So, Mrs Rosy Senanayake, the Leader of the Opposition in the western Prov. Council, and I believe also a member of the UNP’s Working Committee, has justified the nine day "Educational" trip to China. The trip cost the WPC Rs. 30 million! Some ‘Education’ some ‘Training’! Many of course know the reality, that it was no more than what both ‘The Island’ and the ‘Sunday Times’ said it was, viz a ‘Joy-Ride’, and a nine day ‘Junket’!

I need to highlight three aspects that arise from Rosy’s ‘Chinese Experience’ which she claims was not a waste of funds.

She is obliged to give a report to the PC and the country as regards the ‘Training Course’ without delay. Specific benefits that arise must be mentioned and not merely such drivel as ‘the trip had some/many positive aspects’, and/or ‘we were able to build some co-operative relationships with like Chinese authorities’ etc etc. ‘Building Relationships’ and ‘positive aspects’ are the usual rubbish used to justify joy rides and other benefits our political worthies have at our expense. The specifics must include such items as the number of hours/days spent on actual training, what the training consisted of, the relevance of such training to Sri Lanka, the proportion of training periods to sight-seeing, shopping and other non-training activities, the identity and qualifications/designation etc of the ‘Trainers’, costs involved, attendance by the ‘Trainee-Councillors’ at whatever ‘training sessions were conducted etc, etc. Let the country see its benefits.

Then we come to the ‘opportunity costs’ of this trip. Rosie, who claims it was not a waste of funds, must prove that using Rs. 30 million on this training course was more useful than spending that sum on other projects the WPC could have used it on, as for example, hospital improvements, road repairs, medicines for the poor etc. Next comes the political aspect. The constant accusation made against the UPFA Govt. by the UNP, the JVP and other opposition parties is that this Govt. is corrupt, dishonest, guilty of nepotism, waste of public funds on foreign jaunts, abuse and misuse of power etc, etc. Quite a lot of these accusations are true, and let’s have no doubt about that. But from observation of the political conduct or all Govts, say from the time of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, J. R. Jayewardena, R. Premadasa, Chandrika Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremesinghe to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, my bottom line comment as regards all these Govts is that all are the same as regards political conduct when in power, that is, that they all abuse power. In fact a few years ago in a letter to the newspapers titled ‘Will the Alternative Govt. be any better?’, I argued that as regards political conduct, abuse of power, wastage of funds, grabbing or perks etc, etc, there was little difference between the UPFA and the UNP.

The current episode of the UNP members of the WPC being among the first to grab the opportunity to visit China, is ample proof of this. Indeed, when one considers that this Rs. 30 million trip has been gleefully accepted by the UNP members of the WPC, when the UNP is still only in the opposition, one may legitimately wonder what the UNP might do if they return to power.