Ceylon Today Editorial

Go minister Go!

26 November 2016

The recent issues that the Minister of Sports had with the Secretary of the National Olympic Committee have given quite an insight to happenings regarding cravings of people for overseas trips. It is very clear now most of the authorities in sports associations get into those positions with ulterior motives and one, of the most desired privileges, is foreign travel.

The parties concerned with the process looked quite a bunch of amateurs and immature in this instance acting on such a simple matter of sending two athletes to a training workshop. More than their being pleased with the offer of the training for these two beach volleyball players and the experience they would gain from it, not forfeiting the sending of the coach involved with these players would have been important. This trip would have helped gaining from the training along with the acclimatizing but instead, the immediate response of the Secretary AASL looked one to be securing his position first of all.

Holding a position in a sports organization in a country that has a long history with sports and its operations, his thinking, instead of taking it as his privilege, he should have been more responsible in his action. The fact of, beach volleyball being a new sport, coming in lately to the main stream, itself should have alerted the Secretary to be mindful. He should have been aware of the importance of the proper people making it to Australia where the Commonwealth Games event would finally be taking place.

Here, the thing to be learnt is the fact what these irresponsible official's actions indicate. To someone who has been following the patterns of operations between the authorities of the NOC and Sports Associations, these have a long history of bindings. The fact the NOC secretary telling off the two players and their coach to get it done by politicians as he was not prepared to follow such orders, clearly makes the point how power has been in operation in those realms. Earlier ministers would have been enticed to play ball with these officials but this minister shows he is made of other stuff.

This type of thing would have been quite prevalent and the reaction here with this incident shows things were swept under the carpet in the past, easily. Remember the NOC President getting tough with a telling off of the Sri Lanka captain of the national Olympic team just before taking off to Rio. There was no action taken. There have not been tough issues where the athletes were able to gain from complaining.

At the meeting where the minister faced the media with the President of the NOC, statements made by him were prompted to be scrutinized, with the minister keeping on inciting the pressmen on this. The NOC President guessed where he was being taken and opted out with his sudden departure, jokingly indicating that he was irresponsible. The minister should play their own game better with such officials who had the situation captured to have everything going their way and no other, making certain they got everything covered. They had all those from associations, media and where it mattered at their beck and call. We have in the past seen it happening but this minister is lucky as those that matter at the helm are interested in clearing up the mess that had been heaped on sports from the past rulers.

As we see it, the minister patiently did allow the authorities to play the game their way. He waited patiently to reach conclusions with understanding, not getting all excited as did the bull in the China shop. It is patience that is going to work if the minister is going to clean the slate. This slate has not seen the duster for ages, and when it clears up, much more messy things from the past may begin arising as happens with proper meditating.

When looking at what is going on at present in Singapore one can notice the improvement that has taken place in sports there. They already have pocketed one gold medal at the Olympics. Their football is improving and they know the value sports add on to a country. The minister only has to have that clean slate to start things anew, for things to work out just the way this country deserves its sports to get the limelight it has been missing for centuries. We see this minister to have proper thoughts and may end up as the man not only to clean the mess but give fillip to a deserving and justifiable cause.

Daily News Editorial

War against narcotics

26 November 2016

In spite of the various measures announced and undertaken by the authorities to curb the smuggling of illicit drugs, the trade seems to be thriving. Just a couple of days ago, Customs agents and Police Narcotics Bureau personnel seized 200 Kilos of cocaine concealed in a container stored at the Orugodawatte yard.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the stock of cocaine had been brought to the island under the guise of importing sugar from Brazil. The total street value of the seized drugs has been estimated to be over Rs. 2 billion. Incidentally, this is not the first time that cocaine was found in a sugar container from Brazil.

In July this year, a similar raid conducted at a private container yard in Peliyagoda yielded 274 Kg of cocaine in two sugar containers imported from Brazil. The PNB recently detected 31 kilogram of cocaine inside another sugar container at a warehouse in Pethiyagoda, Kelaniya. The seizures are the biggest since August 2013, when police found 260 kg of heroin hidden in a shipping container that had arrived from Pakistan.

It is still not clear whether all these stocks were intended for local distribution or for transshipment to a third country or region, especially Europe. Sri Lanka is apparently being used as a midway point by certain narcotics smugglers. Drugs continue to be illicitly trafficked from South-West Asia to India and then from India to Sri Lanka, Maldives and other western countries, according to a recent report compiled by the Narcotics Control Board of India. The report notes that cocaine also comes to South Asia from South American countries like Brazil, Peru, Chile and Bolivia, and is re-routed to Europe and North America from South Asia.

The intricate web of drug smuggling routes could explain the presence of the contraband in the containers, but further investigations will be needed to find out the exact details. Indeed, the latest detection was the result of an intensified search of sugar containers from South America following the July incident. Sri Lanka is not the only country targeted by the smugglers – similar detections were made in Kenya in recent times. More than 9,000 Kg of narcotics have been seized from traffickers in the Indian Ocean region in the past three years alone. This shows the sophistication and regional nature of the drug trafficking syndicates.

