Ceylon Today Editorial

THE SCOURGE OF A BLOOD SUCKER

 18 December 2016

The Ceylon Tobacco Company has arrogantly hit back against the Government of Sri Lanka by pulling out from the list of contributors to the vitally important, social service oriented President's Fund because the 2017 Budget imposed higher tobacco taxes. One reason given for this by the government...and rightly so...is that those who contribute to creating the splurge of lung and heart diseases by the grossly immoral act of seducing even pre-teens into cigarette addiction, much the same way in which heroin and cocaine peddlers seduce the unwary to their ultimate pathetic deaths, must also be obligated to contribute towards meeting part of the mammoth medical expenses sustained by the government to treat such affected persons in government hospitals.

The licence to sell tobacco products becomes as or more destructive than the driving licence issued by bribe-takers at the RMV's Department to three-wheeler and bus drivers.
Both are guaranteed to steal, destroy and kill.

And, riled up against this legitimate move of the government, the Tobacco industry has the gumption, the sheer audacity, to hit back by saying "we will not contribute to the President's Fund anymore". Can anything be more nauseatingly uglier and repulsive than a bloodsucker walking away from moral obligations in relation to bearing expenses for deaths caused by him?

It is well known that the proceeds of sales of cigarettes are remitted back to principals abroad...a huge drain on foreign exchange that the nation can ill afford. But true to the spirit and nature of a cancer feeding on its victim unto death, these tobacco moguls evince not a shred of decency when it comes to meeting their social obligations. They quite amazingly contend that their paltry contribution to the President's Fund suffices to compensate for the death dealing product they palm off to tobacco addicts. That in too many cases such addiction means the addict deprives his wife and children of essential nourishment and medical care, even schooling and house rents to feed his addiction seems to not concern the tobacco company in the least. How bloody, and more animalistic a level of moral depravity can anyone wallow in than this?

It's time that society took charge of this situation and drove away these tobacco robber barons lest they reach out to the children still to reach their teens with this evil addiction, the bright children still in school, your children and mine, and destroy their lives, at immense cost to society and State, at the cost of valuable lives lost to cardiovascular diseases and lethargy, causing the loss of millions of manhours of work by employees taking ten 10-minute breaks for a 'smoke.'

That's an immensely huge cost to pay for the mere purpose of permitting, nay legally licensing, this assault on the nation's health and economy, by men intent on sucking the blood of this nation to drain out every last dollar they can to remit back to their home countries. The directors of these companies must be compelled to visit the hospitals in which their victims die pathetically helpless deaths despite the best medi-care at great expense from the State. They must be taken to the homes of tobacco addicts who dig into the finances meant for family necessities, finances which these corrupt men insist they have a right to. Threaten that 'right' and they dare to arrogantly hit back threatening what is in very simple words a crude attempt to blackmail the government!

There's no need to quote the Central Bank's figures which show what an immense drain on the national wealth the tobacco moguls siphon out of the country. The movement for social justice that hoisted this government into power would do well to examine this scourge on the health and wealth of this country, its destructive effects on the lives of our budding youth and the serious erosion of finances in multiple thousands of our homes.

One cannot see the logic in narcotics being treated as a heinous crime when tobacco is not one whit less in its comparative range and scale of destruction.

It would do the government and the nation well if a decision is made to criminalize tobacco sales instead of affording this inexorable killer and destroyer of the economy the legitimacy it now enjoys.
The government and society must hit back...hard !

Weekend Nation Editorial

Hold next local polls on hybrid system

18 December 2016

Having seen the dark side of the preferential voting system across the political spectrum, there seem to be general consensus that what is ideal for the country would be a hybrid system of first-past-the-post and PR systems. The ugliest face of the PR system became manifest with bitter fighting at election times even among the members of the same party often leading to violence and mayhem.

