Local government elections, rising poverty and need for transparency

At this election, most of the candidates are persons living in close proximity to your homes. These people promise to get the small but necessary things done

Local government elections are around the corner. Our President, the Leader of the Opposition and all political parties big and small are busy canvassing our very important vote. Candidates are once again appearing at our doorstep. This time promising no changes to the Constitution, or bringing down the cost of living. 

Now they promise to clear garbage, get our clogged roadside drains cleared in a timely manner and make our cities clean again. At this election, most of the candidates are persons living in close proximity to your homes. These people promise to get the small but necessary things done. 

Our President however is on a different pane. He is traversing the country. He claims that control of local bodies by his party is essential for him to ensure that his post presidential and parliamentary election promises are fulfilled. He also warns against voting for candidates from political parties other than his own, threatening to withhold central government funds to local bodies not controlled by his political outfit. 

It made us wonder whether the president is trying to take our collective minds away from the promises he made prior to the presidential and parliamentary election held last year -bringing down the ever increasing cost of living etc. 

Contradicting this promise, the World Bank (WB) report released earlier this month reveals despite six months having passed since the Presidential election, the poverty situation in our country has risen alarmingly. The Bank’s Division Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka has warned that about a third of our countrymen and women remain in poverty. The report adds that the percentage of our children suffering from wasting and stunting over the last five years has increased.

In its election manifesto and pre-election pledges the government promised to bring down the cost of living to manageable levels. Sadly this has not happened. Now to make matters worse the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has insisted government to increase electricity tariffs in keeping with agreements signed with that organisation.

In simple language it means a further rise in the cost of living to a people unable to provide their children with two square meals a day.

Most people in this country understand that Lanka is caught within confinements of the IMF deal. They realise that if the IMF withdraws its Extended Funding Facility (EFF), the country could lose its international credit-worthiness and slide back into bankruptcy. 

We will then face once more, a situation of empty shop shelves, loss of fuel, lengthy queues around fuel stations, lack of medicine and a complete breakdown of the economy as in 2022. No one wants this. What our people need, is for government to ‘come clean’. It needs to publicly accept it promised more than it could deliver.

What we the people do not need, is for government to attempt to distract people’s attention away from their day to day difficulties. A particular Minister suddenly discovered the delay in completing an overhead bridge by the Kompannaveediya (Slave Island) Railway station was costing the country a huge daily loss. This is not rocket science.

Work on that project came to a stop during the time the country went bankrupt.  

Similarly, dragging the former President before the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) to explain mundane matters is not the way forward. People remember that the former president, helped drag the country from the brink of anarchy to where it stands today with a healthy dollar reserve. 

None can forget parents running hither and thither in search of food to feed their children. Even if food was available, there was no way to cook it, as LP gas was not available. The sick and disabled could scarcely forget the shortage of medicines. Nor could we forget the school closures and rolling power cuts of that era.

Today we have an additional problem. The US is imposing huge tariffs on our exports and reducing our foreign exchange earning capacity. In turn this will undermine our efforts to repay our external debt. Rather than distracting attention from growing problems, the government needs to unite our people to face this developing situation.