Weekend Nation Editorial

Respect…. Where art thou

19 February 2017

Sri Lankans have become so used to be waiting, waiting for things to happen, and waiting on the roads wondering who is protesting and for what.

We have got so used to them. We grumble, we blast the government and the police, in our heads of course, but wait patiently till we reach our destination.

The Sri Lankan roads reflect our thinking, our mentality, and our respect to others. Not all of us drive in the same manner. Some are hasty and switch lanes all the time while some are patient and stick to a lane most of the time.

Some give the space to other drivers while others constantly blink, toot horns and display all sorts of hand gestures if you are too slow. Some are so frantic that they toot the moment they see a small space before the vehicle in front of them. What’s the hurry? A long line of vehicles at a location of a colour light with several roads meeting, motorists with engines idling wasting money and fuel for over three or four minutes because, in true Sri Lankan style the colour light system installed at a cost of several millions of rupees has been switched off by a policeman who has taken upon himself to defy all of which sophisticated technology and traffic density data has supported in the colour light system and doling out his version of traffic control. When the whole world is adopting IT supported electronic traffic control, we in Sri Lanka is unique in our retrogression to the primitive. No wonder, we are the “Wonder of Asia”.

Case study number one – we do not “respect” sophistication, we do not respect productivity, we do not respect the value of time, we do not respect our economy or foreign exchange in the fuel wasted all over our cities at these interminable policeman-manufactured traffic jams.

Same location, up comes a line of vehicles on the wrong side of the road, overtaking all the waiting denizens with flashing lights with the famous pilot complete with security men waving arms in millipede fashion at all and sundry in the vehicle in front the pilot jeep and that popular term “back up in the rear”. In the middle is the VIP vehicle. Reposed is a “servant of the people” before elections, now a fully-fledged political heavy. Not only does this convoy whiz up to the head of the line, but, overrides the policeman, any oncoming vehicle and continues merrily on. Not so merry for us servants hibernating in the queue. Perhaps, the “servant of the people” was in a hurry on an urgent mission. Common sight on most roads. Case study number two – if all our politicians were in this mighty hurry to attend to their tasks, then, Singapore, Malaysia and China will be at our doorstep, oops airport, to follow our model of success.

Stand at a queue in a supermarket, or a bank or just to buy a theatre ticket, there is that queue-jumper who sneaks up. The worst is at a drugstore where the pharmacist can serve only one customer at a time taking care not to dispense drugs inconsistent with prescriptions, up comes the oddball.

Are we a society that is fast failing to respect our fellows, or becoming increasingly selfish? The UK believed to be the birthplace of “first in, first out” may have an answer to sociologists. Persistent parental influence upon children to compete to secure first place at any cost is the first instillation of disregard to fair play and respect. No longer are kids encouraged to play board games as snakes and ladders, ludo, draughts, where, waiting ones turn is a must. Today’s average urban children have none of that, with or without parental approval they are prisoners of a TV screen playing a sole electronic game of defeating the enemy.

It is timely that the educational system incorporated space for students for games, debate, rather than following a rat race of tuition from morning till night, ultimately turning out a youngster who cannot Interact with the daily problems of life and becomes a social misfit in the workplace.

Respect towards others is quintessence of social justice, it is the inalienable right for equal treatment. If a society is to flourish the swords of competition have to be tempered with fair play and respect. The more a society understands the need to respect others that society will be richer in conforming to distributive justice.

The Golden Rule or Rule of Reciprocity dictum “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is what all Sri Lankans will have to remember.

Sunday Times Editorial

Disaster Prevention

19 February 2017

Did Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, now Dr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, overreact in asking the Cabinet to declare a State of Emergency and to call out the troops to meet the challenge of an impending drought? Or has the rest of the Government disregarded the ground realities of what has been termed the worst spell of dry weather in four decades?
Even the President was alarmed. So much so that he asked for foreign aid to meet the challenge. Asking for foreign assistance seems now a bad habit cultivated by successive governments to tide over internal difficulties. Whichever, the PM’s decision and the Administration’s indecision, it is yet another example of the coalition Government in power and place taking different paths – to nowhere.

In this instance it was not a clash of political ideologies but just a restraining order of sorts on the PM by a Minister in charge of Disaster Management clearly backed by the President. Which is always not a bad thing. Checks and balances within a Government are part of good governance, provided the final decision is the best for the country. And yet, it also gives the wrong signals that nothing moves in the country because what A proposes B disposes.

