Who cares for the poor? Your guess is as good as mine

It’s now a year since the NPP government was overwhelmingly voted into power at the 2024 general elections. The new government in the run-up to the general election promised much, but today has little to show.

With hunger and malnutrition stalking the land at the time, the NPP promised to bring down the cost of living. It described the International Monetary Fund agreement signed by past president Wickremesinghe as being one of the main causes of rampant povertyand promised to renegotiate the agreement.

One year later however, the poor continue to be poor and live in extremely distressing conditions. UNICEF in its report on Lanka for 2025 points out that approximately one in four under-five-year-olds are not growing as they should. The report adds one in six babies are born with low birth weight. The obvious conclusion is that the economic crisis has made it harder for families to access adequate healthy food.Making matters worse, today the government has gone back on its word regarding renegotiating the IMF agreement and has become one of its chief proponents. Sadly, the political opposition in parliament, rather than coming together to pressurise government to tackle this important issue, continues bickering among themselves. For opposition political parties, the main problem seems to be the question of who would lead a combined opposition –not problems faced by the people.

The health sector remains in a mess. Doctors are threatening trade union action if a solution to their problems is not proposed within 48 hours. The country faces a critical shortage of specialist doctors, with experts calling for around 4,000 specialists by 2025, while the current number is around 2,000.

Doctors also claim essential drugs are in short supply with many varieties of medicines not available at government hospitals. This is especially so in the case of cancer patients as well as those suffering heart diseases, diabetes and replacement surgeries where hospitals are faced with severe shortages.

Resultantly, patients at government hospitals are often called to purchase these necessities at their own expense from private agencies at astronomical prices.Since those seeking treatment at government hospitals are from the poorer sections of the community, they are unable to meet these costs.

If these problems are not corrected now, patients from poorer backgrounds may soon be faced with a situation where they have no alternative but ‘to simply lie down and die’.

While it could be that a few corrupt individuals are sabotaging the control, purchase and distribution of medicinal drugs, politicians in government or in the parliamentary opposition seem unable or unwilling to drop their differences to tackle these issues. Doctors themselves have become frustrated and are now threatening to take trade union action if the government does not propose a time-bound solution to problems in the health sector, as well as to salary anomalies of the doctors themselves. Teachers and school principals too, have threatened trade union action if outstanding issues faced by them are not attended to sooner rather than later.

UNICEF

While ‘we the people’ understand most of the problems faced by our present rulers were caused by past governments, the NPP regime cannot now try to wash its hands of past misdeeds. They too joined hands with different past regimes and are also responsible for the corruption and misrule during those days.

On the subject of corruption and misrule, however, the present NPP is living up to its word. From the highest in the land, to ex-ministers, to ex-deputy ministers and other high ranking state bureaucrats, government has let the law take its course without interference. Today, many of these individuals are either in remand custody, charged with specific crimes or languish in prison.

While the parliamentary opposition has as yet to lead demonstrations against the cost of living, lack of medicaments and malnutrition among our children, they were quick to come together against the arrest and prosecution of past political leaders. In fact, it was the arrest of immediate past president Wickremesinghe which brought the diverse parties of the opposition together, NOT the people’s plight.

Last week’s joint opposition rally at Nugegoda was a spin off from that incident and even there the main opposition groups stayed away. So who cares for the people?

Then again, a single year in power cannot solve decades of corruption, abuse and misrule.

(Source - DailyMirror)