National Policies and Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva let fly at unemployed youth in the country, asking what the government was to do with the inflated numbers.

“People come to me everyday,” the Deputy Minister said, “bringing with them their children, who are 22, 23 years old.”

“They plead with me to give their children employment in the state sector. “Please Sir, give my daughter a job with the government, please give my son a job in the state service,” they ask me.”

“If that is the attitude of 22-year-old, 23-year-old kids, where is our future?,” he queried.

“We need 600, 000 or 800, 000 people working for the government, but we have 1.5 million people working for the government,” he said. “Where is this going to end?”

The Deputy Minister charged that no one was interested in contributing to his or her pension: ‘No body wants to ever contribute anything for their pension. They want pension also to be contributed by the people who work in the private sector and pay taxes,” the Deputy Minister alleged.

He said that every move by the government to change the system was met with resistance: “Every time we try to change what happens? Thousand people, five thousand people get onto the streets, and they go to court and they get injunctions,” he said.

“How the hell are we going to do this, “ he asked. “ If we don’t liberalize, if we don’t create a culture of entrepreneurship, if we don’t create a culture of leadership, if we don’t create a culture risk-taking, we’re never going to become that great country we are destined to become, “ he said. 

“This goes beyond GSP+,” the Deputy Minister said. “This goes down to your DNA.”

“Everyday our people want something,” he said. “Give, give,” that is all they say. Give from where??,” he asked.

“We can’t just be armchair critics and point the finger at the government all the time,” he said. “Who is the ‘government’? The government is me, him, we are the government. What are we to do>” asked.

“It is the same with the garbage issue. Everybody says it is the government’s responsibility, but what about the people? What became of civic responsibility,” he asked, alleging further that unless citizens were prepared to be more responsible things would not change.”