The Budget (2nd reading) is passed with 75% voting for – what a led down!

IF YOU READ ANY OF THE PROPOSALS AND YOU HAVE A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE YOU WOULD NOT VOTE FOR IT - SO WHO DID?

It is yet another sad day in our sunny isle when Law Makers, voted in by the people, who cannot understand the 3 thick volume budget proposals given to them, vote without having a clue what they are voting for! This vote passed this evening in parliament with 156 voting for and 53 voting against.

It is an indication of the state of the Country, when there are none in Government who will vote their conscience for such a huge deficit, financed out of borrowings, throwing caution into the wind.

I have gone through the budget details with a fine tooth-comb and cannot find any justification for any of the allocations except that they are all full of overstuffed expenses and departments. After all the Rs10B allocated to the President’s office alone has Rs650Million allocated for international travel and Rs5 million allocated to both the ex President and the widow of an ex President, namely Hema Premadasa. They do not get enough to even repair their vehicles, let alone afford to run them. This type of meanness in light of the gross extravagance of Tax Payer’s money is NOT tolerated in any other civilized country, especially not in India where even the Governing Party’s MP would question anything untoward, as otherwise they would be answerable to their constituencies.

The fact that our MPs, not answerable to anyone, do not know how to read these reports, come to their own conclusions is a mystery. The Govt. manages to sweep everything under the carpet. Even MPs such as DEW Gunesekera, who one would have in previous lives thought would be the conscience of a Egalitarian State could in all conscience pass such a waste of funds, as he is the Chairman of COPE is beyond my comprehension.

In short it is not voted on by people who know about good and evil and justice and injustice. They are just frightened of losing their perks and their lives, because their leader has got them imprisoned in a gilded chamber. You could not pay me to be a member of this Governing party as I would not be able to answer to my maker if ever there was a day of judgment about why I permitted the wholesale waste of public finances on unnecessary expense, when the nation was struggling and finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Knowing this fact, and knowing that the borrowings exceed total expenditure, it is unconscionable that anyone could permit such excess.