I think many of the youth in Sri Lanka today would agree with me if I were to state that we are all pretty much tired of our parents, uncles, aunts and neighbours complaining, on and on, about the rising cost of living, poor infrastructure and basic facilities, and the generally lackluster attitude to service shown by public servants.
True, these issues which give way to all these complaints and long faces are causing our elders to fret over the fact that they might not be able to sustain any quality of life in the future. They are justifiably worried about these issues because they have to feed, clothe and protect their beloved children, us. But would complaining about these issues actually help in the improvement of life in general? Has this complaining and incessant worrying ever caused the relevant authorities to make a concerted effort in improving infrastructure, public service, education and health? The answer is, for the most part, no.
When one seriously ponders on how the political system of our country really works, one is presented with a politician requesting votes to be elected to office by promising various projects aimed at the development of the general public’s life standards. Once voted in, the politician is rarely seen at all by the people who actually put him/her in their respective posts. Needless to say next to nothing is done with regard to fulfilling these campaign pledges. When election time is back on however, the politico is mighty interested about people’s welfare again and brags on about the supposed ‘services’ he rendered to the public.
The preceding paragraph is but a paraphrasing of the oft told story of how ‘democracy’, ‘politics’, and ‘governance’ work in Sri Lanka. I have mentioned it again, however, not to complain or state my view of how useless the system is in the country but merely to state, enough is enough. We as the youth of this country have heard enough of how the system runs, who runs it and how bad and inefficient it is. This has to stop and drastic measures have to be taken by us, as a responsible and free thinking society, to change this system radically enough so as to send a strong message to anyone trying to fool us that we cannot be fooled as easily as in the past.
One of the fundamental changes I aim to propose is that we, as concerned and responsible citizens of a world recognized, sovereign nation, must change ourselves and our attitudes in order to develop this country and take it forward in the global arena. I propose a more concerted effort in taking responsibility for our own actions that directly or indirectly affect the development of the nation. We must start governing our individual selves’ better without asking others to govern us. We must assume responsibility for the law and order of this country in its entirety before complaining about the high crime rate as a result of an inefficient police. We must be our own police. We must be the change we want to see. We must be the self-respecting ordinary citizen we want to see walking the streets of Lanka. It is up to us, and only us, to see that our brothers and sisters throughout the country obtain a decent education, reliable healthcare and better infrastructure, and not that someone in Sri Jayawardhanapura who has absolutely no regards as to what happens to normal ordinary human beings in the country.
We should start governing ourselves better, tarring our own village roads, erecting our own electricity wire posts, cleaning our own drains, washing our own public toilets, finding alternative and better transport methods of the present central government sponsored ones are ineffective. We must find our own, innovative and home-grown solutions to our own problems. Villages must learn to be self-sustaining without relying helplessly on government hand-outs. We, on our own should repair the damages on the roads and bridges that we use. We have to be self-sufficient as individuals, families, villages and societies instead on voting on, relying on, and complaining to the government. We must be our own government. A people’s government. What I am proposing is the gradual shifting from being citizens dependent on welfare of the government and foreign powers to being citizens dependent on ourselves. Only then would we have real progress anywhere. It is only when the people complaining about others’ mistakes shoulder on responsibility in solving their own problems will there be any development in Sri Lanka.
