Looking back, reviewing all that has gone before and all that is ahead, how prepared are we to face the stark realities that we have to???  We are facing economic issues of alarming proportions, poverty is widespread; the country is unable to repay the loans that have been raised and as a result, the cost of living has skyrocketed!!! 

The most affected seem to be those who live in rural areas simply because the average person today can own anything he/she wants to, because ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING IS AVAILABLE UNDER INSTALMENT PAYMENT SCHEMES!!!  That is the DEATH TRAP, though most of our people don’t perceive it that way!!!  The In Scene is LET’S HAVE IT ALL, IT IS FREELY AVAILABLE, REGARDLESS OF HOW IT IS GOING TO RUIN US EVENTUALLY!!!  One advertisement says you can now change your car as often as you change your clothes!!!  The sad part is that it is happening!!!  Those who want to show off are actually changing cars as often as they change their clothes!!!  Have they ever stopped to think what the horrendous result would be when they can’t pay???

Prices up; not salaries

It is possible that because consumer demand is dwindling it has become easy to lure them with instalment systems, particularly the young ones!!!  In most employment, the salaries paid are insufficient to meet the regular necessities of day to day living; therefore people have no alternative but to resort to borrowing or purchasing on instalment schemes!!!  Additionally, prices of all consumer items, whether they are groceries, clothes, toiletries or any other items that we humans use are up in price!!!  The same applies to medicines too, so where does one find some measure of relief???

Scam within scam

The Bond Scam and every other conceivable scam remains unsolved!!!  The Bond Scam in particular leaves too many unanswered questions like who recommended the appointment of Arjuna Mahendran as Governor of the Central Bank??? Why was Mahendran defended after the scam and UNP MPs asked to support Mahendran, despite public opinion being against him!!! Why were three UNP lawyers appointed to look into the workings of the Central Bank though they had no knowledge whatsoever of its workings!!!  More importantly, why hasn’t action been taken to bring Mahendran back to Sri Lanka and get him to account for the enormity of the crime he has allegedly committed???  Isn’t the silence of the BOND SCAM EERIE???  HOW IS IT THAT NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT OR DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT?  WHO OR WHAT ARE THEY COVERING UP AND WHY???

Navin says

Apparently, Navin Dissanayake has said, “Bond Scam rogues will be caught at some point”!!! The major point is at which point, when and where???  How long must this mockery continue and how much longer before something concrete is done about these wrongdoers???  When he was released from remand, Aloysius was at the wedding of Mahinda’s son!!!  It is very obvious that there are many connections in the Bond Scam!!!  There are so many participants and shareholders in this fraud, and that is precisely why the Opposition is not making an issue of this scam!!!  How did Perpetual Treasuries receive licence to operate???  With whom did Arjun Aloysius trade in the share market???  The Bond Commission has all this information and more and that is why it is not being made public!!!  Does the country NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED??? The report was completed using public funds; don’t the people have a right to know???  Even the Right to Information Act is IGNORED!!!  TOO MANY, FAR TOO MANY are involved in this scam and that is why it is not being presented, that is why it is not even being asked for!!!

Loss is Rupees One Trillion

In conclusion, I’d like to copy a relevant excerpt from Faraz Shauketaly’s article in NEWS FIRST “It appears that our legislators are all in the same boat. The current Opposition had the bond gate scam served up on a silver platter. Yet, we noted with dismay that it was left largely to the private media to mark the fourth anniversary of the Bond Scam.     

The opportunity to make a real change by taking the Bond Scam story from village to village by the Opposition has been lost. Perhaps it is too much of hard work for around the ninety-something members of the so-called Opposition who are ironically spearheaded by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. That Mr Rajapaksa is perhaps the single most popular figure in the country and will definitely have the ear of the people, makes understanding the Opposition inaction all the more galling. True the former Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal had a press conference and there were pockets of effort to highlight the sad fact that after four years of the greatest financial scam to affect this nation, there was no progress towards accountability, responsibility and legal action. The expert-calculated loss to the economy over thirty years of at least RS 1,000,000,000,000 (Rs One trillion) seemed to have flown over the head of Mr Rajapaksa.  Or was Mr Rajapaksa more concerned that the Prime Minister would re-start investigations against the Rajapaksa family with a renewed vigour that may end up in the incarceration of some members of his family – if he pressed ahead on the Bond scam?    

This is why we bemoan the fact that Sri Lanka is not only still very much high in the list of authoritarian governments but also that in Sri Lanka there is no real difference between those that are in Government and those in the Opposition.

The people will have to fend for themselves and may perhaps only have the private media for companionship and solace and to use as a form of civil defence against our mostly elected legislators. How terribly sad.”

Nothing on the drug front

Drugs, heroin, Kerala ganja, cocaine, ammunition, caches of arms, it goes on and on in every newspaper!!!  The people of this country felt a certain sense of security when the President said he would initiate the Death Penalty for drug peddlers and drug users, we all waited with bated breath for it to happen, sadly however nothing has happened up to date!!! Frighteningly, the drug and cocaine haul only seem to be increasing by the day!!! Have we been unable to find a Hangman/Hangwoman despite all the publicity that so many had applied and were waiting to tighten the rope, as it were???  Why is the death penalty being delayed for a crime as heinous as drugs??? 

-THE VOICE-