Ceylon Today Editorial

Water

11 October 2016

Water is a right.

And, as it's a right, it's the bounden duty of the government to ensure its availability to the masses of this country.

Primarily, water should be available to the public to meet their drinking water and ablution needs. In times of drought, the other needs of water, such as for irrigation and power generation may be secondary. Even, water,required for man's primary needs such as for drinking and for his ablutions, in critical situations such as a drought, transcends the need of water for livestock and the ensuring of it, for those animals living in the wild.

Currently, Sri Lanka is in the grip of a severe drought. The island, since the floods of May 2016, where it was a victim of unexpectedly heavy rainfall for at least a day or two that month, has, thereafter, been in the grip of, needless to say, a prolonged drought.

Sri Lanka, in 'normal 'years, enjoys two monsoons. Those are the North-East (NE) monsoon which falls in the country in November of each year and the other is the South-West (SW) which falls in May. Those monsoonal rains, if they do come on time, are sufficient to meet the water needs of the country, despite a growing population of some 20 million plus. Compare this with a population of a mere three million plus in the 1930s!

Water needs on such occasions are sufficient to cover the requirement of water for drinking; ablutions; irrigation; gardens and plants; washing of vehicles; livestock, fauna and flora in the wild; other parched lands and hydro-electric power generation of a sizeable amount, though, insufficient to meet even 50% of the island's electric power generation needs in good times of more than sufficient rains received by the island.

In recent times, such severe droughts afflicted the country at least six times. Those were in the years 1982, 1992, 1996, 2001, 2013 and now, in 2016. Droughts may take place due to varied reasons. One of those causes may be due to 'climate change and global warming'. The other cause for droughts may be due to the 'usual order of nature.'

Due to the 'sin' of the 'usual nature of things' droughts have been occurring, from time immemorial. Those cannot be attributed to 'climate change and global warming.'

The context of the present drought is not dissimilar to the other five occasions previously, as said above, when Sri Lanka was gripped by droughts. That is the failure of the NE and SW monsoons.

Whether the failure of the two seasonal monsoons is due to global warming or because of the 'normal course of things', like what used to sometimes happen in ancient times (long before global pollution); is not the issue here.

In modern times, such as in the present context, no responsible government can wash their hands off, by blaming droughts, like the present one gripping the country, to the weather or due to climate change and thereby sit and do nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.

They need to ensure that man's requirement for water, islandwide, to meet his basic needs, is made available. Yesterday we met a labourer who does work at a house in Mount Lavinia. He travels from Beruwela. This man, whose name is Jayasiri, told us that they have been badly afflicted by the drought.

Obviously, with no access to pipe borne water, he said that they are dependent on 'local philanthropists' to provide them with water and not the government. They got their water from such philanthropists at 2 a.m. yesterday! He however, said that the problem is that those ahead of the queue come with barrels to collect their water.

More often than not, what happens in such situations is that those at the end of the queue, finally, end up getting no water. "There are fights and brawls as a result and the situation is looking dangerous and ugly," he said. It is a tragedy that whatever little water that indigents like Jayasiri get are from philanthropists and not from the government.

The government is elected to power to serve the people. And those needs also include the provision of water. If they cannot fulfil their obligations, there is then a question mark in regard to the Yahapalanaya they tout.

'Good governance' or Yahapalanaya is not restricted to matters fiduciary, and, in the narrower context, its applicability confined to the proper administration of government institutions only. In its broader sense, it must also ensure, that the basic needs of those living at the grassroots level, such as those of people like Jayasiri's, in this instance a necessity like water, too is also made available.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Teacher saved by Court

11 October 2016

 

The Supreme Court ruling on the fundamental rights petition filed by a teacher against her interdiction over her interview given to an electronic media is, no doubt, a landmark decision since there is a notion among the higher ups of the public service that the Establishment Code for the public service has to be followed under any circumstance. It is a landmark ruling as it has upheld the freedom of expression of the citizens setting a specific precedence in respect of the Establishment Code. 

The graduate teacher in question, Manohari Pelaketiya is serving as a teacher of ‘Eastern Music’ at Mahanama College and according to the court case as well as the interviews she had given to the media after the Court ruling had been sexually harassed by School Principal Premalal Kumarasiri and male teacher T.T. Malegoda. The Principal is also said to have been harassing her using his administrative powers. 

