One Year Of Yahapaalanaya: The Highs And Low
- - on 01/08/2016
On January 8, 2015, thousands flocked to Independence Square to watchMaithripala Sirisena take his Presidential vows. With his promise to promoteyahapaalanaya or ‘good governance’ the atmosphere was one of hope.
Looking back on the past year, Groundviews spoke to several people from different sectors on what they felt about Sirisena’s inaugural year of Presidency.
Jehan Perera, Executive Director, National Peace Council
There has been a vast improvement in terms of security, safety and the ability to dissent. There is a lot of space for civil society to do our work. The government supports our work and legitimises our work and events. The challenge though, would be to keep alive the ideals that they campaigned for at the election. Those good governance ideals have to be kept alive. It’s easy to adopt a live and let live attitude. There has been a lax and lenient attitude towards corruption, nepotism and abuse of power in the past. The ideas that inspired this movement have to be implemented. Overall though, I think the country is better than it was a year ago. There are still a lot of allegations against Cabinet Ministers that money is being made. That has to be dealt with. The Central Bank bond issue scam is unresolved. There are still instances of nepotism, though it has not been institutionalised in the same way the previous government is. The Government also has to show more solicitude for the plight of poor people, and the budget certainly didn’t – it put more burdens of the poor out of most of the 16 areas that were revised. There should be more projects and programmes directed towards feeding the masses.
