By W. Vishnu Gupta –

W. Vishnu Gupta

Kleptocracy; government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed. It becomes most evil when the government becomes an instrument of nepotism in a country such as Sri Lanka. The non-violent protest launched by innocent oppressed and confused citizens mostly consist of mothers, fathers, and the youth on the evening of March 31^st, 2022, near the private residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ended up according to the media division of the president, a violent protest of some extremists. Thanks to media covering the incident especially, Hiru and Sirasa the entire world saw what happened in the peaceful protest of majority Sinhalese in this suburb of Colombo. A picture of a mother carrying her baby, sleeping on her shoulder and joining the peaceful rally should bring tears to the eyes of every decent human being, most likely, the mother could not bear the agony of watching her children crying for milk or she was unable to prepare the food for the kids as there was no cooking gas and electricity or worst of all she may come looking for her husband.

Economic Security

Whatever the explanation given by the public security minister and the PMD, the protesters were asking to live in a country with economic security. Judging by the spontaneous uprisings and protest rallies of average citizens taking place in every region of the country, it is obvious the present government has failed to provide economic security in the country, that is afford ability of individuals, households, or communities to cover their essential needs sustainably and with dignity. Food, shelter, clothing, and hygiene qualify as essential needs, as does the related expenditure; the essential means needed to earn a living, and the associated costs. Since 1955, the successive governments paid very little attention to understand and strengthen the key livelihood processes in Sri Lanka. Because they were preoccupied with corrupt management practices and accumulating enormous wealth with the help of disempowered state officials, incredibly lethargic and inept judiciary, and wealthy unscrupulous businessmen. The negligence of these key essential livelihood processes that includes a) Food consumption pattern, which deals with food habits and whether their diet meet nutritional requirements. Hence demanding rice for staple diet, milk powder for children, cooking gas are not slogans of some extremists arrived in Mirihana as claimed by PMD b) Food production, the farmers, fishermen and other food producers are given necessary land, raw material, technology and implements to produce food. c) Income, create or facilitate an environment where people have jobs or any other legitimate means to earn enough money to cover their basic expenses d) Living conditions: The people must be protected against or insured against natural disasters, catastrophic health crises such as pandemic. e) Capacity: The government is paying enough attention on people’s economic security needs, review it periodically as nation’s number one priority.

The government of Rajapaksas were not different from all other previous governments. They neglected the above basic needs of the people and unfortunately none of the political parties have paid attention to the economic security of the people. The budget allocations since 2019 proves that the politicians have no appetite for economic security of the people; on the other-hand billions and billions of rupees were allocated on highway developments, airport development, military equipment, sports development, useless presidential task forces and presidential investigation commissions plus luxury imported items.

Enough is Enough

Apparently, (225 +1) in Sri Lankan politics have perhaps due to their ignorance or disdain towards the average citizens have not realized that nationally, economic security refers to a country’s ability to pursue its own developmental goals for its economy, and it is often explicitly linked to national security. They specifically those who graduated from the Colleges of Political Trickeries founded by SWRDB and JRJ woke up suddenly from deep slumber on March 31^st, 2022, when residents in Nugegoda area (Mirihana) throng to the streets demanding the right to live with dignity, the president panicked and declared emergency and curfew in the country. Fortunately, the entire international community witnessed this historic event through the electronic media and left no room for the political spin doctors to twist the facts, many western emissaries expressed that the democratic rights of the people should not be trampled, and the government must be sensitive to the just and fair demands of the citizens.

Three days later, the cabinet of ministers have jointly tendered the resignation from their respective ministerial responsibilities, and it remains to be seen what the next step of the President and Prime Minister will be. The people have said “Enough is Enough” and identified Rajapaksas as the reason for the national economic insecurity. In fact, (225+1) plus all those who assumed political leadership since 1955 were responsible for our economic insecurity and for precipitating JVP and LTTE insurrections in the past. Hopefully all politicians at least now understand that the economic security of a nation is explicitly connected to the national security.

Interim Solution

The proposed interim solution by some dejected group of politicians of the governing alliance is the only option left to Rajapaksas sans the thought of holding on to power with the help of military. A Military government is not feasible in a country where the literacy rate is more than 92% and, where religion plays a key role in every aspect of life of majority of citizens. Besides, the international community does not have any appetite for such a vile move knowing fully well who are the people responsible for misery in Sri Lanka. Hence an interim government lead by acceptable, less corrupt political leadership with genuine desire to establish economic security and promise to enact electoral reforms and hold the general election within a year may be the one and only option available to the President of Sri Lanka.

Kleptocracy, must come to an end very soon and the chauvinist politicians must understand that people will not tolerate their political antics any longer. There is no exception, all in (225+1) have entered the politics and the legislature through most vile jingoistic political practices and directly or indirectly have contributed to making the failed and bankrupt state of Sri Lanka. Finally, let us be reminded of a sutra from sacred Buddhist scripture about the actions of an individual. Vasala Sutra (Outcast Sutra) tells us

‘Na Jachcha Vasalohoti, Najachcha Hoti Bhraahmano,

Kamanna Vasalo hoti, Kammana Hoti Bhamanothi’

– A Person becomes an outcast or a brahmin by DEED and not by BIRTH -.

The extension of this sutra with a slight tweak is appropriate at this crucial period of Sri Lanka. The legislative, political, and executive actions of the present government will this week ultimately decide whether we will continue to be a nation of KLEPTOCRACY (linked to outcasts) or NOT.