SOCIETY: “Of “Short Skirts”,.. “Fuel Strikes”…and Aesop



BY: Chrishmal Warnasuriya.



My mental explosion came when I saw (or heard) the Hon. Minister responsible for the dissemination of petroleum products claiming on national TV last night that there couldn’t be a fuel shortage – why; because of the number of vehicles he saw on the road. His logic was that if there was such a shortage (as was alleged) those vehicles couldn’t be running! This comes in the wake of another of his cabinet colleagues responsible for healthcare claiming recently something to the context that the spread of the dengue menace was being invited by those wearing “short skirts”; that the relevant mosquito (Aedes aegypti I believe) only attacked wearers of such apparel! So his answer to the epidemic was to do away with all the micro minis – watch out fashion industry!!!

I can go on and on, but this is just “three much”; I just had to vent my frustration out, so here goes;


Freedom of Expression & Speech & Hubert H. Humphrey:

Article 14 (1) (a) of our 2nd Republican Constitution (1978) allows all citizens of this great nation (even politicians) the right to free speech and expression. I would have assumed however that this should necessarily be exercised with caution, lest we depict who we truly are and lo and behold, disclose our true identity. I would have thought further, that being in the game of politics one should be even more careful when opening one’s mouth to utter something than those commoners like us, afford a bit of time between the flashing brain cells and the urge of the tongue and vocal chords, for the grey matter in-between to do their job; however this obviously does not seem to be so, and it appears that politics immune one to a lot of things, even the commonly accepted faculties of general intelligence.
Thus whilst allowing our beloved leaders their constitutional freedom, I suppose once again we (you and I less important beings) must do the harder work by hearkening to Humphrey, who writes that “the right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously”!

So, following on the Hon. Minister’s logic, if there was such a fuel shortage, there just couldn’t have been those vehicles on the road; thus, those of us who had to cancel all our weekend plans, children’s Sunday-school and even take taxi cabs to work, and the thousands of everyday fee earners like trishaw & bus drivers who were seen in massive queues outside service stations would have been simply mad! They were just having a picnic there since they had nothing else to do on their Sunday, unlike these very important policy makers that we have been abundantly blessed with! You know, Plato, one of the greatest philosophers/political scientists ever said that “wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something”.

My mind runs to another great socio-political analyst, George Bernard Shaw (the “Pygmalion” chap), who said that “democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve” – so it seems that we deserve these brilliant leaders, may our karma continue to be so good, so that we have many more of such intelligence driven policy makers even in the future!

Of the “Sovereignty of the People” and “Directive Principles of State Policy”:

I seriously urge you to acquire a copy of the Constitution, I’m told it costs less than Rs. 100/- with all its amendments; at least you’ll be able to discern what we’re entitled to as citizens of this Republic, leaving aside for a moment what we actually have dished out to us. That is purely another matter, as George Burns says “too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair”!

Then again, can we blame the system without having done our part? Plato also said that “the price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”; so let us not be too hasty to complain or pass criticism.

Anyhow, Article 3 of the Constitution claims that it is us (the people) who hold the sovereign rights of this State, including that of government. We exercise these rights through the organs of government; the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. Article 43 sets out the modality in which our executive powers are exercised, and states that the Cabinet of Ministers have been charged with the “direction and control of the government”. Article 27(1) states that the “Directive Principles of State Policy” contained in that section should guide parliament, the President and Ministers in the governance of Sri Lanka. It is quite interesting to read some of these guidelines that are meant to regulate the exercise of our executive rights by our Ministers, which are meant to guarantee us, amongst other things:

• Adequate standards of living and continuous improvement of living conditions;
• Equitable distribution amongst all citizens of material resources so as to best serve the common good;
• Means of production, distribution and exchange are not concentrated on the state, its agencies or a privileged few but dispersed amongst all peoples;
• Elimination of economic privilege and disparity and exploitation of man by man or man by the state;
• That the operation of the economic system does not result in wealth or means of production being concentrated to the common detriment.

The Supreme Court (in several recent proclamations) have interpreted these provisions from the perspective of “Public Trust”, that the ultimate repositories of the sovereign power of this Republic to govern it lies with the people, and that we have only vested it periodically in the organs of government to be held and exercised in trust for us, the Public! Even the apparent preclusion contained in Article 29 (which attempts to shut out Court intervention) has been interpreted liberally, denying the contention that such a provision could stand in the way of a genuinely aggrieved citizen from vindicating his rights by recourse to his judicial powers of sovereignty.

So then – what happened to our petrol this weekend, ah, but no, no; we did not face a shortage, remember; because our Hon. Minister saw vehicles on the road. It was Aesop once again that said “we hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office”!


(2000) 3 SLR at 253:

This is not some complicated equation, the last thing I am is a mathematician (God forbid), I only got a “simple pass” for math and as an apprentice, the chamber peon had to figure out some issue where the testator had bequeathed 1/4th of a larger share of his 1/8th entitlement! All the above refers to is the judgment of His Lordship Dr. Amarasinghe, Judge of the Supreme Court, delivered in the case of Bulankulama & Others Vs Sec. Ministry of Industrial Development & Others reported in the 3rd Volume of Sri Lanka Law Reports of the year 2000 beginning at page 253. In the context of what we discussed earlier it may be interesting to note some of his lordship’s observations:

• That the organs of State are guardians upon whom the people have committed the care and preservation of their resources;
• That this not only accords with the Constitution but also with the enlightened conceptions of our historic rulers;
• From the Mahavamsa (68.8-13) his lordship reproduces the historic quotes of that ancient ruler – “let not even a small quantity of rain water go to the sea without benefiting man…” and referring to the king himself“… it does not become persons in our situation to live enjoying our own ease, and unmindful of the interests of the people…”;
• That although the executive has a significant role to play in the management of resources as conferred by law, that exercise is subject to review by the judiciary;
• That where parliament legislates on such matters, it is the courts that have the task of interpreting that giving effect to the will of the people;

Even if not in reference to the instant subject matter, I still recommend the Bulankulama judgment as a great piece of reading material to the interested. After all,if government is (as it is defined to be) “by the people, of the people, for the people“, I still have a grievance of not being able to do what I needed to do as a result of those exercising my executive powers not providing me the necessary fuel to get about doing them!

As I’ve quoted in extensio from various authors, let me end up also with these three greats, different, yet supreme in their own right:

“Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?" – George Bernard Shaw

“I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician” - Charlie Chaplin

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history” – Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi

So let us go out and BE that change that we wish TO SEE!