Your recent editorial under the brave title "Flog the thieves of poor man's rice!" should earn the approbation and encomiums it deserves. Every man, woman and child from indigent backgrounds will be singing their psalms of praise for an editorial which has spoken up for the poor man.

Your allusion that 'the government is going hell for leather to commit hara-kiri' is fitting, given the fact that their own friends are performing the demolition task for them which threatens to expedite their demise, obviating the need for the opposition to do so. With all good intentions the government imported a massive consignment of 20,000 metric tons of rice to be sold through a network of cooperatives but the latest is that the poor man for whom it was meant, has been well and truly swindled by the cooperatives.

Your editorial makes reference to a timely warning given in your columns about the notorious reputation the cooperatives had earned in the past. I believe that the doyen of the cooperative moment was that peerless Mr. Clean, Vincent Subasinghe, under whose tenure the cooperative movement blossomed into prominence as a business established for the benefit of the poor man. But it did not take too long for the cooperatives to become dens of deceit, corruption and skulduggery.

It’s a mystery as to why the government is not fulfilling its responsibility to furnish a list of rice varieties etc. to the Consumer Affairs Authority in order to regulate prices. Many rumours are afloat alluding to certain ministerial interests circumventing attempts to bring down the prices of rice. Under the circumstances, it will be for the President to take steps to eliminate such unscrupulous elements and bring redress to the common man, and to avoid courting the displeasure of the community.