Is this the new change many have aspired to have?

After a very long time, I met a person at a funeral house immediately after the recent general elections and knowing that the person is a avid supporter of the present regime, I was determine not to talk any politics.

Once the initial greetings and chit chat were over, the person knowing that I was a grower and selling my stuffs, wanted to how the business was running.

Because of my previous resolution I was initially a bit reluctant to talk facts but when the person prodded me more, I had no avenue to turn than to disclose that doing business in this country is not as easy as one would thought.

I confessed how I failed to register a company, the very first step to be taken if anyone is thinking of doing any business.

The failure is partly due to my stubbornness and but mostly due to corrupt officials who instead of helping a business, instead throw more and more obstacles in one’s path with only one intention in their mind.

It is no secret that coloured papers with different types of birds are printed can do wonders and clear any obstacle in anyone’s way.

However, I was reluctant to let my birds fly away from my nest on principles and not that I was short of coloured papers with different types of birds printed on them.

Hearing that, the person said the present regime encourages more and more exports and that I should get in touch with the newly appointed task force to investigate such malpractices and punish those who are still engage in them.

I politely agreed to get in touch with this new whatever the force, just to pacify and silence my friend than anything else, knowing well how still works in this place.

Then the person turned to boasting.

How he had accompanied a friend of this person who is also a businessman looking for an opportunity to see the infamous Mr 10% and how he had promised to help my friend’s friend in his request.

When I mentioned that I have no desire to use any backdoor to gain any undue advantages and rather prefer to stay on the usual and available right way, common to all.

The person was shocked and with a resignation in the face said to me that if I do not get such a help from an influential person in a very high place, I would never successes.

Finally I totally agree with that person on one thing.

I rather would stay a poor and free man all my life than become someone who would suck up to another to gain any undue advantages for me or for my family.

I wanted to ask this person, whether is that the change that most of you aspired and expected from the new regime, but opted to say nothing in the end because of two things.

The first one is that I value our decades old friendship more and wanted it to stay intact than taking a mere useless political stand points.

The second one is that even if I strive so hard with facts, it would not be possible to remove the coloured glass the person had been wearing for a long time.

If nothing is working out without flaunting the coloured papers with birds printed on them and or using a backdoor contacts, then I could not help thinking, is this the new change many have aspired to have?

Ministry of බුළත් විට & අලි වැට

Someone I spoke to regarding these new ministries appointed said, these new ministries are given according to the present needs of the country and he further mentioned the අලි වැට to drive his point home.

The need to have an effective control and remedy over human animal conflict is needed but why it can't be dealt by the ministry of Wild life is puzzling.

Take the existing ministry under the ministry of Defense and improve that creating a totally new ministry is just a waste of money only.

 

Now I see more and more people are selling බුළත් විට on roadsides to get a few extra bucks to supplement their ever shrinking and meager household incomes thanks to Corona and this government's foolish monetary policies.

I am sure now we can expect a new  ministry called ministry of බුළත් විට, just like the අලි වැට soon.

Another need of the hour.

 

What a disappointment it was.

 

It proves the fact that Small minds think SMALL right again.

Do the Number Counts Really Tally?

 I was looking at the voting numbers in the recently concluded General Election and I see an anomaly in them.

Let’s break them down for easy deciphering.

Here is the comparison.

In the Presidential Election 2019, GR received 6.9 million votes and SP received 5.5 million votes.

In the General Election 2020, the party that had the GR’s blessing received 6.8 million and the decrease in numbers is so minute, which can be attributed to many valid reasons.

Surprisingly, SP received on 2.7 million votes in the General Election 2020 and the decrease in numbers is enormous. 

It is almost half of what he has received in the Presidential election.

No doubt the turnover for this was much lesser than the Presidential elections.

It was 85 % in the PE and has come down to 75 % in the GE.

Let's say, around 1.4 million less votes in total count due to lesser turnover factor and then this reduction should have to be felt across the board and not only on SP's vote count.

Does anyone want to believe that 2.7  million of former supporters, dissatisfied with him and have abstained from casting their votes? 

Then what is the likely plausible answer to this missing more than 2 million votes.

I am sure your guess is as good as mine known the past track record of the ruling regime.

Stop Crying Tomorrow

I was not a government servant but seeing their plight in the recent past, I was expecting them to respond differently.

Allowances were reduced, overtime payments were not paid and to add injury to insult, part of their meager salary have been taken away even without their proper consent.

I am no longer an overseas foreign worker and their plight is similar to the government servants.

Their privileges have been drastically reduced and now they want to come back to their own country because most have lost their jobs due to Covid outbreak but the authorities are not allowing them to return instead they are being ridiculed as undesirables with no value to the country.

How many have died over there due to Covid and taking one’s own life due to financial worries due to lose of work are everyone’s guess.

Sure enough, they have no voice and or voting rights while staying over there but what about their loved ones still in this country.

How their relatives and loved ones have expressed their displeasure of the way the debacle was tackled is surprising to say the least.

I have never been a grower but how the farmers had to suffer without having fertilizer to use is a public secret.

They were willing to pay and not wanted it Free as promised but yet even with money, it was not available.

Despite all that, their respond at the poll was disappointing.

Because of strict import controls, soon many small and medium scale industries will be closed and many with no income.

I am sure they too have not realized the looming disaster.

Same goes with senior citizens too.

After serving the country for at least three to four decades and hoping to live the rest of the life peacefully by their meager savings in banks too were brutally shattered with drastic reduction of bank deposit rates across the board.

But looking at the emerging general election results I doubt that anyone of those categories have responded accordingly.

If they have missed a golden opportunity for them to be heard themselves, so be it.

Stop crying tomorrow is my only advise to all of them.