Another negative aspect that has been often highlighted by the people is the disadvantage of not having a particular member to address the issues of a given locality because under the PR whole district is considered an electorate. The PR system also gives opportunity for corrupt candidates who are unpopular in their own locality to win votes from the rest of the district by throwing money. Thus, the system facilitates the easy entry of undesirable elements who have no education but enough funds to spend.

These are some of the reasons that triggered the call for reintroduction of the ward system in local government elections based on first-past-the-post voting. However, with the present delay in holding local polls often attributed to non-completion of re-demarcating electorates and wards, suggestions have been made that elections should be held on the existing PR system this time as well. Those asking for this tries to justify their demand on the basis it is better to have elections on whatever system than postponing it indefinitely.

There are also allegations that the government is making use of the delay in delimitation of electorates to postpone the local polls because of their inability to face people with rising prices of commodities and the burdens heaped on them. While it is morally wrong and undemocratic to restrict the people of their right to vote, a government that came into power on a promise of changing the electoral system has a greater responsibility to hold elections on the modified system.

Moreover, if the intention of the government is to cleanse the electorate as promised and ensure that better quality representatives are elected to the local bodies there should not be any purposeful delay in holding elections. And if elections are to be held mid next year as currently speculated they should be held on a mix of PR and first-past-the-post systems.

Sunday Times Editorial

Road tragedies: Govt. must act decisively

18 December 2016

For a Government that acted at the speed of greased lightning, and with a heavy hand (pun intended) by the Navy to rescue two foreign ships held hostage by striking workers at the Hambantota Port, its weak-kneed approach to the striking private bus operators and to buckle under their pressure stands in sharp contrast.

As irony has it, the Government moved in swiftly in the Hambantota harbour matter with the public not so much with the port workers demands and the questionable exercise of their trade union rights. Yet, they were concerned about the Agreement signed with a Chinese company. On the other hand, the Government seemed to apply the brakes on the private bus operators demanding a halt to the imposition of higher fines for traffic misdemeanours even though in this case, the public seemed overwhelmingly on the Government’s side.

Nobody still knows for sure what the Government’s ultimate decision is on the traffic fines. The fines themselves seemed somewhat unrealistic and hastily introduced. Once, the Supreme Court had to knock down speeding fines because there were no markings to indicate speed limits. The markings are there now, but out-of-date with better road surfaces meant to reduce travel journeys.

There is a vicious circle, however, that needs to be broken – the nexus between the Police and the errant bus driver is a public secret, and a shame on the Police. Something still has to be done to curb reckless driving. There is a fine for drunken-driving, but no mechanism to detect intoxication by other means, like soft drugs and even chewing betel. Still, the Government, especially the President, is unable to fix this problem having put the heavy fines issue on hold when the public is clamouring for action and understandably so – with a shocking eight (8) deaths on the highways every day in 2015 and 2016, leave alone serious injuries. It just shows a lack of ability to take decisive action.

Decisive action is what the Government requires — if it can ask the Navy to show its colours on World Human Rights Day to boot. The Commander led from the front — manhandling a journalist performing his professional duties under the Constitution. That the UN Torture Committee had just passed strictures on Sri Lanka was lost on him.

This also distracts from the issue of the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) that the Government has entered into for the Hambantota port – the Sri Lanka Public has 20 per cent and the Chinese Private has 80 percent of the PPP. This is a partnership where the private Chinese company is the virtual precedent-partner. The 15,000 acres in and around the area given to the Chinese have raised the ‘sell out’ cry. The Government is mostly to blame for not convincing the country of the merits, if any, of the Agreement.

On the other hand, secrecy maybe what is called for if the US$ 1.4 billion selling price cannot be justified and is just a mess of pottage for a chunk of Sri Lanka’s limited real estate, as detractors seem to think it is.

The migrant workers and the economy

If the Government is bending backwards to facilitate a piece of Sri Lanka’s real estate to a Chinese company – for 99 years at a price tag of US$ 1.4 billion, one can only imagine what it must do to Sri Lanka’s own migrant workers who keep sending as much as US$ 7 billion each year to the country as remittances making the Chinese ‘sale’ seem a pittance in comparison.

