100 Days program change or short – changed?
The much talked of 100 days of the ‘100 Days Program’ that was part of President Maithripala Sirisena’s election campaign is now completed. The President himself has come out with a statement which can be read as ‘observations on progress’ (see pages 4, 8 and 9). The Government claims that much was done. Others claim that it’s mostly talk and that nothing significant or lasting was achieved.
There are two ways to assess performance here. The first is to go with items, divide the ‘done’ by the ‘promised’, multiply by 100 and come up with a percentage. The braggers can gloss over the importance or otherwise of each line item. They can ignore sustainability. For example, the cuts in fuel prices can be marked as a ‘plus’, but only if it translated into significant drops in prices of related goods and services (e.g. bus fares, school van fares, vegetables and other goods that require transportation). Factor these in and the brag loses its punch.
