Christmas decorations and poverty in Colombo! - EDITORIAL

The bus plying from Kaduwela to Colpetty- bearing the route number 177- stopped briefly at Rajagiriya to pick more passengers. That was when an individual boarded the bus and accepted a mobile phone that he had left in the bus which was now being returned to him by the driver. When the mobile phone owner offered some money to the driver for keeping his phone safe, the conductor of the bus intervened and said “If we are going to accept money as a reward, then we need not have given you back your phone”. This incident happened on December 5 (yesterday) and the time was around 10.00 am. 

We value the services rendered to the society by a person engaged as a bus driver. But in terms of considering the top jobs that are available, a bus driver may not be earning a huge pay pack. But this bus driver stood by some self-imposed policies; meaning he didn’t wish to profit from people’s faults. 

These are times when people are forced to do a second or part-time job to make ends meet. These are hard times when economists are talking about there being poverty not only in rural areas, but in central Colombo as well. 

Just the other day, Colombo district NPP Parliamentarian Samanmalee Gunasinghe highlighted Colombo’s plight during a debate in Parliament when backing the Government’s policy statement. She said that the government’s economic strategy was people focused. 

 We are getting ready for Christmas and decorations in Colombo baffle us. But these buildings, lighted up with bulbs in the night, can mask the poverty out there. It’s good to know that the NPP led regime has plans to alleviate poverty not only among the rural population, but will also take into account people living in urban areas. 

In the publication titled ‘Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2024, under the theme ‘Economic Scars of Multiple Crises: From Data to Policy’  published by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), it is revealed that the government’s VAT revision places a heavier burden on the lower income householders. These householders are now forced to pay 10% of their income in the form of VAT. And until about the year 2026, Sri Lankan householders’ spending budgets would remain stressed. This is understood when one studies the World Bank’s report titled ‘Sri Lanka Development Update’ where it is predicted that poverty in Sri Lanka is estimated to remain above 22% until 2026. 

There was talk when this new regime took over that the rich would be taxed heavily and benefits to the poor would be increased. Sri Lanka can be inclined towards governing this nation on the teachings of socialism. The government has that choice. But the NPP government can take a cue from societies where the rich take care of the poor. There is a culture of being aware of those in need which is labelled as community social responsibility. YouTube users who follow posts by a certain popular biology teacher came to know that this male teacher had helped a less affluent female student who had asked for a free card. More than being in poverty, what had melted this teacher’s heart was when the girl had revealed that the experiences she was enduring with her parents weren’t suitable to be revealed in public. The teacher at that moment had offered to be the ‘guardian’ of this child. This regime must come to know of such inspiring stories; because the rich people in society need not always be labelled as ‘capitalists’ who drive workers to slavery. 

According to the Department of Census and Statistics data released in August, 2023 40% of the districts had remained below the national poverty line for as long 90 consecutive months. As much as we needed a new political culture we also need a broader focus when it comes to political thinking. 

These tuition masters often deliver ‘gems’ when speaking to their students via YouTube. Popular Sinhala teacher Upul Shantha Sannasgala once said, ‘There is not only the poor man’s miseries out there that contribute to storytelling; the rich people also have to deal with their miseries’.