The drought itself is terribly harsh in the districts of Trincomalee, Gampaha, Matara, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Anuradhapura, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy and Polonnaruwa – 16 out of the 25 in the country. According to official statistics of the Disaster Management Centre, the number badly affected is close to a million people.
Sporadic rains have not helped as they have already been too little too late for the rice-fields and vegetable plots. Water levels have dwindled directly affecting man and beast alike. This has a knock-on effect on sanitation, which in turn triggers disease. Hydroelectricity generation has dropped and industrial waste has polluted some of the remaining water resources.

Average temperatures in Colombo have risen from 27.0C in 2011 to 28.6C in 2016 for January. By next month, the situation is bound to get aggravated. Last year, sports meets were cancelled due to a heat wave. Is the crisis due entirely to climate change? Not necessarily so.

Our provincial correspondents say that farmers have abandoned cultivating paddy fields for the next season. A rice shortage is already to be seen and accusations of a ‘rice millers’ mafia’ at work are the talk of the town.With one or two showers, some sections of the Government feel the drought is over. One swallow does not a summer make, they say and the JVP backed peasant-famer organisations are already making political capital by marching the streets demanding compensation for lost crops.

Even if a State of Emergency was premature, a state of alert and urgency is the need of the hour. We are told the Government is still collecting data and waiting for the heavens to open up while the affected people are in living hell. That is not disaster management; it is a natural disaster.

Committing to the ‘ideals’ of democracy

President Maithripala Sirisena’s declaration this Friday at an induction of Information Officers appointed to ‘Public Authorities’ under the Right to Information (RTI) Act that his Government was committed to RTI as it held ‘ideals such as freedom and democracy for the people, openness and transparency in high regard’ is encouraging to hear.

However, words must match deeds. While it is encouraging that Sri Lanka’s first RTI Commission has this week, in a Public Statement, asserted that it would act as an independent and strong guardian of the public interest, there is only so much that the Commission itself can do in the absence of proper support and resources. Financial and functional independence are inseparably linked. The Commission and the Commissioners must be adequately resourced and have the capacity to make their own recruitments. This is important as the Commission is the RTI Act’s central oversight, policy-making, enforcement and appellate authority,

There is also an immediate conflict of interest to which the Government appears to be oblivious. The Office of the President is also subjected to the RTI Act. It is therefore highly improper for officials in that Office to determine ad hoc financial allocations to the Commission (which appears to be the case now) when those very same officials may be answerable under the RTI Act and disputes therein may be decided upon by the RTI Commission. This ‘arrangement’ must be dispensed with forthwith. The Commission’s independent Fund must be secured by a separate supplementary estimate in the House which the Act requires.

We also hope that the very Information Officers inducted by the President this Friday will be competently trained on the RTI Act rather than only generally. The President’s call for State officials to work together with Government politicians might also convey the wrong meaning when the intention of the new law is to “revolutionise” the culture of secrecy and promote open government.

The RTI Commission must be allowed to function properly lest its members quit in disgust. Its effort in bringing out rules and regulations in an unprecedentedly short time was largely why our RTI regime was elevated globally from 9th to 3rd place. Naturally the Government has been quick to trumpet on Sri Lanka’s momentous distinction.

All that may be well and good. But the Government must also walk the talk in regard to the President’s commitment to ‘freedom and democracy, openness and transparency.’ If the Commission itself and the Commissioners themselves are not adequately — and independently — supported, we may as well say goodbye to that ambitious promise right now.

Sunday Observer Editorial

Drought alarm!

19 February 2017

President Maithripala Sirisena’s directive last week to provide an emergency allowance of Rs. 10,000 per drought-affected farmer family is timely, but much more needs to be done. Fortunately, the President has already formed a task force under his personal supervision to respond to all aspects of the months- long drought, the worst in decades. Of Dry Zone farmer origins himself, Mr. Sirisena is keenly sensitive to the significance of water to agricultural communities.

The current, months-long, drought is the worst in decades and has affected well over a million people in over ten districts across the country. In addition to the loss of water in irrigation-dependent Dry Zone farmlands, the drought has had other severe effects including the decline of water levels in hydro- electric power headworks thereby threatening the country’s power supply.

