Ceylon Today Editorial

THEY FIRST KILL MADIWELA MOSQUITOES...

Members of Parliament occupying the MPs quarters at Madiwela, Battaramulla have panicked as the deadly dengue mosquito had started to attack them. Already Parliamentarian Ranjith Soyza's wife and child, Mahindananda Aluthgamage's sister, 10 Special Task Force personnel and several relatives of legislators occupying the housing complex are victims to the dengue mosquito. This is the first time that dengue mosquitoes have chosen to attack the legislators and kith and kin in the country in an unprecedented manner.

Parliamentarian Soyza claims that there are numbers of mosquito breeding spots in the premises and he had brought it to the notice of the maintenance division at the complex. As it happens to ordinary citizens by the lethargy of the local authorities, Soyza's complaint too has fallen on deaf ears. Soyza had finally brought it to the notice of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday (28). The MP says the waste at the complex is not disposed properly and puddles of muddy water provide mosquito breeding places.

If the housing complex of parliamentarians is in that pathetic state, one could imagine the situation countrywide during this season in which rains are experienced. The media has been highlighting cases of dengue regularly whenever there is an outbreak of the epidemic. The worst hit districts are Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha. We have repeatedly pointed out that the most unclean premises are schools, hospitals and congested slum areas in the Colombo city. The previous Government, of course conducted national programmes to combat the dengue fever menace when President Maithripala Sirisena was the Health Minister.

Then the Health Ministry worked closely with the Urban Development Authority (UDA) spearheaded by the former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who engaged service personnel to assist in the eradication of mosquito breeding places.

Health and Local Bodies are fully aware of the dengue fever threat that looms large when the rainy season begins. And all high officials of these two sectors live in urban based areas. However, they do not plan out strategies to combat the menace. The situation clearly requires careful monitoring. Then there would be no need to panic if the authorities are ready to respond. The dengue mosquito is deadly as it carries the virus within a small radius of 50 metres. It poses a grave danger indoors be it home or office. Hence, a dengue mosquito which sucks blood from one person could infect another person within that radius. That is how two or three members in a family fall victim to dengue fever.
Over the years it was the ordinary citizens who were victims on an annual basis to dengue fever. This year among the victims are parliamentarians and their kith and kin. Following the Mawbima/Ceylon Today disclosure of the news that dengue mosquitoes attack MPs in our issues yesterday, MP Ranjith Soyza disclosed that health officials and groups of ministers visited the Madiwela MPs Housing Complex yesterday and assured that the complex would be fully cleansed by this morning and teams would be deployed to detect mosquito larvae at the complex. Parliamentarians covered by privilege are a privileged lot. When the dengue mosquito attacks them, eradication plans start promptly.

The ministers who visited the Madiwela Complex should also visit the Colombo National Hospital premises and schools in Colombo. At the Colombo National Hospital, mosquito breeding places are aplenty. Schools are no better. Over the past five years, the country lost many promising students who contracted the deadly fever being bitten by dengue mosquitoes during school hours. They belonged to both urban and rural schools. Explosive population growth in urban and town areas has set the stage for the rapid spread of dengue fever, while local authorities turn a blind eye. The public have a right to question the government's ability to muster and execute strategies and build an all-round, multidimensional and multilevel system for epidemic crisis management. There cannot be different approaches to combat the menace of dengue spread. Parliamentarians are not an exclusive breed of human beings in this country for them to be given priority in the programme to combat mosquito breeding places. The need is a National Programme to eradicate the dangers of the dengue menace.

Daily Mirror Editorial

This was brute force; take action against Police now

 

During the previous regime, the Police to a large extent lost their independence and many people saw Police Stations as branch offices of the ruling party if not torture houses. Regularly it was alleged that Police used excessive or brute force on protesting groups including students, females and monks.

With the election of President Maithripala Sirisena and the Yahapalanaya National Government this year, there were assurances from the new leaders that effective steps were being taken to restore the image of the Police as a people-friendly law enforcement authority. Civic rights advocates have pointed out that when the Police commit an offence or crime it is graver than offences committed by ordinary people because the Police are the long arm of the law.

On Thursday, the new image of the Police and of the Yahapalanaya Government was also severely damaged when the Police riot squad used what many observers saw as excessive and brute force against university students who were following the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy (HNDA) course. The students who say they have many grievances and aspirations including the elevation of the course to a degree level, held a similar protest in December last year and were attacked by the Police. Student leaders say with the peaceful people’s revolution for a Yahapalanaya Government they expected democracy to prevail so that a just and fair solution could be agreed upon. But the students, media personnel and other observers say Thursday’s riot Police response was worse than last year. Police first used baton charges to stop the students from entering the Higher Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission offices at Ward Place. When the baton charge did not work, the Police used water cannons and tear gas to the extent that not only the protesting students but even scores of innocent people including schoolchildren in the vicinity were severely affected by the tear gas while some young school girls fallen unconscious on the road were trampled by others.

Unlike the previous regime, which often condoned or covered up such reckless brutality, the National Government acted fast. Hours after the tragedy Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called for an immediate report from Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapana who in turn sought a full report from Police chief N. K. Illangakone.

In the United States and other Western democracies also such attacks do happen. This week in South Carolina millions of people were outraged when they saw a deputy Sheriff dragging a teenage coloured American girl out of her class room. The whole scene was seen live on CCTV and video cameras and within two days the Deputy Sheriff was sacked.

This is what we want to see under new Yahapalanaya Government, not just Committees that will drag investigations for months and forget about it. Most people would insist that those who gave the orders to the riot squad and those who used brute force be suspended till the investigations were completed. Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva, one of the most respected personalities in the new Government, on his facebook page lamented that although Police said they used ‘minimum force’ to disperse the protesters, the photographs suggest that the Police behaved in their usual fashion of beating up protesters. He called on the Government and the newly-appointed National Police Commission to show that they meant business in acting against any Police brutality and were respecting the right to peaceful demonstration.  Mr. De Silva also urged the students to act in a responsible way.

The HNDA student union Convenor Dhammika Ruwan charged that the Police carried out a vicious attack on the students while the Inter University Students’ Federation said a complaint would be filed at the Human Rights Commission. He warned they would also give details of the attack to the international community, creating another Geneva issue. The new Government often says it wants to build a new Sri Lanka for the new generation. The thinkers of this new generation those with creative, imaginative and innovative skills are mainly in the universities though there also may be some trouble makers among them. While increasing fourfold the budgetary allocation for next year, the Government also must give priority and respect to university students while the students need to be aware that their rights also are linked to their sense of responsibility.