Sri Lanka - Land Like.......I don't kn ow

We Sri Lankans love to boast about our aged old history. Rich in culture we say, but do we realy have embedded value in to our identity? I still can't figure it out. We are the most selfish community second to the Indians.

Starting from our childhood we learn to lie. The day we enter in to the school we start everything by lying and we keep on continuing to do so by letting our kids go through the same process. The most affected community is the middle class community who barely surviving with the income they generate and solely depending on our government schools. So aren't we lying about our identity...

Starting from our childhood we learnt to cheat. We witness our parents falsifying the documents and we do the same thing for our children. May be we didn't realize it, and the same way our children will find it later. We were taught how violate the traffic rules because otherwise you will not survive in this society. That is a common guidance and a justification made. There are several in this nature. Eat as soon as the buffet is open....serve as much as you can...not as much as you want....don't think about others...Don't help other in their studies....because than they will go to university....mind you that was one of the guidance given to me by my tuition masters.

So we grew up and start to work. You must take bribes, as well as you talk against it too..as much as possible. They come in different ways. Gifts, treats parties donations.....if you don't take it someone else will take it...that is the justification for that.

What ever we do we can nicely justify it.. My boss had a nice argument for this....I asked why do people justify their extra marital affairs saying that you are helping that woman to satisfy her needs. So my boss said he had asked a question from Buddhist monk regarding the third commandment in Buddhism (adultery). He has said....if living with one woman is the normal in the present context..living with other women is bad.....on the contrary, if at all, living with so many is the accepted norm in the society then the opposite is wrong.....just live with the accepted norm in the society.

So lying, cheating is accepted in the society why not live with it....if talking about those thing also accepted by the society in the same way that we execute those thing what will be the society looks like??

We talk something and do something completely different....Its Sri Lanka....A Land Like no other....I really don't know.....................

Election System of Sri Lanka

There is no actual credibility in to any of the government services of Sri Lanka. May be it’s a hoax created by the private sector and the “International Community” in the government perspective. However as common man I feel that it’s correct to certain extent. The basic concept we lack in the government system is transparency. Also it does not entertain equality too. Why I say that is very simple. Just imagine if you want to get something done from the Government, the first and the foremost thing that you will look in to is “Whom to be bribed”, Do I have any contacts?, Through whom I can Influence etc etc. However much you project your self as a person against these things it really happens when you had to go in to a government institution for something. So much so the system is that starting from the Head up to the last in the hierarchy is “BRIBABLE”. It happened to me many a times. Of course I didn’t bribe. But I used contacts.

My intention to write this article is based on this. Why do we have lost trust in this system? Out of all the systems election system was projecting as place that transparency was maintained better than the other places. Nowadays that too is questionable. My intention is to project a system that helps to maintain transparency and at the end of the day the voters can be satisfied with the results.

1. When you vote, does it really being counted??

2. How do you know whether your vote is rejected??

3. How can you be sure that there is no malpractice on voting and counting??

I think the real owners of the results are the general public. Not the politicians. Because it’s their franchise and they have the right to know the in an out of it. When the Election Commissioner him self says that, “if you feel like that the system is wrong please seek the refuge of the courts”, shows the failure in the system. Besides it was long before we have lost faith in the judiciary system in the country. The classic example is the popular story about Colvin R De Silva, who won a case by freeing the accused for a mere word play. Can you really establish justice like that? It really questions judiciary system of the whole world.

The answer lies nowhere but in the IT industry. I heard that plans have been brought to establish a voting system using IT but failed in the Parliamentary level. We have lost faith in the Judiciary system, if we lose faith in the election system the only chance of establishing the Executive and the Legislative will be a failure. In turn the whole country will fail because of the manipulation of our right to vote.

I don’t know why the Parliament fails to establish a system like that. But I think the people in the IT industry are not making a real effort establish this thing. Because I think it’s their obligation and the best CSR project that they can do.

What if a situation like the following exists in our system? You go to the poling booth and there is a machine like thing in front of you (Like an ATM). You put your thumb print and you are being identified. In this way you need not to vote from your electorate it self. So you get all the details pertaining to the election. The parties, candidates for that matter their qualifications etc. will be shown in the screen. So you select your preference and cast the vote electronically (its basically touch system). You get a confirmation from the machine whether it has been counted or rejected. If it’s rejected another option to vote should be given. And also you should get the option to intentional rejection of the vote.

Once after voting you get a receipt for what you did. You can keep a copy and the other copy is inserted to the ballot box. You can go for a manual count if there is disparity. So what you need is an ATM and 196 boxes at a place.

On this way the counting is automated, voting is automated and very less human touch involve that leads to contradiction.

“Our politicians are not corrupt. Only the failure of the system is exploited for benefits”

This was what I felt.

© rehan deen March 2010 rehandeen@yahoo.com