Anachronisms in dress and address in modern-day Lanka - EDITORIAL

Just last year we were in the midst of a financial crisis. Our government ran out of foreign currency and was unable to repay its international debts. The Government declared the country bankrupt and we as a nation had to put up with the indignity of seeing ourselves declared uncreditworthy. 
Today, even after seventy-five years of independence our country still depends on imports of the most basic items this country needs. Even our staple food (rice) is imported. Yet, even a stick stuck into the soil of this country grows without much care.
Our poultry farmers find it difficult to meet the egg production needs of our countrymen and women. Neither can they produce sufficient stock of poultry meat to sustain the needs of the population... and the reason behind this, is the excuse that we do not produce sufficient corn needed for chicken-food mix!
Despite enjoying climatic conditions and ancient reservoirs, which are the envy of many a nation, we are unable to grow sufficient quantities of veggies to feed our people. We have to import the commodity from India or another country which does not enjoy favourable climatic conditions as ours.
Oh dear! O dear! How is it possible that despite the availability of arable land, adequate rainfall, agricultural reservoirs, qualified agriculturists and aquaculturists, we have not been able to produce sufficient quantities of essential foodstuff to feed the nation?
The seas around us hold plentiful supplies of fish stock, so much so that Indian fishermen poach in our waters. Sadly, we have not been able to develop our fishing industry to avail our country of plentiful harvests, or to make available the product at a reasonable cost in the local market.
This has not been so always. At a given point we exported rice. More recently we were self-sufficient in rice production. During the ‘era of queues’ a reference to Ms Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Premiership, we grew large quantities of corn sufficient to meet the needs of poultry breeders who met the needs of both egg and meat production. We had also reached a level of self-sufficiency in rice production.
Yet... these are excuses trotted out by our elected representatives-Parliamentarians -on both sides of the aisle- whenever one side or the other is in office. 
Attired in sparkling white -the colour representing innocence and purity of purpose- our politicians trot out the same old excuse -lack of this that and the other and the urgent need to import, to meet present shortages.
Could it be that our representatives -attired in the raiments of white- signifying purity of purpose are more interested in commissions that could be earned through imported rice, veggies, eggs and poultry meat?  
Could it be that possible, commissions to be earned from the credit line extended by India to help our country out of the financial crisis, are more attractive than raising domestic production and making the country less dependent on imports for its food requirements?
Even during these days, with the Sword of Damocles dangling over our collective heads, we do not see any signs or attempts being made to dredge tanks, clear irrigation waterways and create conditions for farmers to produce the necessities to meet basic food requirements. 
But, this cannot be, as our parliamentarians are honourable men. If such was the case, their attire of white becomes an anachronism for it does not signify purity of purpose.
All around us, we see similar anachronisms, for example, in courthouses we see judges in wigs. What purpose a wig serves in a suffocating courtroom boggles the imagination. 
In an earlier era, the late Felix Dias Bandaranaike who served as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike did away with this court attire. 
But the formal courtroom dress was brought back under J.R. Jayewardene.
In speech, we refer to the Pope as Your Holiness, a Buddhist monk as Venerable, and a Mayor as Your Worship. Anachronistic forms of address all.
Whatever the reason, anachronisms belong to a bygone period, conspicuously old-fashioned and outdated.