This week we discuss another crucial and timely topic. It is all about the suffering of ordinary people at the hands 
of officers, especially schoolchildren who suffer at the hands of school authorities, etc. We have to talk about this topic today because various serious issues have been revealed by people who suffered at the hands of various public servants in various state institutions. Recently various videos circulated on various social media platforms revealing a lot of details and providing evidence for possible investigations.
According to the content of one such video, school authorities from a school located in the Mathugama area reject a student’s plea to sit for GCE Advanced Level Examination and openly reject the announcement made by the Education Ministry stating that 40 percent minimum attendance is adequate for an Advanced Level student to sit for the upcoming examination. The school authorities demand the student bring a letter from the official who made the announcement, which is impossible! This is purely violating the circular issued by the educational authorities and it is unknown the final result of this incident recorded in a video and released to social media by someone. That is only one incident of many similar incidents reported from here and there. Maybe there is a long-standing ‘story’ behind this incident. Maybe there are connected ‘other’ issues.
Another incident reported from the health sector some time ago where a male patient’s daughter who is a schoolteacher was harassed and threatened by various state officials using various tactics after she released the details of her personal experience received from one of the popular state hospitals in the Kalutara district. She revealed her plight through electronic media to the entire country. After the incident, the hospital staff staged a protest in addition to the threats. They forgot that still there are main media and journalists in this country. Watchdogs are there to protect innocent poor people. Watchdogs cannot be silenced by public servants!
Social Media exposure
But we do not talk about those incidents today. We talk about the stubborn and unacceptable behaviour of some public servants. People release various videos on social media not because they suffer from a mental disease or because they do not have any other important work to do. They do not release various videos on various incidents not because their bodies are itchy or because they want to have some fun. They record and release various videos on various incidents because they do not have anything else to do in order to get the required service from that specific public servant or public office. This is why people record and release various videos on social media. Other than this, those people do not know about those public servants and do not hold any other grudge against them.
Those people cannot hold various grudges against various public servants because they do not know anything about them until they come and meet them face to face to get something done. Until then the people do not have any idea about the specific public servant they are going to meet. So how come they have grudges against them? Public servants may not have the required qualifications and experiences to perform their official duties but at least they should be able to realise this small fact. People come to them to get various things (services) done without knowing their sex, age, name, address, etc. So how come they hold various grudges?
The one and only explanation given by various public servants against various people who made complaints against them is that those people did it due to a grudge. But they cannot hide one single fact. That fact is those grudges (if there are any) developed only after those people were dissatisfied with their service. The public servants are unable to hide this single fact which tells the whole story to the country, especially to the investigators appointed to investigate various incidents.
Gatekeepers of Information
Why cannot Sri Lankan public servants talk with people? Why? Why does asking a simple question or two become a crime and some public servants lodge complaints against people after people ask them a simple question or two? Why? Some public servants never serve people if they ask a simple question or two. Asking a simple question or two from a public servant is considered a crime here in Sri Lanka. People have the right to know whatever they need. For example, they should know what nurses inject them, the quantity, side effects etc. No need to hold press conferences and explain what they injected and how, if they explained the same to the guardians of patients at that time.
Do people need to use the Right to Information Act Number 12 of 2016 all the time to get the relevant details from public offices, especially every small piece of information? It is hilarious how the majority of public servants perform their duties. There are some public servants who treat people just as their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. People respect them, admire their service and always remember them as ‘Gods’. Some public servants become a ‘family member’ just after a customer puts a five hundred-rupee note or thousand-rupee note into his pocket. This is the ground reality of Sri Lankan public service. This is very common in state hospitals. Anyone can try it himself/herself at any time in any state hospital.
Some school authorities tightly lock computers, some sports equipment etc inside rooms and school children are not allowed to even walk near those rooms. In some offices, Internet connections are treated as a ‘privilege’. In the middle of this situation we, as a country, try to promote Information Technology and digitalise our services. The assistance of law enforcement authorities will be required to open those locked rooms!
The best part of the stupidity, ego, inhumane nature etc of high officials were openly displayed during the past COVID-19 period. Maybe we face this financial crisis today as a nation due to the ignorance of those officials who just wanted to prove that they are doing their best and only they worked hard while all the others stayed at home doing nothing. Those public servants and all the other high officials attached to the state, semi-Government and all types of institutions indirectly contributed to the waste of all resources in the country during the COVID-19 period.
It is very interesting to see how they did it. There was a period during the recent COVID-19 period when the Government allowed employees to Work From Home (WFH). Only the essential (who are unable to perform their duties from home due to technical reasons) employees were called to offices and all the others had the opportunity to work from home. By now the entire country knows that the ‘officials’ did the opposite and forced every possible employee to come to his/her office and work no matter whether they work online or not. Some pregnant female employees and some employees with chronic diseases suffered to the maximum and many of them fell sick with COVID-19, psychological conditions etc. Some of them died without much media publicity and social media campaigns.
Squandering resources
The funniest part is yet to come. The entire country knows that some employees in some state offices, semi-Government institutions and the private sector work online. What they do is come to the office just to mark their attendance and work online from the office. The funniest and most pathetic part is that high officials forced those employees to come to the office, sit and work online using the internet! Those employees could have done their job from anywhere in the world because they work online. But those officials wasted the country’s electricity, water, telephone facilities and almost all the resources inside offices by calling unnecessary employees who work online to work during the COVID-19 period. The employees paid the least attention to saving resources because they suffered at the hands of those officials unnecessarily.
An investigation should be conducted on this issue, find the culprits and punish them by the Government because of the large amount of resources they wasted during a crucial time for the country. The country experienced power cuts etc after that and those officials indirectly contributed towards the wastage.
Now Sri Lanka needs to walk forward and think out of the box with those public servants, especially high officials. It is similar to teaching cattle how to fly. Sri Lankan people always see the faults of politicians, but they turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the officials who act thinking that they rule the country, and the people are their servants. Actually, it is ordinary people who pay their salaries by paying taxes. But those officials think the other way around. It is time to dig old graves and close all loopholes before officers use the same cunning tactic in future again and again.