In return, next to nothing is done for their benefit. MPs import duty free cars with that hard earned money and sell it overnight making a ‘killing’, the country imports its oil and food with that money, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just does not bother to send more women officers to Sri Lanka missions in West Asia and the Gulf region where thousands of women work so they can provide them some assistance and comfort when in distress. These migrant workers do not even have a vote, and Governments are probably reluctant to give them the franchise fearing it might boomerang on them for not doing enough.

Today marks International Day of the Migrant Worker and it is closely associated not just with the workers toiling overseas, but refugees from conflict zones around the world; those from poverty stricken nations; and those just fleeing their country because their political leaders have given them no hope for a bright future despite all the rhetoric and the hollow promises and platitudes from public platforms.

Only a fortnight ago, the Australian Head of Border Protection Operations told the Sunday Times he was at a loss to understand why Sri Lankans were still trying to enter his country illegally. He was obviously being too diplomatic. The answer is just too obvious. Despite all the ‘Pampoori” of the politicians from all sides, a local idiom that means ‘idle boasts’, the people have lost confidence in all of these politicians leading them to the Promised Land. The ‘Gateway of South Asia’ that is talked about seems to be the ‘Get Away’ instead. That has to be a sobering thought to the powers that be.

Sri Lanka faces danger even in this export industry of the migrant worker. The lack of skilled and semi-skilled workers now opting to drive tuk-tuks and make a quick buck at home instead, with more restrictions on women workers going abroad for work, and the slump in world oil prices having a direct bearing on West Asian and Gulf economies, Sri Lanka’s reliance on easy foreign exchange from our migrant workers is limited.

It is with this hard earned foreign remittances of our migrant workers that the country is kept afloat, not by so-called foreign investors, aid and loans either by the Chinese or the IMF, nor by PPPs. In return, the 2017 budget has allocated a beggarly sum of less than 0.1 per cent of the budget for their welfare and well-being. That is the gratitude successive Governments have paid to these men and women sweating it out in inhospitable environments.

On this Global Migrant Labour Day, spare a thought for those Sri Lankans who are keeping this country’s economy afloat.

Sunday Observer Editorial

Chinese roles

18 December 2016
 

At the time the Hambantota development deals were made, the country engaged to undertake this ‘development’, China, was dubbed by the deal-signing politicians – principally the former President and his coterie of family politicians – as the country’s best friend and saviour who deserved the choicest parts of the island for its ventures. Indeed, the Sri Lanka Army was hustled out of its historic headquarters site in the heart of Colombo to make way for Chinese investments in hotels and commercial complexes.

Now, the very political leaders who championed China while they were in power during the last regime, are campaigning against China’s helping hand today. As these columns pointed out last week, China is a great power legitimately seeking influence along its vital sea lanes just as all other regional and global powers do. Whether a great power obtains such influence by friendly deals with countries on these routes or, by guile and even pressures, is up to the world and especially the people of those countries to decide. If cunning governing politicians in those countries think fit to line their pockets in the process, it is up to their citizens to deal with that corruption.

In Sri Lanka, the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime clearly made hay while the Chinese sun shone on them. But today the former President and his closest political associates are busy ‘warning’ Sri Lankans about China and, the Chinese about Sri Lankans!

Chinese firms agreed earlier this month to take on the burden of risk in operating the reconfigured airport and harbour complexes in Hambantota. Even as the ink on those agreements were drying, the former President and his political family quickly seized on the immediate predicament of the harbour workers to stir up union agitation that almost sabotaged future prospects for the port.

The employment status of these workers, which are a secondary issue arising from the new venture agreements, has now been resolved by the Government – as it probably would have been, anyway, given time, without agitation by politicians and their followers.

But it is not so much the interests of the people of Hambantota or, of the country as a whole, that is the priority for the former President who, while waging war in a part of his own country, assiduously cultivated the image of a national ‘hero’ for himself and his brothers.