Even in normally unaffected areas, such as, the populous Kalutara district, reduced water levels in the Kalu Ganga has resulted in seawater intrusion, thereby salinating the water resources of nearly a quarter of a million people living along the river basin.

The presidential task force is already assessing the whole range of impacts across the country and arising emergency needs. If this crisis of Nature worsens, the United Nations, which is already helping monitor the impact, is prepared to step in with additional support.

The expected decline in harvests will affect food supplies, as well as various agri-exports. The one impacts on the health of people, especially, the poor, while the other affects export incomes and the national economy. Reduced agricultural capacities will then affect future crops as well, resulting in a vicious cycle that only governmental and other aid interventions can redress. Thus, both, the immediate and long term impacts must be addressed.

The reduced hydro-electric generating capacity may be met in the short term with enhanced thermal power supplies but that will only add greatly to the nation’s already high fuel bill. Thus, the national power supply agencies need to plan ahead for restrictive power distribution through scheduled power supply cuts as a means of reducing consumption. This requires advance warning to major power consumers in manufacturing and services since negative impacts on these sectors will affect the economy as a whole.

It is up to Sri Lankan agencies and experts, by now well experienced in managing, both, natural and human disasters, to undertake thorough and scientific assessments of impacts and needs. It is also up to these same agencies and experts to rapidly respond to these needs in the most efficient manner without delay.

Too often, the remote rural population’s predicaments go little noticed with little done and often done too late. Inadequate advance notice to industrial sectors will also cause unnecessary loss to the economy that will go beyond the immediate drought itself.

And, Sri Lankan society as a whole has to be sensitised to the growing crisis. Unlike floods or landslides or other sudden disasters that have dramatic instant effects, droughts are a form of ‘creeping’ disaster in which the impacts do not draw immediate public attention in dramatic ways. When floods or other sudden disasters occur, the general Sri Lankan public is known to respond spontaneously and generously. In fact, sometimes the spontaneous popular response has been unmanageable with relief items going astray or excessive.

The news media has an important role to play in bringing the drought crisis close to the hearts and minds of the immediately unaffected population, such as, the urban communities most of whom have greater economic and social capacities that they will willingly share with people in distress if adequately guided. It is up to the media industry to go beyond their immediate market interests to bring such news and information, even if undramatic, to their biggest urban audiences.

There are many possibilities for news media collaboration with the business community in corporate social responsibility activity that could harness social energies. Such social and corporate mobilization could address both, immediate drought relief needs and, also, through creative programs help long-term impact avoidance or amelioration in different agricultural or rural industrial sector affected by drought. The urban energy consumers, for example, need constant education and awareness-building for greater economizing on energy consumption.

The authorities need to collaborate with both, the news media and the corporate sector in enabling such social mobilization. Political leadership is needed by both Government and Opposition for such mobilization for such human succour and safeguarding of long term social prosperity. Sri Lanka must stand up to its reputation as a ‘middle-income country’.

Ceylon Today Editorial

PRESIDENT’S PATIENCE EXHAUSTED?

19 February 2017

Less than a month ago former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga went on record as having said that members of the Joint Opposition are anxious to see a return to power by her successor Mahinda Rajapaksa so that they could return to the bribery and corruption that saturated the former government. A few months before that, too, she was quoted as having said that there was still more work to be done by way of purging the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the pro-Mahinda elements who obviously were being used to destabilize the party and thus weaken President Sirisena's hand, from within the Unity Government. The destabilization we know came by way of complaints that United National Party (UNP) Ministers were blocking Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Deputy and State Ministers from doing a fair job of work. Whether that was an orchestrated thing to drive a wedge between the Prime Minister and the President in a bid to break up the Unity Government is a moot point. One, however, cannot dismiss the possibility at least to some extent that the complaint could hold some water. That does not sound like such a big deal because all they had to do...and can even now do...is to settle separation of functions between a minister, his deputy and a State minister. That's an easily resolvable matter. It's done every hour of the day the whole world over in the State and private sectors between senior executives and junior executives. The problem would appear to be yet another straw to clutch onto in a bid to cause a rift in the government.

There also is the fact that all the SLFPers who are with the Joint Opposition have to date successfully held at bay most prosecutions on allegations of bribery and corruption and want the nightmare to end. They have made it a point to stage an unending stream of protest demonstrations using any lever at hand on any given day. Disgruntled elements who would have been with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Joint Opposition were, to put it bluntly, bought up with portfolios. But their loyalties have always been in doubt.

