Social Cancer

Whenever we Sri Lankans look around, at a newspaper or the evening news, we see the farce that is our politics. It’s something that people like to chat about as well; “this minister did this”, “that minister was involved” and so on. So it is very easy to point fingers at our governing officials, but then again is it really their fault only?

In a democratic country is it not the people who elects a government into power? Is it not we who continue to tolerate their antiques and not do anything about it when we should? So what then is the point of us living in a democracy, a system where we have the rights to make changes for the betterment of our society? A democracy where everyone is not actively engaged, is no democracy at all and the very essence of democracy which is freedom, is lost.

So lets just trace it backwards starting from the country’s current political situation which is just a chum bucket full of corruption, flawed policies, nepotism, injustice, bloodshed and a lot more. What has led to this is the very actions of the individuals whom the majority has trusted to govern the country and fulfill the better interests of it’s people. Srilanka’s political atmosphere for the past few decades has been clouded with shady politics and maniacal individuals, but the majority of the people have done nothing to stop them, leaving the few who do try to be singled out and swiftly cut down.

So then comes the question as to how twenty million people can just watch a mere two thousand or so going about raping the country and their futures. And with that we take a step further back as to how they got into power in the first place.

Consider the naive voting choices due to the lack of education starting at one generation. This lack of education of course is caused by general apathy and unpatriotic thinking that leads to the wrong people being elected into the wrong places.  This apathy at the root of it all is like a cancer, originating at a cellular level and aggravating till the entire organism dies.

In the same way, this apathy started with maybe a certain segment of one generation and has slowly spread to subsequent generations thereby destroying the very foundations of governance and threatening the future. Repercussions of this extend from poverty to underdevelopment to the loss of a great many lives. Being the social cancer it is, apathy will just continue spreading across the generations, leading to more adverse effects on the country and this will just keep on getting worse till there is not a vestige of freedom left. When will people realize what’s happening and fight back?

The youth of this generation should step up and make right the mistakes of previous generations. It’s a now or never situation, time to counter apathy or watch and let it capitulate our beautiful country.

Lasantha David

Lasantha is a core group member of Beyond Borders.  His opinions are his own.