A DEFUNCT GOVERNMENT INC.    

There is a time to bow out – and that time has come and gone!

If you are helming a public company (let’s call it Government Inc.) that is all but bankrupt and your shareholders (i.e. the public) ask you to quit, you would respect their wishes and bow out with dignity.

If you believe that failures are the pillars of success, you’d set about doing something different in pursuit of success; and this will only come your way if you learn lessons from your failures – especially those that have affected others like never before.

And if the others did sweet nothing to stop the company folding up, they should do the same – be they part of the management (such as the cabinet, government etc.), or very nearly ran the company to the ground in the past (the previous government) or simply watched from the sidelines in the hope of grabbing power when the company in question was facing bankruptcy (other members of the opposition), they must go too.

Some seven years ago, we were promised yahapalanaya (good governance) but saw nothing that even resembled it. Instead, we were witness to a state of slumber, a constitutional war, the spectre of terrorism and of course, more of our national pastime: corruption.

So the people decided that enough is enough, and voted for ‘vistas of prosperity and splendour,’ which has turned out to be a nightmare – so much so that the aragalaya has shifted from the streets to our homes, in the wake of shortages that have brought the nation to its knees in what is for all intents and purposes a nationwide lockdown.

It would surely be very wrong for them to ignore the shareholders’ wishes, and expect to live like they did on pay and perks kindly provided by their subjects. It would be criminal if in addition to this, they have robbed the company despite its flagging fortunes, some of which were caused by external factors such as the pandemic, a war in Europe, a global economic meltdown, the cost of black gold and food – and thus, record inflation.

It would also be wrong for them to play deaf to the people’s struggle, citing the mandate that ‘democracy’ delivered at past elections and maintaining that it continues to hold true – despite the fact that millions of people have been out on the streets, and at Independence Square and Galle Face, at varying degrees of intensity since early April – that was when the people decided that enough is enough… again!

The poor subjects (that’s us, the people, whose company we are talking about) have had enough and can hardly breathe, which means they have no life and no life support. So if you (that’s all of you) have any pride or dignity left, please call it a day – your time has been up for too long.

We, the people, want an end to our misery.

– Editor-in-Chief