A Govt. with priorities mixed up and messed up - EDITORIAL

hile walking paths and arcades are being built in the city of Colombo with much zest and state sponsorship, the mother of three in Bissobandaragama, Hingurakgoda, ropes down a 30-foot well to dig out some water to quench the thirst of her children. The farmers in Rajarata still drink poison for not being able to pay their bank loans while the education and health sectors -- things we have been talking so highly about --
are deteriorating.




In parallel however, roads and highways are being built amid a plethora of corruption charges on borrowed money at higher commercial interest rates. A multi-million -dollar airport has been built in the southern part of the country -- again the money is borrowed -- which has a monthly income of a little over Rs.16,000. Deyata Kirula, a state-sponsored exhibition, which is more focused on cutting down the trees in the remote area where it is held than exhibiting anything, is held every year, squandering millions of rupees of public money.

In the meantime, economic data has allegedly been massaged to show a growth rate the country never had, and the Central Bank boasts about higher foreign reserves, without mentioning that they are borrowed. A financial sector consolidation programme has been initiated by the Central Bank which generously issued finance licences to various parties during the past few years for reasons best known to it.

These few examples clearly elucidate that the government has got its priorities mixed up or rather messed up. The government has not been able to comprehend the urgent need to deepen the reservoirs and canals -- the life-blood of the agrarian society which still is the largest section of the population -- so that the farmers have water throughout the year for cultivation.

If this happens, the mother in Bissobandaragama will not need to rope down herself to a bottomless well in search of a cup of water for her children. The need for the deepening of the agri-based water bodies on a regular basis has been pointed out by experts many a time to collect more rain water and utilize it in a more sustainable manner.

However, unfortunately the Government seems to be finding it more important to put up flashy shopping malls and other requirements of cosmopolitan cities in a few selected townships in the country. It is disheartening to see a mother scraping the bottom of a well to find some drinking water while the authorities plan to build a showy city, reclaiming the sea in front of Galle Face Green with F-1 racing tracks.

It appears that the people’s government which was elected in 2005, headed by a leader with strong roots in this country, has been hijacked by the so-called one percent to enrich themselves.