Sundays are usually the busiest days of a working MP who has both to husband an electorate and as is the case now due to the preference voting system, has to travel throughout the District to ensure that people know him in the whole area, where he can expect to garner votes at an election.
For the Gamapaha District MP, today we had allocated to the Ja Ela constituency, to go around with two local, one Pradeshiya Sabha and another a Provincial Councillor to go about distributing items.
The first stop was at a fairly large Sunday School, of over 900 students namely at the Deepaduththamarama Purana Vihare in Nivandama, where 5 steel desks for the school were given as one is shown in the first picture.
The second was giving a water tank to a very small, you can see all the students above, of a Sunday School that is held in the open for lack of any buildings. It was one of the smallest temples around with a great need for improvements, and this was one that requested a tank for storing water both for the school and the priest.
We then proceeded to a Baptist Church which was over 170 years old, to which we also gave chairs as shown in the photo above.
After we were hosted to a scrumptious lunch by Mr Ranjit Govinna, a teacher at St Benedicts College, Colombo, we spent the afternoon giving sports equipment to sports clubs in the area.
The photo above shows some boys holding onto the equipment they had just been given and photo below shows, a carrom board at another place where the local kids can play.
Then there was the obligatory funeral house of a long standing party supporter, who had died at a ripe old age, and it was good to show solidarity with a faithful supporter even after his passing.
After a further gift of a volley ball, and cricket bats and balls at two other places, see photos below we were able to get out of the area by 5.30pm. It was there fore a long day since 9am.
The day ended when I got back today Sunday the 13th of May after 10.30pm
I am not sure wheter giving away carrom boards, bats, and balls is the best use of a national level politicians weekend. But then again, if that's what people ask for and vote on what else can be expected. I guess every country gets the politicians its people deserve.
ReplyDeleteTharu, I cannot disagree with you. Every country gets politicians that the mass deserve. That’s how it works everywhere. That’s why “The Silvaas” are in the SL parliament and that’s why we still have “nidhan horu” in the top job.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with both comments, as it is merely a method by which a peoples representative engages with the people. Most of the politicians get on stages and talk. They have no idea of what the people feel. A chance to meet them with some small item that may be of use to them, and which has been requested by them, is a way to connect, listen to people's opinions of other matters and generally be seen with the electors.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to forget those who voted for you, and ignore them,as is the case with the majority of politicians who just go around giving money at election time, with promises they cannot keep and hoodwinking them.
So please give credit where it is due for someone who actually makes an attempt at spending time at the village level and listens to what people have to say.
The small value of bats and balls are just incidental!
Its not a bad thing but people should not get used to turning to politicians for handouts.
ReplyDeleteObviously none of the comments come from people who know how the system works and why.
ReplyDeleteAn MP is given around Rs5M a year (Govt MP's some times get billions) to spend on specific types of programs of common interest. Not for any individual benefit.
So opposition politicians can only do a limited amount with it. So for practical purposes they have to distribute it together with the local Pradeshiya Sabha members who DO NOT get any allocation, to a local chosen entity.
As the Govt. does not help Churches and Temples, giving them something they need is considered politically helpful, as they have a captive audience and also get a lot of goodwill this way.
Similarly sports clubs that have been registered with the local Divisional Secretariat are also permitted to receive sports goods.
The problem is that these funds are all handled by the Divisional Secretariats which are completely corrupt. They use the MP allocation and gives him a Volley Ball for Rs3,200 when one can buy the same one wholesale in Pettah for Rs 2,400. SO both the MP and the recipients are cheated as the say the Rs5000 allocated only buys one volley ball and a stump set and a few bats instead of at least two volley balls and two nets.
If this budget is removed then we go back to MPs having to fund everything from own money, thus restricting politics to only the rich. This system was adopted to permit some fair play where politicians could do something from a fund from the state.
Govt politicians are in the habit of giving generous things like village halls and stadia as they are given huge amounts out of different funds and therefore get more mileage with the voter.
A sure fire way to promote their long life. Everything is hijacked from the opposition who have to strive to do some small thing and hope the voter sees common sense and supports the hard worker and person who is actually engaged in meeting the peoples needs.
The problem with your country just shows right here right in this thread. Five of you responded but all five of you have difference of opinions and / or trying to be outweighing the other or something like that.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of working together to achieve some goal isn’t in you. There are many reasons for that traditionally in your Sri Lanka society. Some of those reason are:
1. Your nation was never invaded by someone like Hitler.
2. Your nation is a heterogenic society (very bad)
3. Your nation has negativity embedded in the entire society (super bad)
4. Your nation is infested with disease so large that will take decades to correct – BP (bi –polar almost everyone has it, a product of your Monks. I like monks but do not like any who preach negativity which almost all of them)
So, rather than becoming Plato types on a Cricket Bat, just go out there and help those who are lifting the Cricket Bats.
The person who is worthwhile really or to be admired is the one who actually builds something, not the one who puts the theory together and hope that someone else builds it. In fact the one builds it is the one who even knows the theory well grounded, the other who just only contemplated on the theory is important but not as important as the one who built the house. Most of the time one who built the house did not even waste time theorizing , he / she just jumped in there and stated building. If I had to hire someone, and I was checking the curriculum vita of those two, then I would always hire the one who built the house not the other.
The reason why your nation is infested with corruption that is so disgusting is due to the society being heterogenic. The best way to resolve this (since there almost never would be another world war and your nation has no way to become strong) is the start leaning fast how to make your society a homorganic one. Then you can establish law and order fairly easily.
Your nation would be worse than Ethiopia today even in 2012 if UK people had not built you rail roads and some universities. And my friend, that is the reality of you two races Sinhala and Tamil. And it is your job to change it in the next couple of decades and become useful to world just like most other nations in this world.
I wish there was more space allowed in these pages to write ………..sigh…..
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