Tissa Devendra wondered in a letter to the Editor last Monday why a large number of Japanese and Korean vehicles had names ending with ‘O’, as in Pajero. He himself had given an apt caption to his letter: Why ‘O’ why? A reader attempts to answer that question on the opposite page today. Whatever etymologists may say, a wag opines that ‘O’ in question could have a Sri Lanka root as in the word kanawo. For, those expensive vehicles are being abused by politicians and their henchmen to such an extent in this country that the taxpayers who have to pick up the tab, on seeing politicians pompously moving about in those vehicles, give vent to their consternation and anguish in the expression, mun apiwa kanawo! or ‘they are destroying us’! (Remember, says the insistent wag, the English language has assimilated some of our words such as asveddumise, tik polonga, anaconda, kitul and berry-berry and, therefore, our contribution to Japanese and Korean vehicle names cannot be ruled out!)

Yesterday, The Sunday Island reported that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had demanded to know where two expensive vehicles purchased with its funds for the Environment Ministry had gone. They had been among 21 vehicles believed to have been removed by politicians who ran the Ministry earlier.

The situation is equally bad in all other state institutions. Vehicles, air conditioners, photocopying machines, computers and even invaluable paintings have gone missing. Our honourable politicians seem to have magical fingers. When they lay those fingers on any public asset, hey presto, that disappears. David Copperfield may cause things like the Statue of Liberty to disappear temporarily but his magic becomes Montessori stuff compared to our politicians’ knack for ‘swallowing’ even massive ships. The late President Premadasa, it may be recalled, accused those who tried to impeach him of having ‘swallowed ships.’ For a person who has swallowed a dagoba, it is said, gobbling up an aggala (a kind of sweetmeat) is child’s play. Similarly, in a country inhabited by political Godzillas capable of swallowing sailing ships, the disappearance of small vehicles is not something surprising, however deplorable it may be.

As for state property, honesty of politicians is nothing but lack of opportunity. Or, it is like some clergymen’s attitude towards sex, which they avoid in public but relish in private. The politicians we are burdened with at present were the very ones who made a hue and cry about the abuse of vehicles under the then UNP regime, in 1994. Ridding the country of corruption was one of the planks of Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga’s election platform. She promised to auction the luxury vehicles being used by the UNP politicians at the Galle Face Green when she came to power. The SLFP had the audacity to claim that the price of a loaf bread could be brought down to Rs. 3.50 with the help of the proceeds from that auction, which never happened. A cynic may ask whether the mammoth increase in the price of bread since then—bread sells at Rs. 25.00 a loaf—is indicative of a corresponding increase in the abuse of state vehicles.

Politicians are a resilient lot. Having been without access to state assets for 17 years, the SLFP leeches lost no time in starting to sponge off state funds after their victory in 1994. They became bloated in no time. (The UNP parliamentarians, who lost power, made it a point to come to Parliament in old vehicles for a few weeks to impress on the people that they had not robbed the country!)

So much for the Chandrika Chinthanaya! For a brief period we had the Ranil Chinthanaya. Suffice it to say that within a few weeks of coming to power a minister imported an expensive Jaguar car! (Was it because of the Jumbos’ affinity for the feline, as was seen from the way they appeased the Tigers?) The Green leeches got an opportunity to feast on public funds and they made the best use of it.

After their loss in 2004, the Blue leeches resumed their dirty game, as evident from, inter alia, the number of vehicles that have gone missing. Ousted minister Sripathy Sooriyarachchi is being tried for his alleged misappropriation of one vehicle!

It is high time the government ordered a census of state vehicles and made public the number of vehicles used by politicians who number over 4,000 (in Parliament, Provincial Councils and the Local Government Authorities). Politicians who are using vehicles they are not entitled to must be stripped of them forthwith. Those who are responsible for the missing or damaged vehicles must be named and brought to book. The Opposition is duty bound to go beyond ‘limited offensives’ in protecting public property. It must step up pressure on the government to deal with the thieves of public assets. Where are the Rathu Sahodarayas? They must take to the streets in their numbers and call for putting an end to the rampant plunder of public property.

Why should all ministers be given several back-up vehicles each? A proper threat assessment is called for. Most of them are assets to the enemies of the state in that they help destroy the economy by robbing or dissipating state funds, which would otherwise have gone for the war effort. "When your enemy is making mistakes", says Sun Tzu in the world’s oldest military treatise, The Art of War, "never interrupt!" Therefore, the corrupt bungling politicians are safe. Heavy protection should be limited to those who are really faced with threats. They are only a handful.

The Mahajana Ekasath Peramuna (MEP, a coalition ally of the government has pointed out that fuel imports cost the economy as much as Rs. 150 billion a year and constitute one fourth of the country’s import bill. The MEP demands that the massive fuel bill be curtailed at least by ten per cent immediately. The government should heed that demand and, as the first step, set an example by reining in politicians and state officials who are using vehicles, as if they were powered by water.

The war is not being fought on the military front alone. It is fought on the economic front as well. The government, in dire financial straits, had better practise austerity. A rupee saved, it is said, is a rupee earned. There is a deluge of unnecessary imports such as safety pins and kites. Is it surprising that the rupee is fast depreciating against all foreign currencies? Economic liberalisation shouldn’t mean a country being reduced to a dump for foreign goods of all sorts. Something needs to be done about the junk imports.

The country can ill-afford to have a bunch of rulers who are acting like a horde of pirates on a captured ship. It has now turned out to be that it is not only wining and dining that politicians do at our expense. A ministerial Lothario—compared to whom Casanova and Don Juan appear to be babes—recently tried to have a state-sponsored Clinton-Monica show overseas. The President has had the wisdom to cancel that show. That is not enough! There is much more to be done.

The Mahinda Chinthanaya, which the people endorsed at the last Presidential election, has got into the same rut as the other Chinthanayas and is moving along it at breakneck speed.