Ruling party politicians fear public humiliation in their electorates

One State Minister could not get gas for his family and his wife asked "Den sapada?"

These days, politicians, particularly from the ruling party, are deliberately delaying visits to their own constituencies. This is apparently to avoid public humiliation by people who are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of living and the Government’s own blunders like the fertiliser crisis.

In some instances politicians were hooted at and chased away when they tried to engage with the agitating people. It seems the latest tactic has been to express solidarity with the people rather than painting a rosy picture of the Government by defending its initiatives, even if some of them are poor policy decisions.

At a party meeting in Puttalam this week, two State ministers openly acknowledged the difficulties faced by the people through first- hand experiences.

They were

Coconut, Kithul and Palmyrah Cultivation Promotion State Minister Arundika Fernando and Foreign Employment Promotion and Market Diversification State Minister Piyankara Jayaratne, who were elected from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna ( SLPP).

Despite being a State Minister in the ruling party, Mr Jayaratne said even he could not get a new cylinder of gas on time for his family after they ran out of gas. He said the incident led his wife to ask: ‘ Den sepada?’- a slogan popularised by the current Prime Minister when he was the Opposition Leader to ridicule the then Government policies.

The minister said he had no alternative other than to respond by saying: ‘