The Island Editorial

Of that offer to resign

03 February 2017

Rural Economic Affairs Minister P. Harrison has offered to resign from Parliament if the Joint Opposition’s allegation that he has caused a Rs. 10 bn loss to the country through a paddy racket is proved. His critics including President Maithripala Sirisena’s brother, Dudley, who himself is a rice mill owner, insist that the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) stocks have been sold below the market prices and middlemen have made a killing.

The Joint Opposition (JO) has made complaints against Harrison to the Committee to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and the CID. But, it is doubtful whether they will ever conduct investigations against a government minister. Harrison has also threatened to sue the JO for defaming him.

It may not be fair for anyone to prejudge Minister Harrison or subject him to a media trial. Allegations against him have not yet been substantiated and the JO cannot be expected to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But, there is no way Minister Harrison can prove his innocence by offering to resign if his rivals could substantiate their claims. For, even the allegations against the JO members who have not been out of power for more than two years have yet been proved. The government hasn’t left any stone unturned in its efforts to have its opponents thrown behind bars, but it has failed in its endeavour. Its failure, however, does not mean that the big guns of the former government are innocent; most of them abused their power to cover their tracks. That is the name of the game in politics. If allegations against Opposition politicians cannot be substantiated, how can those against incumbent ministers be proved?

President Sirisena has appointed a commission to probe the bond scams. That is a step in the right direction. It is hoped that the high-level investigation will help make the culprits pay for their crime. He should also have allegations of bribery and corruption against government politicians probed in a similar manner. The alleged PMB racket if allowed to go uninvestigated will damage what remains of the image of the yahapalana government, which promised to rid the country of abuse of power, cronyism, bribery and corruption.

Meanwhile, it behoves the self-appointed champions of good governance in the present administration to be above suspicion like Caesar’s wife. After all, that is what they promised before the last presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mind-boggling tech

How man is pushing the envelope of science and technology is amazing. Experiments continue to throw up fascinating results in every field. A Swiss-led international team of scientists has just unveiled a technology to read the minds of completely locked-in syndrome (CLIS) victims who are paralysed and unable even to move their eyes though their mental faculties are preserved. This kind of thought reading, based on measuring blood oxygen levels and electrical activity in the brain enables scientists to elicit answers either in the affirmative or the negative to the questions posed to CLIS patients.

The mind-reading technology has provided an answer to a moral question frequently raised about patients’ desire to live even in a locked-in state. Lead scientist Prof. Niels Birbaumer has revealed that four CLIS patients have answered the question whether they were happy in the affirmative. "All four had accepted artificial ventilation in order to sustain their life, when breathing became impossible; thus, in a sense, they have already chosen to live." He says that as long as the patients receive satisfactory care at home they find their quality of life acceptable. This finding is very significant in that it has revealed whether life if worth living for most bedridden patients depends on the quality of care giving.

The new technology is still at a binary stage but offers promise of communication to thousands of active brains trapped in still mortal coils the world over. One hopes that it will be developed further before long and interaction made possible for hapless patients lying supine motionless for years on end.

Every new innovation comes with some built-in risks, so to speak; it lends itself to abuse in most cases. Certain medicinal drugs are being abused with a measure of macabre ideology thrown in to produce suicide bombers and other such killing machines. Reading minds like books has so far been possible only in the realm of sci-fi, but the telepathic technology which has just been unveiled may have the potential to go beyond its usefulness to CLIS patients and be a dangerous tool if falls into the wrong hands.

Nothing is more relieving to patients who languish in their own worlds, unable to communicate with others, than being able to pierce the wall of silence that surrounds them. Blessed are the researchers who have made interaction possible for those hapless souls!