The year that was: thrashing towards NPP’s thriving nation

AS the first year of a House commandeered by the NPP has come round, it is timely, appropriate and opportune to examine the track record of a tyro government in the 365 days just past.

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It is timely because the traditional honeymoon period, in which a people content from only recently casting the ballot cut a newbie administration a gracious slice of charitable slack, is now over.

And there is no more appropriate a motive than keeping the NPP, led by the JVP, those vociferous critics of past regimes, accountable in just and similar vein.

Also opportune because the National People’s Power produced a fait accompli to coincide with its first anniversary in parliament and in power to justify its erstwhile campaign trail promises.

In the form or shape of the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Bill, it was recently passed in parliament by a resounding majority of 150 (66.6%) votes.

While the Government for its part presented it as part of keeping its election pledges, opposition voices sulked that this was yet another example of political revenge — a claim that no doubt resonated with the former chief executives who were now compelled to vacate their state-funded stately homes.

If some of the ironies therein were lost on the hoi polloi, perhaps this is one space in which to rehearse the same.

Former head of state CBK — pursuing punctuality as always, but somehow finding timeliness to outpace her by a country mile — asked for more time to leave: two months!

Immediate past president Ranil would have mixed feelings about the diktat of a state to whose rescue he sprang not yet time out of mind.

Perhaps M. Sira might have muttered a choice bit from Shakespeare, namely “how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have an ungrateful child”. Except, substitute “citizenry”?