MOD Budget is NOT a holy cow! It is treachery at its highest level.

I have alluded to the fact that the top brass in the Tri Forces now spend their days standing behind their ministers on parade like peacocks and don’t really do anything else that is relevant to the security of this Country, let alone any assistance in developing the nation to the next level.

In short they are wasting the Nation’s wealth, and NO ONE dare question, as it sounds anti-patriotic. This is the height of absurdity. The Finance Minister, increased the allocation in the last Budget, instead of reducing it by at least Rs25B, worse they are continuing to build an extravagant HQ in Pelawatte. Why? Because the opposition will arouse the passionate but nonsensical masses that the security of this Country is threatened. What utter rot!

Granted the largest allocation is for wages, and they are certainly not low, which again has sucked out some needed hands from the pool of potential private sector workers needed to fill the 250,000 job vacancies.

Frankly give me 50 drones and a couple of lap tops, and I can protect the whole country from terrorism from internally sources or external threats. I need a few weapons that can be fired from the drones too, but I don’t need an Army of 400,000 servicemen. No way Jose!

In today’s ADA paper there was the statement that 250,000 Archeological Sites in Sri Lanka are protected by 100 people. Hey, come on! Use the forces to guard our heritage from looters and bounty hunters bent on stealing the remaining artifacts. It is really that simple. Why are we paying huge salaries for people to play mock warfare and parade around, and most of all waste a lot of very scarce money, that can be put to good use.   

Warfare is now sophisticated and can be done remotely. If you use personnel to fight ground warfare the results are that you incur high causalities against determined and organized terrorists. The best course on that is just to change the hearts and minds of potential terrorists and your problem will go away.

Seriously though in a Country that has 250,000 vacancies, having an equal amount of people surplus to requirement is a hold on this Country’s growth, and is definitely a barrier to growth and development. What is more treacherous, I cannot even contemplate!

It is time to reduce Govt. waste, and this item is ripe for serious pruning without any deleterious effects on the National Defence. We find ourselves in a precarious position due to the profligacy of the MR era spending on loans!