FOOL’S PARADISE There is a fine line between supporting Sri Lanka’s annual celebration of independence on 4 February and choosing to remain on the fence. In the first instance, the show of military strength pays tribute to those who fought for our independence, following 146 years of colonial rule.

But the father of the nation and others who led the charge against the British back in 1948 may well be turning in their graves, wondering how we ended up where we are!

Few would argue that following the first decade or so of self-rule, Ceylon and now Sri Lanka has fallen from the skies to an abyss that it is unable to come out of – especially since in this election year, the people will have little choice but to vote for the very men and women who have failed to govern with any sense of decorum, let alone all the heavy baggage that they carry. And even if there are a few exceptions, we know full well that their bandwagon will be full of smiling assassins so to speak!

Indeed, it’s been like this for decades and there’s little if any light at the end of the tunnel.

Some of us – a small minority – choose not to vote while others often cast their ballot for ‘the best of a bad lot’ as they feel bound to exercise their ‘democratic franchise’ over and over again… even if ‘democracy’ has bestowed on those who are elected the power not only to make the law but break it as well! That privilege however, isn’t extended to the people of the land – who ironically, have made a habit of voting for miscreants and misfits who have plundered our precious nation’s riches over the decades.

So the sceptics wonder whether we are in fact ‘independent’ – or dependent on a political elite who call the shots and help themselves to countless kickbacks at the expense of taxpayers, donors and funding agencies, all of whom are seemingly helpless.

So while the economic crisis is being blamed for the brain drain, what is equally driving people away in search of cleaner pastures is their motherland’s now ingrained culture of bribery and corruption.

And of course, this curse is costing us dearly in terms of higher taxes, inefficient and bloated (yet dysfunctional) state services, and the need to borrow more and more.

Sadly, it looks very likely that we’re bracing ourselves to be fooled yet again by false promises and empty rhetoric in our precious nation’s transition from a true paradise to a fool’s paradise.

The bottom line is that we the people are still dependents.

– Editor-in-Chief