The former President, having just last week warned Sri Lankans in his home district, Hambantota, against further Chinese roles in the district, is now seemingly warning potential Chinese investors about hostility by Sri Lankans to any investments here! That is the import of his threat to annul Chinese investment agreements recently negotiated by the Government.

This rigmarole can only be seen as continued attempts by the former President and his political associates to undermine the determined efforts by the new Government to salvage a modicum of sustainable operationality for the Hambantota’s deep sea port and international airport.

The Chinese, whose heroism in defeating successive imperial forces and reviving their great civilisation is acknowledged the world over, must be wondering at this ‘heroism’ by a national leader who is decrying his own country people. Certainly, Beijing will begin to realise the degree of ‘sustainability’ of this kind of politics and the usefulness of diplomacy with such politicians.

The people of Hambantota are also learning the value of international aid and solidarity by China irrespective of the government or personalities in power.

Christmas and trees

The Christian festival of ‘Christmas’ is also the religious festival that is marked by the greatest commercial activity for any religious event by the country’s commercial sector. Irrespective of their own religion or, non-religion, many, if not most, commercial ventures, especially in regions with a Christian population, deck their shops and establishments with Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, included.

Much of the décor of Christmas derives not so much from the doctrine itself but from the festive traditions of many different cultures which have absorbed Christianity as a religion of their populations. After all, the date of Christmas is derived from ancient traditions of Sun worship in tribal Europe when the missionaries sought to consolidate the faith in those societies. Likewise, the use of the fir tree – not native to this country – derives from similar non-Christian origins.

Common symbols are certainly useful as markers of community and help unite people in positive ways necessary to sustain the dynamic of community and social cohesion, that, itself, is essential for human survival. But such symbols need not be strict definers of faith and religious loyalties. That is left to the believers themselves and their interpretation of doctrine rather than ephemeral cultural practices.

Hence, the Christmas Tree which has come in for some public discussion these past weeks, must be seen not so much as a definer of religion but as a mere symbol of festivity – festivities being the right of all people irrespective of religion. Thus, if a large workers’ union wants to erect a giant Christmas tree on Galle Face Green for festive purposes using private funds, all that should worry concerned citizens (irrespective of their religion) is the question of a clean and safe environment at the site and also the danger of deforestation.

Ideally the Christian community could lead the way in protecting our dwindling forests by ending the use of natural fir trees for festive purposes. And, if costly festivities offend in the face of continued poverty and social deprivation, then, again, the Christian community can be an example of rigorous piety in which the joy of Christmas is not so much in the parties and wining and dining but, in the celebration of a hallowed re-commitment of faith in service to the Other as preached by Lord Jesus and fore grounded by the Prophets.

Sunday Island Editorial

Peopling the ‘revolution’

18 December 2016

 

The word ‘revolution’ is a bit like love.  It’s over-used to the point that it has lost all meaning and has been discredited to the point that even in advertising it is now passé.  And yet the word has not lost any of its currency, never mind knowledge of its meaning among its users.  This is why even a mere electoral result is described as a ‘revolution’.  Like the one on January 8, 2015.

Perhaps it needs to be read as an expression of exultation by the victors and their supporters or an anticipation that things will change radically.  The former would make every regime-change a revolution and if the realization of hope is the test, then the electoral victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005 can be counted as one.  After all an outcome was yielded during his tenure that everyone was relentlessly told was impossible — the military defeat of the LTTE.   

What happened in January 2015 was also something that was considered impossible — an electoral defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa — but that invincibility was hardly hammered into the psyche of the general public with the kind of ferocity that marked the doctrine of invincibility as far as the LTTE was concerned.  Nevertheless, when impossible becomes possible, it generates much euphoria and one might even say ‘triumphalism’.  

Reality rises, through all of that, sooner or later.  This, however, does not mean that hope should be buried or that an new edition of regime-change should be plotted.  What it calls for is sober assessment.

