King Sasanka – Sri Lankan Writer & Retired Aviation Professional.

When the new regime announced the cancellation of pension payments for parliamentarians, the public reaction was electric.  The majority went "Gaga," seeing it as a righteous strike against a privileged class. It is a populistically brilliant move, cutting costs and punishing an unpopular elite.  However, while the public cheers, few pause to calculate the long-term adverse ramifications. By stripping away financial security from public office, we risk creating a paradox where a move intended to punish elites actually entrenches them, dragging us back toward a feudal structure that modern democracies, and indeed, socialist movements, fought tirelessly to destroy. The Return to Feudalism The most dangerous consequence of abolishing parliamentary benefits is the "gentrification" of politics. In the 19th century, the British Chartist movement demanded payment for Members of Parliament (MPs) not to enrich politicians, but to enable the working class to serve. Be...

Recently, I was involved in some heated discussions on one of the internet forums and some of the irritant topics to many that I brought to surface where the level of corruptions, lack of transparency, foreign debts and the efforts to smother the freedom of speech. None of the participants were able to give any convincing answers, instead restored to whipping some other political parties, some other religious establishments and those who represent minorities’ interests up. One personal experience I quoted was one of my friends was trying to bribe his daughter in to a super grade school in Colombo, when the same person openly says that the corruption is a thing in the past and the new man in the driving seat has already seen to it. When confronted, why he then needed such an intervention, when everything is fixed already, he meekly said, otherwise she would be left behind (not the very same words). His house is like a shrine dedicated to his man now on the driving seat, yet privately he...