the lawlessness in the land is out of control as it is by those in power

If you go to any town or village in Sri Lanka, the residents will say that theft and drug dealing is a huge problem in their areas and when they find the culprit and hand them over to the police, it is only a matter of time when that person is released by the OIC ( Office In Charge) of the police station on the orders of a local politician to whom he has to pay homage.

This activity today is sadly not the exception in Sri Lanka but the rule and it hits home to me as I live in a village and I am daily told of these problems and villagers are in fear of reporting them to the police as they know the culprits and know that they are part of the underworld team of the local politician.

Why I ask do they vote for this politician? Well their answer is that he promises to do things and technically he is a local thug who can make things happen, even though he makes his money from underworld or other illegal activities.

It is now believed that whatever party comes to power, the same thing will occur. In order for us to stop this rot we must in future ensure that we elect politicians with better morals and standards to these high places, but it seems few with these abilities are able to harness the funds to get elected, as underworld money is easy to come by and therefore easy to spend on political campaigns in hoodwinking the elector.

Elections for the Pradeshiya Sabhas of at least 64 areas will take place on July 23rd including my local area. The rot has started and the infighting amongst thugs has also started. It is a dirty fight, all for votes. The elector is again sold a story that they seem unable to disbelieve as we seem to be a nation in hope that we will all benefit from this promise, and if it comes true then that will be great.

Those who do not make wild promises don't get elected because there is no hope for the elector in an honest man as he has not raised their level of selfishness to voting levels.

How do we have a democracy under such blatant abuse of power and the power of lying endemic in our society? I don't have an answer to this question. If you have any ideas please share them with me.

I ache for my country to get ahead in a moral and social self, but with the current practices see little hope of this wish being fulfilled!