Sri Lanka It's Happening

July 25, 2005

Unlike many capital cities colombo is small and a disproportionate number of politicians live in Colombo (usually at state expense). So it's not uncommon for the electors to bump into the duly elected. Usually such encounters result in bruises and lost teeth for the voters.

Why? most ministers are thugs and their bodyguards are violent thugs. It's quite common to see uniformed men in Land Rovers bulldozing their way through traffic machine guns waving. Other vehicles of the voters get pushed to the edge of the road and end up with a few scratches. That is getting off lightly.

If a voter is unfortunate enough to run into the person he voted at a night spot he is in for trouble. The minister (or his son or brother or distant cousin) is likely to be inebriated (or worse) and will likely throw a few punches. The crooked and gutless and spineless cops will refuse to entertain your complaint.

You may say people get their just deserts. They should not have voted these common criminals into power. But in the case of the night club incidence of yesterday where the victim was a policeman. And since the policeman did confront the culprit it's probably not just deserts.

The minister in question was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters at the last election. But the dictator came to his rescue. She forced a duly elected member of parliament to resign so that this thug could be accomodated in the house. Then soon afterwards he was made a minister.

Posted by raditha at July 25, 2005 3:08 AM