Daniel Inouye, A senator in the US Senate representing the state of Hawaii for the past 50 years, and the current longest serving Senator died a few days
ago, and at his memorial, which President Obama, the Hawaiian born Commander in
Chief attended on Sunday. There were some interesting insights from Senator Harry Reid, of Nevada who is the Senate Majority Leader.
“Both Senator Daniel Inouye and Senator Bob
Dole (now retired but reaching 90 this year) were senior Senators of the US
Senate.( with Dole running for President also.) They were both soldiers in the
Second World War, fighting the Germans in Italy, Inouye being in the Japanese
American brigade, they both lost the use of their right hands (both being right
handed) at adjoining Hills within a week of each other. They convalesced
together in the same hospital in Michigan for over 21months when recovering
from their injuries."
Inouye’s hopes of becoming a Medical
Surgeon were dashed due to his losing his right arm, and so went into politics!
I wanted to point this out to people today,
to give them an idea of the stature of the some of the Senators in the United States.
I seem to remember Senator Bob Kerrey from Nebraska a SEAL, also lost a lower leg
in the Vietnam War, and of course who could forget Senator John MaCain from Arizona
who was an abused prisoner of war in Vietnam for so many years. I wish to add that
Senator John Kerry now in line to be the Secretary of State of the US was a Vietnam
War veteran winning A silver star, a bronze star and three purple hearts!
These are all people who served their country
in stints and not as professional soldiers all their lives, as the US had conscription
and National Service requiring their service on behalf of their country.
To put this in perspective we have just one
former forces person in our 225 member Parliament, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera
MP representing the UPFA in the Digamadulla District comes to mind. The latter was
however a career soldier who retired and then became a politician.
We have more and more young men retiring from
the forces after their minimum service period, who should consider going into politics,
not like Sarath Fonseka who has been a soldier his whole working life, as they are
disciplined people who will probably be able to bring some stature to Parliament
which is lacking in professions and forces personnel who have had a life outside
politics, and law.
3 comments:
I thought we agreed that all of the professionals worth their salt have left our beautiful shores already for the lands of the white skinned peoples
it would be a sad devolution for Sri Lanka to follow the same course as the United States where their military men take over the political organs of the state, turning the state into a militaristic one. The United States of America has been at CONTINUOUS war for all of your lifetime and mine, and remains at war. Any wonder why? Please let them keep their militarized system for themselves and not spread it around the world. Kalpanakaranna!!
you have made a valid point regarding the British-style parliamentary system, which is dominated by political parties and seniority. In order to get anywhere in politics, once must be fully loyal to the positions of the party and also gain seniority through years of service to the party and its positions. this party system, particularly when it is dominated by 2 parties, is utterly destructive of individual thinking and initiative which is a big problem if you want society to be dynamic.
also it breeds professional political classes which have no experience in the real world which is problematic as you have pointed out.
so the solution is to bring in dynamic people from outside of the party into parliament, which is what the national list was supposed to be about, if i'm not mistaken. this needs to be improved upon.
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