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Highway robbery

A month has elapsed since the elections were over and a new government was formed.

However, some former Ministers and Deputy Ministers are still keeping state vehicles for their personal use.

It is estimated that over 600 vehicles belonging to Ministries, statutory bodies and government departments are yet to be handed over.

Legally as well as morally they have no right to keep these vehicles. They are public property. It is reported that some vehicles are missing or are hidden. This amounts to hijacking or open highway robbery.

Some of these vehicles were used for electioneering, an act prohibited by law. It is also said that some were used by elements that caused election violence.

Those that took these vehicles should bear full responsibility. All responsible for this highway robbery should be brought before the courts and duly punished.

Before the elections, the then government published news stories about vehicles that were allegedly not returned by Ministers who defected to the Opposition, which means that they too considered it inappropriate, to say the least.

Then, how could they themselves do the same mistake or wrong act. There cannot be two standards for the PA and the UNF.

The misuse of public property should be condemned in the strongest terms, irrespective of party loyalties or social standing of the culprits.

All politicians are now talking about a new political culture. They are loudly pronouncing their allegiance to it.

Yet judging by the conduct of some of them they do not seem to have understood what that culture means.

Surely, keeping state vehicles without due authority does not belong to that culture. It is sad to note that politicians fallen from grace are trying to retain the same arrogance of power they exhibited while in the government.

It is up to President Kumaratunga to discipline these unholy elements. She should ask them to obey the law of the land. At the same time, as Head of State she should direct the police to hunt for the missing vehicles and rein in the culprits.

A new political culture should emphasize the accountability of politicians to the people. That is the only way they could build people's trust and ensure their continuation in politics.

A politician is a servant of the people and not the master. Unfortunately those who lie prostrate before the Punchi Singhos at election time become their masters the moment they are elected.

This metamorphosis of the servant into the master and the master into the servant should end, if democracy is to have any meaning for the ordinary masses.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 10.01.2002:Government: a new life-style?
  

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