Ceylon Today Editorial

CREATING JOBS FOR O/L DROPOUTS

16 February 2017

Despite the slew of attacks on the government ever since it took office two years ago leading to the government getting embroiled in serious issues relating to financial wrongdoing, one is struck by the obvious warmth with which President Maithripala Sirisena greeted Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe when the latter arrived at the Independence Day celebrations at Galle Face. It might have made close observers from among government's critics, including some MPs in the Joint Opposition vanguard who have been trying their utmost to drive a wedge between the President and Premier, wince in disgust at this obvious flaunting of the camaraderie between the two leaders. That this display of a strong and friendly bond (no pun intended) came just a week after the President appointed a Special Presidential Commission to probe the alleged Central Bank Bond scam, that the rag-tag opposition has taken great pains to ensure reflected badly on the Premier and the former CB Governor, would have sent positive signals once more to potential foreign investors who go by body language in serious matters such as bringing in huge investments to Sri Lanka. One's memory goes back to the 1950s in the US when Republican Richard Nixon assured the then rising star J.F. Kennedy that his eight months absence from the US Congress would not be exploited to erode the Democrat's wafer thin majority of just two members. Those were the days when gentlemen sat in political office, when there was morality in high places. Nixon commanded even the admiration of JFK's father who sent him a special message assuring him of his fullest support for the run for the presidency should the Dems not nominate his son JFK as his rival candidate. All of that despite the fact that Nixon has got truly scared of the potential Kennedy challenge for the Presidency, which he won in the end. It did not in the least drive a wedge between the two who shared a mutual admiration one for the other.

The display that almost went unnoticed at Galle Face that morning evoked emotions which the Nixon-Kennedy symbiosis evoked, a symbiosis that makes possible, in the jaws of a vicious opposition assault as it were, a slow but steady inching upwards towards development in real terms via projects which have trickle-down benefits for the people..

This was in no small way emphasized at the launch of the Wayamba River Project that will bring Mahaweli waters circuitously to thousands of farmer families. Most might have missed the fact that back in November last year, just four months ago, Premier Wickremesinghe pledged the creation of jobs for the youth in Wayamba via an industrial zone in Bingiriya and thus enhance their lifestyles... These were burning issues that were ignored by preceding governments over the past 25 years. On that occasion Premier Wickremesinghe initiated a scheme whereby low income members in the Wayamba Cooperative Development Society could receive housing loans

He added that the government's aim was to provide underdeveloped areas with roads, electricity, safe water for drinking and for irrigation, and health facilities.

Last Monday saw the President fulfilling the pledge about water for drinking, domestic use and irrigation in Wayamba with waters from the Moragahakanda Reservoir that flow through the Kurunegala District - a far cry from the negative flyovers, bridges and other infrastructure projects which had no trickle-down benefits for the people. The Prime Minister said that the government will also expand education opportunities in rural areas, with two more national schools in Kurunegala and Malkaduwawa.

It is in this context, however, that we must of necessity ask why the bulk of development projects go to either China, the US, India and Japan, especially when it's time we told the EU to get lost and directly woo European investors to invest in ventures which supply the export products under the still suspended GSP+ facility. The US is forging bilateral trade ties with the UK and some EU Member States, with Trump tearing up the Trans-Pacific-Partnership agreement. The government has been led astray by the private sector's tunnel vision in relation to GSP+ and needs to adopt a more dynamic approach to increasing imports.

Regaining GSP+ is not going to create the multiple thousands of jobs needed by our youth. But a foreign investor coming here with a project will create a thousand jobs.

Government intends introducing the US system of education in which there are no examinations. Over 200,000 students who don't qualify for higher education will be looking for jobs every year even if 100,000 of over 300,000 who don't qualify for higher education, do opt to pursue higher education elsewhere.

Foreign investments in large scale projects alone can create the huge number of jobs which will be needed annually for over 200,000 O/L dropouts.

Daily News Editorial

Correcting the prisons

16 February 2017

Serving time in a prison is no enjoyable experience, but prisons have the unenviable task of reforming even hardened criminals so that they would not repeat their offences. But the conditions at our prisons leave a lot to be desired and most prisons tend to be overcrowded. The Government has vowed to address this problem and the first steps in this direction have already been taken.

There was a dire need for a more spacious prison complex with all facilities for the inmates. With the Bogambara Prison already vacated and the magazine prison in Colombo too slated to be moved elsewhere along with the planned replacement of the Tangalle prison, Angunukolapelessa was chosen as the best location for a new prisons complex. Another aim of these moves is to free up valuable real estate in the major cities now occupied by prisons.

Work on the prison complex in Angunukolapelessa is almost complete. Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Mahinda Amaraweera recently inspected the prison complex. The new prison which will replace the Tangalle Prison has accommodation for 1,500 inmates and is equipped with a gymnasium, swimming pool and a playground. It has been built in keeping with international standards to treat prisoners in a humanitarian manner.

This will certainly be a new experience for our justice and prisons systems. A prison’s main objective is to “correct” the inmates and in fact, in many countries prisons are known as correctional centres. There was a proposal earlier to rename the Sri Lanka Department of Prisons as the Department of Corrections to highlight this purpose, but what became of this proposal is not clear. It is worth considering again.

