The Island Editorial

Doctors and conductors

Tuesday 17th November 2015

 

Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has torn into some of his ministerial colleagues. They are not even fit to be bus conductors, a Sinhala daily has quoted him as saying. One may argue that Dr. Senaratne has made no revelation. But, his considered opinion of some of his fellow ministers serves to confirm the widely held view of parliamentarians in general and members of the Cabinet in particular. However, it may be wrong to say that ministers are less competent than bus conductors where siphoning off funds is concerned.

Bus workers are said to be of the view that a conductor who does not buy a gold chain within three months of securing employment is not worth his salt. Ministers don’t take that long to amass enough wealth for them to live in clover for the rest of their lives!

Last Parliament had nearly 150 members who had failed the GCE A/L examination and about 90 of them had sat the GCE O/L unsuccessfully. Now, according to what the Cabinet Spokesman himself tells us the present Parliament is no better. What the future holds for a country which has misfits governing it is not difficult to foresee.

The Budget 2016 is scheduled to be presented to Parliament shortly. Legislators are required to take part in the debate thereon, which will go on for days. The ministers, Dr. Senaratne has lambasted, won’t be able to make head or tail of the budget. How can they discuss issues concerning public finances? No wonder they either keep away during crucial parliamentary debates or make much noise and say very little. A cantankerous minister of the Rajapaksa government cut a pathetic figure when he was challenged by the then Opposition firebrand Dayasiri Jayasekera to define real income during a TV debate on a budget a few years ago. The question is whether a country can manage its affairs with such politicians at the levers of power.

Doctors turned lawmakers find themselves in the exalted company of misfits and imbeciles who have become ministers by securing nominations to contest elections and pulling the wool over the eyes of the voting public. If the holier-than-thou political party leaders including the self-appointed champions of good governance had prevented those elements from entering the fray and, instead, nominated some intelligent, capable persons to contest elections the country could have achieved some progress.

The blame for burdening the country with ministers not fit to be bus conductors should be apportioned to the leaders of the SLFP-led UPFA and the UNP-led coalition. They promised to field only capable, decent men and women at the Aug. 17 general election, didn’t they? They have reneged on that solemn pledge. Putting the right people in the right jobs is half the battle in developing a country as evident from Singapore’s success story.

Minister Senaratne has also said the government has within its ranks prethas (hungry ghosts) and kumbhandas (misshapen spirits). Being one of the architects of the present government, he knows the ruling party MPs and ministers for what they really are. He has stressed the need to banish them. We thought only the leaders of the previous government were credulous enough to solicit the services of exorcists and astrologers. However, if the government is troubled by evil spirits, it has to do something about them.

Some of the prethas, kumbhandas and other such spirits which assume the human form and go places in politics are difficult to get rid of. People succeed in exorcising them with the help of their franchise at elections. But, some of those evil spirits make a comeback through the medium called the National List which has become a stinking sewer!