Politics is to Men, in a similar fashion that Jewelry is to Women!

I was at a workshop over the weekend where we asked a young Man (26yrs) of what he thought of the Political System in Sri Lanka. He simply said that “men in Sri Lanka tend to embrace Politics in a similar vein to how Women embrace Jewelry and wear it. He said there was nothing more he could say about it.

This coming from an intelligent youth, is a telling reminder to our Politicians that if they go on like this, they will be nothing more than irrelevant jokers preening themselves for attention grabbing gimmicks with nothing on the inside.

In a society which is so politically minded, with Politics being a topic of conversation almost in every living room, for young people to damn this whole episode in such a derisory fashion means, they have hit rock bottom both as a career and as one of stature.

Ironically it is just this very cynical aspect of politics that the US Aid Program, was encouraging NGOs to apply for funding for voter education and knowledge enhancement of the power of the ballot and the collective will that can be expressed by the exercise of the franchise.

I will not get into the argument about how it is in the USA where there is a high incidence of non participation in elections, and why are they interfering in ours. Remember that in the USA politics affects very little of a person’s daily existence as policies are not changed haphazardly and there are just a few main issues that dominate politics and they are well explained and there is equal weight given to both sides on how they are promoted, publicized and pursued.

Casting aside, the issue of if they have any right to interfere in our domestic political process, the mere suggestion of the Defense Secretary that all NGOs WILL be investigated, if they are given funds under this program means simply that the present administration, (GOSL) does not want the  voter to be educated!  Lest they would educate the GOSL out of office!

The GOSL stance is that we are a participatory democracy with universal franchise for nearing on a century and so the voters are highly educated. So much so that they have actually made a conscious decision to allow, murderers, rapists, drug lords and other common criminals to enter the political arena. It is these people then who will decide whether to punish a police officer who attempts to enforce the law, or encourage the proliferation of drug trafficking, no matter the laws in the statute books!