Back of all of this, however, has been the overriding fact that most of them feel that they are capable of being effective ministers themselves despite the fact that they have little or no track record to back up that position. Perhaps they feel they could get a better deal with ministerial portfolios in an SLFP government instead of having to 'play second fiddle to Ranil's men' as they privately complain. These are the moles in the Unity Government. But irrespective of all of the foregoing, at the end of the day as far as President Sirisena is concerned he knows he cannot count on them to back him to the hilt in the future should he want to continue with the Unity Government himself. That's the rub!

Does the President want to continue in harness with Ranil Wickremesinghe in a Unity Government when he cannot entirely depend on the loyalties of his own SLFP men in its fold? When it's patently clear that his populist policies don't gel with those of Wickremesinghe, does he feel it's time to get these things sorted out before aimlessly continuing with the Unity Government?

With the Local Government elections now possibly closer round the corner than ever before, can he depend on the SLFP's Deputy and State Ministers to truly campaign for nominees of the SLFP Central Committee at the LG elections? Or will they secretly work to ensure voters in their electorates vote for the JO candidates?

The President would of course not have been oblivious to the fact that Premier Wickremesinghe has been assiduously pursuing some tough medium and long-term economic development goals in a manner that's obviously focused on claiming total credit for it around the time that next general election is held. The Prime Minister has also been as thoroughly cultivating friends in key political and business events abroad with an air of certainty that his UNP will once again win a majority in Parliament.

The failure of the Police and legal system to bring to book criminals of the former regime, the suspended crisis of the CB Bond issue, the failure to deliver promises to civil society groups, the China factor, the overwhelming pressures from the Tamil community, the even greater pressure to continuously keep the UNHRC at bay on war crime charges, the mammoth debt crisis against a backdrop of a painfully slow growth... these are collectively a huge burden for him to bear while simultaneously dealing with an unending flow of social havoc created by the Joint Opposition.

Having come thus far, is President Sirisena contemplating some alternative? Like a snap general election? The UNP is as ready as it ever will be for it.

Ceylon Today Editorial

Will Himasha bring the next athletic resurgence?

18 February 2017

Himasha Eshan has been the best hundred metre runner Sri Lanka has ever seen so far up to the 21st century. During 1928 the period when the distances of racers were changed from yards to metres. Until quite a while no Sri Lankan was able to go better than 11.1 secs. But since the 1950s after Navaratnam ran a 10.54, things have been improving and the mark has shifted and today Himasha has established the record at 10.26.

In the early days after getting introduced to metres this improvement happened rather quickly compared to times when the 100 metre timing was stuck in a groove at the 11 sec barrier for a long period. In those past days Sri Lanka sports had closer connections with their Indian counterparts and athletics took the place of pride. By 1948 Sri Lanka already had won Olympic silver for track events and India had not.

Up to the 1960s Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, was rejoiced by the fact of winning that Olympic medal. Athletics was improving, especially, at the school level with coaches like Anthony Abeysekara in the forefront producing some great schoolboy athletes at St. Joseph's College Colombo. He was there to help others who needed attention and was prompt to rush to attend to their needs.

By then we had the great Ethirveerasingham a schoolboy high jumper doing close to 2 metres. 17-year-old Adolf Silva doing 6.4 m in the long jump: These are just two cases of one senior and one junior athlete who were then classed as future stars. There were many more but there not being a future in sports they opted either to concentrate on studies or get into employment as soon as they leave school.

By the 1970s Sri Lanka had proved beyond doubt they were a force to reckon with winning the short distant relays and the dashes especially 400 and 200 metre. This was a possibility due to our closeness to Indian champs such as Milka Singh and Makhan Singh. Wimaladasa 400 m, Rosa distance runner were Asian champions who also contributed heavily towards Sri Lanka being a respected athletics force. Then in the nineties there was Sugath Tillakaratne who ran the 400 in a time of 44.6 to get the Asian Games gold in a record time. Even medalling at the Commonwealth Games and running in the heats of the Olympics.

From these quite encouraging backgrounds there were the emerging performers of the class of Susanthika Jayasinghe who came from a difficult background but had talent that was picked soon enough for her to be a champion athlete locally. Having broken into the Asian circuit around mid-1990s and later come on top of the events with record breaking times she was set for bigger things. Her own initiative paved the way for her to go overseas for training on the invitation of the great Ethirveerasingham to train in the USA and got hold of one of best coaches to train under.

