then again that filthy lucre finds itself in the corridors of power, as revelations in the case against Arjun Aloysius et al fallen into indicates clearly.   

What the law abiding citizen submits, the wealthy manipulates by a sleight of hand

The list becomes longer

While The Speaker has agreed to reveal the names of those representatives of the people who have had telephone conversations with those dubious individuals, while being members of the COPE committee and thus being privy to some of the highly sensitive details with regard to investigations, he, nevertheless refuses that there is a list of individuals at high places, which the media says includes Ministers, Parliamentarians, from both sides of the divide, Public servants, Police officers etc. who are in the payroll of big time gamers.   

Investigations are revealing the true nature of politics in particular and governance in general; it’s clear that what turns the wheels of these public representatives is the ill gotten and filthy lucre

Investigations are revealing the true nature of politics in particular and governance in general; it’s clear that what turns the wheels of these public representatives is the ill gotten and filthy lucre and not the public aspirations by any stretch of the imagination.   

As I pointed out in the last column, the threat posed by armed militancy both in the North and the South to the sovereignty of this nation is now replaced by a more sinister and illusive assailant. Those who are armed with hoards of ill-gotten cash and wealth have found in roads into the very heart of governance. The betrayal of the people’s aspiration by the parliamentarians and ministers is surely, but the tip of the iceberg. 

 
Might of filthy lucre

Might seems to be the norm that twists the hands of those who are perched comfortably and ceremoniously in the legislative, executive and judicial wings of the state. Unlike the DJV or the Black Tigers who attacked security installations of the state with military hardware, these illusive assailants are already inside the sacred temple of governance, either by themselves or through their cronies. They hold the strings, they stage-manage the political game and call all the cards!   

People going to vote for their representatives at parliament and lower bodies, their extravagant and almost subservient respect to courts, their submission to law enforcing agencies are, but one great farce which is played by the public to fool themselves. Where the small man trembles, the mighty scorn with disdain; what the law abiding citizen submits, the wealthy manipulates by a sleight of hand. The ceremonious formalities of the rule of law are nothing but a box office level comedy! 

The top three national leaders of this country have lost their credibility beyond reparation, but do not seem to have the decency to admit it.

 
Cleansing the Parliament?

There is very little doubt that politicians of all size shape and colour, whether blue, green or red have eaten the filthy morsels that fall from the tables of the shady billionaires. If one trembled at the figure of 118, as the number of MP s who have been happy recipients of the ‘perpetual’ lucre, I am quite sure, there is more to come. When Dear Old DEW, the former COPE Chairman, makes a fervent appeal to ‘cleanse’ the Parliament of these scumbags who are corrupt to the core, I hope , the noble gentleman, knows the magnitude of the task at hand. In my mind it would take nothing short of the ‘purges’ conducted during the Stalinist Era ( with wrong motives and sinister repercussions, of course) to cleanse our nation of this dirt, that man our august institutions of governance.   

But the Stalin who lurks in the dark, scares the hell out of a lot of us, doesn’t he? By ‘us’ I do not simply mean the ordinary citizen. Did I ?