As no tangible and meaningful results were shown, in any of the investigations said to have conducted by the police and the Education Ministry and with no justice being meted out to her, she went public and her services were suspended in 2012 on the grounds that she had violated the Establishment Code. The Court said her suspension by the Education Ministry was a violation of the Constitution on the basis that the authorities had failed to realize and understand the plight of the petitioner in the hands and under the control of indecent public servants within the school premises. The Mahanama College Principal and the male found guilty of harassing the petitioner were each ordered to pay Rs.100,000 to the victimized teacher.

Although the verdict, in the context of the Government’s move to implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is a victory for public servants and the media industry there are several unanswered questions in connection with the harassment issue. 

According to the verdict, is it correct to say that the Establishment Code is still a hindrance to the freedom of expression under any other circumstance where a victim is meted out justice within his or her workplace or the relevant government department? How long has one to wait to decide that justice would not be done to him or her and that the time is ripe to exercise the freedom of expression? The media and the civil society would have to work towards getting these points cleared up in the future. 

Apart from the right to information aspect involved in the matter, the most serious point is that sexual harassment had taken place in a government school, a place meant to be the cradle of a descent future generation. However, the education authorities have neglected that aspect and given more weight to uphold the Establishment Code. Despite the Supreme Court’s injunction order against her suspension in 2012, the Ministry of Education had continued its investigation against her and at its conclusion, had revoked her increment and fined her Rs.30,000. Isn’t this tantamount to contempt of court, apart from encouraging indecent behaviour by teachers and principals?

Will the education authorities and the police department now take action against those officials who did not attempt to mete out justice to the teacher when they received the complaints against the sex predators or is it too much to expect. 

After the verdict was delivered, Ms. Pelaketiya had told the media that she was not the only victim of sex predators in the education sector. True, according to media reports, there have been various cases against school principals and education ministry officials for soliciting or receiving sexual bribes from the teachers and the mothers of schoolchildren. These incidents point to a grave situation in the education sector which requires a cleanup process. Again we cannot expect it to happen, given the experience of the Sri Lankan people with regard to the bureaucracy and the politics in the country.

Daily News Editorial

A game plan that is a non-starter

11 October 2016

Much is being made of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's claim in Ratnapura that defections are a very real possibility from the Government into the Joint Opposition fold and the coming months could well see a change in government. A highly upbeat Namal Rajapaksa too speaking to reporters asked the people to wait and see patiently what happens in the post budget period while JO front liner Dinesh Gunawardena says the statement made by Mahinda Rajapaksa of a regime change in the not very distant future was not made lightly.

This is not the first time that talk of a regime change through a change in the parliamentary composition was made by the JO. The first time such a conspiracy was alluded to was by President Maithripala Sirisena who went on to detail the ridiculousness of this attempt. The President pointed out that the JO would have to enlist the support of a whopping 70 MPs from the government in order to secure a simple majority in Parliament. Nothing short of a modern miracle could make this happen, as Rajapaksa himself is fully aware of. To begin with, the the UPFA members supporting the unity government are well rewarded with plum ministerial office and cannot be lured by lucre. Many of them were brought in through the national list and owe their gratitude to President Sirisena. Even those on the margins are not going to play ball knowing how impossible such a project will be.

There are claims being made that anything is possible in this country where even General Secretaries of the main political parties had switched sides. But that is in a situation where they risked being expelled from their parties as Lalith, Gamini et al. learnt to their cost. They had no other option other than form a new political party and all know the fate that befell that party and in fact all other new political parties formed to challenge the status quo.

In this instance too, any conspiracy to engineer defections, as happened during the Premadasa impeachment, by Mahinda Rajapaksa, will only result in mass scale expulsions of JO parliamentarians rendering them orphans in a new political party that has as much chance of scoring electoral victories as a snowball in hell. The fate that befell the Sri Lanka Mahinda Pakshaya, a breakaway from the SLFP, formed by Vijaya and Chandrika is a classic example of how even popular figures, as no doubt the superstar actor was, could fumble at electoral contests without the benign shade of the genuine article, in this instance the Sri Lanka Freedom party. In the unlikely scenario of MR cobbling together a simple majority in parliament by even roping in the JVP and TNA (for he can be certain that there will be very few takers from the SLFP) he still has President Sirisena to reckon with, given the latter's public declamation that MR would not be appointed PM even if the UPFA wins the election. But before this could happen all JO MPs would be ousted from Parliament for breach of discipline and going against the party's diktat.

