Vroom mania – II

Wednesday 29th May, 2024

The rewards of political power are not limited to status and privilege, especially in the developing world, where they include financial benefits, perks and privileges, and even impunity. They are among the main drivers in Sri Lankan politics, where self-seeking opportunists outnumber those with a genuine desire to serve the public.

The Parliament of Sri Lanka is characterised by frequent inquorate sittings, slanging matches and even brawls, where its members trade blows and abuse liberally. But they sink their political differences and work as one when it suits their purpose. They are now unitedly all out to obtain duty-free vehicle permits while the government is asking the public to continue to endure untold suffering and make more sacrifices in the name of economic recovery.

It has been reported that the MPs’ demand for duty-free vehicle permits is to be referred to President Ranil Wickremesinghe shortly. Chances are that their wish will be granted. After all, this is an election year.

One of the arguments being peddled in support of the issuance of duty-free vehicle permits to the MPs is that most of them have to travel long distances, and therefore they need private transport for reasons of convenience and flexibility. This line of reasoning is seriously flawed. There are hundreds of thousands of people who travel to Colombo from far-flung areas, in buses and trains, and the question is why their representatives, who call themselves the ‘servants of the people’ cannot do so. Some MPs claim that they face difficulties in using public transport in faraway places. If so, that is all the more reason why they must not be given duty-free vehicle permits, for they themselves are responsible for the woeful state of transport in their electorates.

The best way to have public transport developed is to make the MPs and top bureaucrats use it regularly and undergo the same suffering as the ordinary public who pays through the nose to maintain them. If the MPs in developed countries such as Sweden, where only the Prime Minister is given an official car, can travel in buses and trains, why can’t their counterparts in this bankrupt land do so?

It is being argued in some quarters that the MPs should be adequately remunerated and given attractive perks if educated, intelligent, talented and capable men and women are to be encouraged to take to politics. The proponents of this view point out that Lee Kuan Yew had the people’s representatives in Singapore paid top salaries, and remuneration commensurate with workload and responsibilities helps ensure probity and works as an efficacious antidote to corruption. This argument underpinned by meritocratic principles is not without merit, but what has enabled Singapore to tackle corruption and ensure justice and equity is the enthronement of the rule of law more than anything else. Singapore started paying high salaries for its MPs and ministers only after developing its economy. Above all, Singaporeans elect their representatives wisely, unlike Sri Lankans, who vote misfits into power and expect their country to be like Singapore only to be disappointed!

The MPs must share in their electors’ suffering, and those who refuse to do so during the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, which they themselves are responsible for, do not deserve to be called people’s representatives, much less re-elected.

If there are MPs who cannot travel in buses and trains with the ordinary public, whom they claim to represent and serve, let them be asked not to contest the next parliamentary election. The public has a responsibility to send them home come the next general election. There is nothing stupider than to elect self-serving misfits as MPs and then demand that they go home. The problem is best tackled at source.