Prisons too are changing with the times and the concept of locking up prisoners in tiny cells for 20 hours a day is passé. Most countries now have virtually open-air prisons where the inmates are given more time to learn new things, read, play and enjoy each other’s company through which they gradually begin to abhor their mistakes and the lives they led previously. Some countries have experimented with radio arm bands affixed to the prisoners’ wrists, which warn the jailors if their charges try to leave a defined area. Usually, when the prisoners leave the prison at the end of their sentence, they are fit enough to join the society as useful, law-abiding citizens.

Our prisons, including remand prisons, are overcrowded mainly because many people cannot afford to pay the fines imposed by courts for minor offences. This is a huge burden on the prisons system. The authorities must explore the possibility of having other mechanisms to reform such individuals.

We hope that with the opening of new prisons complexes, the authorities will be able to tackle the scourge of corruption in prisons. It is no secret that narcotics are smuggled into prisons regularly. Many prisoners are also reported to be using mobile phones inside their cells, which is a strict no-no in prisons. There have been reports of crime lords directing contract hits from their prison cells via mobile phones. The prisoners should have no access to phones or SIM cards. Any corrupt officials must be dealt with severely.

There is also a widespread notion that so-called elite prisoners including politicians are treated differently from ordinary prisoners. We have seen many instances of politicians who attend the courts by ambulance and go straight to the prisons hospital or even the Merchant Ward of the National Hospital without spending even an hour inside a cell. This erodes the very credibility of our justice system and calls into question the concept of equality and fair play before the law. Rich or poor, powerful or powerless, the law should apply to all equally.

A spike in crimes including murders has again prompted calls for the restoration of Capital Punishment, which has not been carried out in this country since June 1976. However, the Prisons Department is still maintaining the gallows and recently recruited two executioners after a lengthy process. There is a raging debate in society and the media about the effectiveness of the death penalty because violent crimes rates have not gone down significantly even in countries where the ultimate punishment is active.

Most Human Rights organisations are actively opposed to the death penalty, which has also been blighted by several cases of wrongful convictions. That is one mistake that cannot be undone. On the other hand, a life sentence gives the offender no respite from his own guilty conscience and a non-offender does have the chance of proving his or her innocence even years later as more forensic technology and techniques become available. In fact, several people convicted wrongfully have proved their innocence following fresh DNA or forensic evidence.

But the best approach is to prevent crime altogether. Many say that a society bereft of moral values has led to this situation. If everyone follows the moral precepts advocated by the great religious leaders, there will be no impetus for crime. That is one goal that we should collectively strive to attain.

The Island Editorial

Y’palana cooks brawl; people starve

16 February 2017

The yahapalana administration is like a soup kitchen where cooks are brawling while the poor are desperately waiting outside to dull the pangs of hunger. The term, ‘national unity government’, is a misnomer. Ministers, representing the two main parties, which have opted for a political marriage of convenience, are at daggers drawn. They clash at the drop of a hat, levelling as they do, very serious allegations against one another. The on-going dispute over corruption at the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) is a case in point. President Maithripala Sirisena’s brother, Dudley, who is a big-time rice miller himself and Minister P. Harrison have sought to pass the blame for the current rice shortage and the attendant high prices to each other.

The only institution that seems to function efficiently under the present government is the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) tasked with probing Opposition politicians. That is because the constituents of the ruling coalition are all agreed on the need to keep the Joint Opposition at bay.

The yahapalana leaders are struggling to make rice available at reasonable prices because they are aware that shortages of that staple have the potential to bring down governments. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has imposed a price ceiling on some varieties of rice, which traders have stopped selling, claiming that they don’t want to incur losses. The challenge before the government is to make paddy and rice available without shifting the onus entirely to retailers. President Sirisena has intervened to tackle the rice crisis and is seen on television issuing orders to ministers and officials. But, the problem persists.

In handling the rice shortage, the government is busy treating symptoms rather than the cause of the disease, which is the market manipulation by the politically backed millers’ Mafia. Why the yahapalana regime has baulked at taking on big-time millers is understandable; some ruling politicians and their kith and kin are among them. If their warehouses in the North Central Province, especially Polonnaruwa, are raided and the paddy stocks hoarded therein released to the market the shortage of rice can be overcome overnight.

Regretfully, one main reason why the public is in this predicament without rice freely available at affordable prices is that corrupt politicians and officials are meddling with the PMB, which has the potential to act as a counterbalance to the powerful Millers’ Mafia. If this vital institution, which the UNP once eviscerated for the benefit of its cronies in the rice business, is revitalised and rid of corruption, it will be able to help stabilise paddy and rice prices.

One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his allies rake the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government over the coals for the current rice shortage. While in power they also chose to steer clear of the Millers’ Mafia, which put paid to their efforts to control rice prices. They, to their credit, revived the PMB, but, sadly, failed to unleash its full potential to bring relief to the public. Huge stocks of rice imported for distribution through Sathosa were sold to mudalalis and even delivered to their warehouses straight from the Colombo Port. The incumbent President Sirisena was the Minister of Agriculture at that time and his sibling Dudley and his kinsman Deputy Minister Siripala Gamlath were involved in the rice trade. The Rajapaksa government did nothing to liberate farmers and consumers from the clutches of the Millers’ Mafia. It only resorted to ad hoc measures such as importing rice. The Joint Opposition cannot fool the public by shedding copious tears for them.

Any strategy to make rice available at reasonable prices should be aimed at taming the Millers’ Mafia and ridding the PMB of political interference and corruption. Mere rhetoric won’t do. It is hoped that the yahapalana pundits who have already urged the public to eat croton and jak leaves won’t recommend grass seeds as a substitute for rice.