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have vowed to wage war against drug traffickers. However, this is not a battle that Sri Lanka can wage alone, given the global presence of drug traffickers. The fact that one of Sri Lanka’s leading drug barons Wele Suda was nabbed in another country shows the truly global nature of this illicit business.

Sri Lanka must essentially work with other countries in the region and the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to combat the drug menace. In one such example of international cooperation, the Indian and Sri Lankan navies have apprehended several boats that tried to bring in narcotics to Sri Lanka. The PNB has already sought Interpol assistance on several occasions to track down narcotics kingpins and smuggling routes. Our officials must also work closely with their counterparts in Brazil and South America to trace the origins of these consignments.

It is even more important for the international community to share intelligence on drug trafficking. This assumes greater significance in the light of revelations that most terror groups also engage in narcotics smuggling to finance their operations. International action is the need of the hour to nab drug traffickers due to the global nature of the operations of drug cartels.

At national level, all precautions must be in place to ensure that illicit drugs do not reach the society. It should be a multi-pronged attack on the narcotics trade, with the positive involvement of Police, Armed Forces, Customs, PNB and the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board. The Finance Ministry has also stepped in, establishing an anti-narcotics unit. These units must be given all facilities to discharge their duties effectively.

The Police are often blamed for catching the small fry and letting the big fish go scot free when it comes to narcotics. While it is important to catch the small-time drug pushers and users, it is more important to net the bigger players in the narcotics trade. Recently, the PNB, STF and Police have managed to track down some of the kingpins, but much more needs to be done.

Illicit drugs continue to remain among the highest-value illicit commodities trafficked in the Asia-Pacific region - fueling violence, corruption, conflict, addiction and societal decay. The International Community must thus come together to rid the world of illicit drugs. Sri Lanka successfully waged a war against terror, but narcotics could be an even bigger threat to our nation, especially our youth, if we do not take corrective steps now. There is no time to lose in intensifying our battle against narcotics. Otherwise, our very future would be at stake.

The Island Editorial

A damning indictment

26 November 2016

 

JVP leader and Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake saw red the other day when a parliamentary committee report on the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) was presented to the House. Taking exception to the committee’s recommendations, which ran counter to the JVP’s position on the issue, he opposed a government move to have a debate thereon; he cited an ongoing court case pertaining to the issue as the reason. The government was, however, convinced otherwise; it said it saw nothing wrong with a parliament debate on the report at this juncture. It is apparently in a hurry to make Parliament’s position on the issue known to the judiciary while the case is on for obvious reasons. However, we believe that the matter is best left to the learned judges.

The JVP, which is usually seen to be playing political footsie with the UNP, has taken the government to task in Parliament on some issues the higher education sector is faced with such as drastic fund cuts and bureaucratic and political bungling. Its arguments sound convincing.

One, however, should not be so naïve as to believe that the JVP is opposing private universities out of any genuine love for free education. It and its offshoot, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), fear that they will lose their grip on the seats of higher learning which have become a fertile recruiting ground for them if the state monopoly on universities is done away with and private universities proliferate, providing students a viable alternative.

Given half a chance a large number of students who qualify for admission to state-run universities will opt for higher education at private institutions because the JVP and others of its ilk have ruined the national university system through lecture boycotts, bloody clashes, ragging and other such disruptive methods. By the time a Sri Lankan undergrad passes out the prime of his or her life has passed him or her by and students of his or her age in other countries have completed their postgraduate studies and/or are gainfully employed. The blame for this sorry state of affairs should be apportioned to successive governments and the ultra radical political elements with Marxist posturing who disrupt universities. Any political party which really feels for free education and is desirous of protecting it should ensure that universities function smoothly.

The JVP has, however, shed light on a serious violation of students’ right to education. The public ought to take serious notice of JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake’s allegation against the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the government, during the recent committee stage debate on Budget 2017 under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Higher Education and Highways. He told the House that more than 2,000 deserving students who passed the GCE A/L examination were deprived of their right to university education every year owing to lapses on the part of the UGC and the government. The state universities could accommodate 24,000 students a year but only 22,000 were enrolled, he said. This is a damning indictment on the guardians of universities.

JVP MP Ratnayake deserves praise. His suggestion that Parliament be informed of the number of slots available at each university annually must be heeded. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) to the JVP’s claim. Bureaucrats and government politicians cannot be expected to own up to their lapses and the university dons who have rightly called for an increase in fund allocation for education should look into the JVP’s allegation that a serious injustice is caused to as many as 2,000 students annually. The university teachers should go public with their findings and, if the JVP’s allegation is true, pressure must be brought to bear on the government and the UGC to increase the university intake forthwith.

We suggest that Parliament have a separate debate on the issue raised by the JVP. It is a crime to deprive students of their right to education.