The winning combination was a hastily cobbled gathering whose principal commonality was antipathy to the incumbent.    It was not going to be a yahapalana government by yahapalanists (i.e. those who understood the term ‘good governance’, subscribed to it in word and deed, and knew what has to be done to make it real) and, one could add, for yahapalanists.  It was a programme that unified enough forces to yield just enough numbers to ensure victory over a particular regime, but not everyone who jumped on the yahapalana bandwagon were or are yahapalanists.  It is those who harboured the illusion who are disappointed most.  Other disappointments are the common kind, those which blame governments for not doing or doing, as the case may be, and have little to do with angst over revolutionary let-down.  

In any event, even the most ardent opponent of this government would, if pushed to sober deliberation, acknowledge that a) yahapalanaya was going to be an uphill task anyway because significant numbers of politicians, officials as well as citizens were clueless and clueing them in would take a lot of time and persuasion, b) that uphill task was made even more difficult by the unfamiliar terrain of arch rivals finding themselves forced to cohabit, and c) some important advances have been made on key fronts, including constitutional reform and media rights, over and above the usual pluses expected during the post-election honeymoon.

In retrospect, even the cautious celebration expressed in the term ‘Low-intensity revolution’ used by Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, seems optimistic.  The truth is that the disappointments of the yahapalana-hopefuls is not something that should worry the government right now.  It may matter in an election, because the possible neutralization of a key opinion-making segment might make a difference, but right now it’s the disappointments and even anger of the general public including groups of professionals that should worry the government.   

The slip-ups have ranged from the usual fax pas from ministers and officials to questionable handling of the Central Bank bond issue scandal.   Between these there are innumerable let-ups that could be called disappointing but then again could also be understood as the product of ‘politics as usual’.  The more serious issue is the perception that this is a do-nothing government, a regime that’s big on talk and small on delivery.  

To be fair, orchestrating recovery in an economy marked by mindless expenditure, a fascination with loans, wastage and mismanagement, is no easy task.  It’s certainly not something that can be done overnight or even within the course of two years.  The Prime Minister clearly has a pulse not only on promises but on delivery, and indeed on the perceived slowness and disappointments. 

"They want to see the delivery taking place, that’s what we are focussing on. Once the delivery is assured, it will cease to be a major problem. Till then you’ve got to live with a thorn on your side, and I think our political parties are capable of doing that," he said, referring to the noises made by the Joint Opposition.  

This, however, is another promise.  If there’s focus, then it’s clearly behind-the-scenes.  The ‘thorn in the side’ notwithstanding, what needs to be done has to be done and in fact can be done if there’s focus and if there’s the critical mass of committed, capable and efficient people on your side.  If indeed such people exist, they can’t all be behind the scenes simple because the screens won’t cover all.  What does get seen does not exactly cause anyone to hope.  

The government can point to a human resource issue that is not of its making, but this will not help calm down a people who have been taught to live in and demand the here-and-now ever since 1977.  

Dealing with the opposition has for too long taken centre-stage.  It is as though the spectre of the Rajapaksas is freezing the government.  The Prime Minister has correctly said that if things get done, that factor would diminish, but therein lies the rub: there’s an ‘if’ and ‘when’ in the business of getting things done. In other words, time is running out.  

The ruling coalition, for all the occasional claims of unity, is a shaky disposition.  The Prime Minister claims that  "people like the idea of the two main parties - SLFP and UNP working together," but one wonders if ‘the people’ referred to are only those politicians who have benefitted from the arrangement.  The people, common sense indicates, are less interested in political arrangements at the top than what it yields by way of benefits to them.  

The government probably has a plan.  It appears that the plan is not being communicated well enough, not to those tasked to implement it and not to the people.  That’s a communications problem and is easily rectified.  The more serious issue is one of getting the right people on board.  Right now, it’s clear that the government is floundering on this score.  Correctable, of course, but with difficulty.  It’s not an issue that will go away and it is certainly not something that can be wished away.

So we can call it ‘revolution’ or a ‘tea party’ or whatever, but if the right people are not around, it’s not going to be a lot of fun, that much is assured.