No shock therapy please

A child studies using candle light during a power cut in Biyagama, a suburb of the capital Colombo. The country's populace has been experiencing daily hardship including power cuts. – AFP

SRI LANKA was promised “vistas of prosperity and splendour” and about 6.9 million voters opted for it, subsequently providing a two-third parliamentary majority to implement the same. A little over two years later, the reality is experienced by everyone. Shortages of everything, from cooking gas to milk powder, from foreign exchange to crude oil and now the resulting power cuts.

There is little need to expound at length, the economic, social and daily pain that the populace is experiencing. It is a daily experience, which will speak the loudest at the ballot box, when the government musters up the courage to face the polls, be they the delayed local or provincial elections.