Be that as it may, talking of toppling the government through a parliament coupe is a clear sign that the JO is getting jittery by the day. There is talk in the grapevine that some prominent members of the JO are already holding talks with the government to make the switch over. Even names are being bandied in the open. There are also the various corruption investigations against the Rajapaksa family drawing to a conclusion. What better strategy than send a message to the investigating arms and even the courts, of a very real prospect of a comeback. There was also an attempt being made to show that the recent cooperative society election victory notched by groups aligned to the JO has set the tone for the future, hiding the fact from the public that each such election had only some 200 or 300 persons who voted, most of them relatives of the Cooperative Society the candidates.

Public rallies like the one held in Ratnapura too is being added to the mix to show crowds as a sign of strength. The new constitution, the Wigneswaran protest are but grist to the mill of the JO campaign to incite the public. It was only the other day that Rajapaksa offered the olive branch to the Muslims, without so much as a mea culpa for being complicit in the attacks, by mollycoddling the perpetrators. There was also an attempt to remove the racists label from Wigneswaran, which all points to an attempt by Rajapaksa to win back the minorities for his new political project, albeit destined to go nowhere.

But as Rajapaksa well knows, none of this is going to make him President- the 19th amendment putting paid to all that - nor is he going to be made Prime Minister - whether he secures a parliamentary majority or not -with President Sirisena making his feelings plain on this score. What therefore is MR's game plan is anyone's guess, unless he someday wants to become the Prime Minister for a second time through the avenue of a new political party, defying mind boggling odds.

The Island Editorial

Alice in Wonderland – II

11 October 2016

 

Last Sunday, Alice Akka was ambling to her vegetable plot when she fell into a rabbit hole. She went hurtling down a dark void and, a few moments later, landed on her back with a thud. She found herself in Wonderland.

A deposed king with his family was seated on a sidewalk. They were apparently planning to regain the kingdom which, they had once thought, was their grandma’s estate. Street lights were on and Alice Akka saw a posh nightclub over yonder. All of a sudden, several Defenders appeared from nowhere, thundered past her and screeched to a halt near that place.

The reigning king’s son got off, surrounded by many palace guards armed to the teeth. When the king was away the prince was at play, someone muttered to himself. The swashbuckling skolly was showing off his gym toned muscles maintained with public funds and sought to force himself into the club only to be stopped by some bouncers blocking the entrance. An argument ensued and then the armed guards pounced on the security personnel. It was like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster. One of the bouncers was rushed to hospital.

What Alice Akka saw next was retchingly disgusting. Some police bigwigs were doing their damndest to save the prince. Police spokesman was ordered to make himself unavailable to the media. He went missing. The victims who received knuckle sandwiches from the king’s guards were forced to withdraw their statements and the perpetrators were let off the hook. The media chose to play it safe as they knew the victims would be frightened into submission. They opted for self-censorship.

Disappointed with what she saw Alice Akka retraced her steps in disgust, found the rabbit hole and clambered up its rugged slope to the surface. She felt immensely relieved that she was back. She was elated to see a vibrant press exposing wrongdoers and naming and shaming them intrepidly. Many a Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells fearlessly gave vent to his pent up anger through opinion columns. Political leaders’ sons were observing sil; they would not harm even an ant let alone assault bouncers at nightclubs. They were leading simple lives without wasting public funds.

The President was waxing eloquent on good governance and morality. He was threatening to whip any woman who threw bras at musical shows. He was waving a stingray tail or madu walige by way of a dire warning. Alice Akka wondered how tough he would get with anyone who dared get involved in drunken brawls over women in nightclubs and smashed up those dens of vice.

The Prime Minister was at the office of ethics and morality, pontificating on the virtues of good governance and stressing the need for people to meet and disperse peacefully like Licchavis even at nightclubs. He was explaining the government plans to strengthen the rule of law and ensure that everybody was equal before the law.

The IGP was urging the police to carry out their duties and functions without fear or favour and threatening to sack errant cops. The Media Minister was flaunting the new Right to Information Act. Media rights groups were holding a rally to celebrate the newfound media freedom under the present dispensation and Alice Akka, amped and hyper, shouted: "Long live the Sri Lankan media!" Civil society organisations remained Argus-eyed and ready to take on the government at the drop of a hat. She was happy that democracy was blooming with good health.

Alice Akka felt disgusted with the rulers, the media personnel and the guardians of law in Wonderland she had just been to. She wondered how on earth any land could become so bad with the rulers and their progeny being above the law and a self-castrated Fourth Estate looking the other way. She could not understand why Wonderland could not emulate her beloved country, where good governance was overflowing like the turgid waters of Mahaweli Ganga during torrential rains. She felt proud to be a citizen of Sri Lanka––a land like no other.