Misplaced priorities

Sri Lanka has a very ‘promising’ government and a perennially protesting Opposition.

- 

The government makes various promises, which are like piecrusts made to be broken. The Opposition in a perpetual state of agitation bursts into protests at the drop of a hat. The two sides have been clashing in Parliament instead of sinking their political differences and cooperating at least in the aftermath of a disaster.

The Opposition has requested Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to probe the government’s alleged failure to mitigate the impact of Cyclone Ditwah despite repeated warnings issued by the Meteorology Department and the Irrigation Department. The government is determined to avoid a fate similar to that which befell the Yahapalana government following the Easter Sunday terror attacks, which became the undoing of that dysfunctional regime. It is therefore very unlikely to meet the Opposition’s demand at issue. Even if it agrees to appoint a PSC to probe its own alleged lapses, by any chance, it will not allow an Opposition MP to chair the committee and will go all out to frustrate its rivals’ efforts to ruin its political future.