While these were taking part there were others like Dharsha who also became an Asian record holder in the women's 400 and 200 and Sriyani Kulawansa one of best women athletes Sri Lanka has seen, running the 100 m hurdles one of the most difficult disciplines in 12.91 to be an Asian champion.

In the case of Himasha, who has the potential to represent his own country unlike such men as Femi from Africa now representing Qatar and were able to win the Asian game. Being an Asian champion competing against men and women from China, Japan and South Korea is an achievement and let us wish this young man who has been given the chance to train with the best of trainers in the world the best to come up with super running the 100 m dash and overcome the 10 sec barrier. Himasha thinks he can and his local coach knows that he will run it in 10 secs. Let us wish this will be the beginning of another resurgence of athletics in Sri Lanka.

Daily News Editorial

A solution to parking hassles

18 February 2017

Parking has become a serious problem in Colombo, but it is not the only metropolis to suffer this fate. Parking is a hit and miss affair in main cities such as Kandy, Galle, Nuwara Eliya (especially during the April season) and suburbs such as Nugegoda, Maharagama, Wattala and Kadawatha.

Parking is a crucial aspect of city planning. If properly implemented, it is also a money spinner for local bodies. Most motorists do not mind paying even Rs.50 per hour if they can find a convenient parking spot. Having realised the importance of allocating adequate parking slots in the City, the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) wisely included parking bays in the Galle Road Uniflow expansion project and also carved out many parking slots from byroads and lanes.

While some of the parking slots can be manned by CMC or private parking company personnel, there is not enough manpower to supervise all parking bays in Colombo. Most countries implement an ideal solution for this – parking meters. The advantage of coming late to the parking meter party is that the CMC could leapfrog several generations of manual parking meters and select an all-electronic solution powered by a smartphone app.

Basically, if you have a smartphone and a mobile phone account, you can pay your parking fees without any hassle. Obviously, since these parking bays are unmanned the onus is on the customer to pay the fee honestly. (Installing CCTV cameras to monitor the parking bays is a very expensive solution). Some will see this in terms of a loss of manual jobs, but that is a given – many jobs are going to computers, robots and chatbots.

This project is also an example of a beneficial public-private partnership (PPP). The CMC has the parking slots, the parking company has a vast experience in operating electronically-controlled car parks and the mobile service providers can empower this solution through their software. The advantages are clear – there is no need to fumble around for cash, the system is paperless and environmentally friendly and there is no need to enter into arguments with parking attendants. Everyone wins, including the customers.

We hope that depending on the success of this project, other local bodies will follow suit. Obviously, they will have to analyse the cost effectiveness of the project, since not every local body generates high revenues like the CMC does. But the convenience factor certainly has to be considered.

For many years, the CMC has stipulated that no commercial building should be constructed without parking facilities. The CMC and other local bodies should encourage developers to go for multi-storey car parks which can make the maximum use of limited space. Several new buildings already incorporate this feature.

Drivers often encounter problems from the Police when they park at places which do not have either a P sign or No Parking sign. There are many perfectly safe unmarked parking areas in Colombo, but overzealous police officers sometimes impose fines or request motorists to leave such places. In places where parking is not expressly forbidden by the local bodies (actually, the Police have no power to decide on parking issues), motorists should be given the benefit of the doubt. In the alternative, Police should discuss with the local bodies whether putting up Parking or No Parking signs is more suitable.

However, there is another approach – avoiding the parking hassle altogether. This can only be done if more people keep their cars at home at least on weekdays and come to work (or other business) by public transport. In fact, the lack of a comfortable, clean, punctual and efficient public transport system is one of the reasons why people opt to use their cars to get to work, enduring even a two-hour traffic jam. The Government’s new Light Rail Transit and railway electrification plans are a perfect fit that should be able to lure many motorists. In the meantime, we need to have more highly comfortable air-conditioned buses on prime routes to take people away from their cars. This has been tried a few times, but the authorities should push it more aggressively through a major marketing campaign. This will reduce both traffic and parking problems. The next step is to have a completely integrated (bus, rail, taxi) system that also takes care of the ‘last mile’ (i.e. from the roadside to the home) traffic.

Looking to the future, parking may be an obsolete concept much sooner than you think. Most people already rely on ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft which eliminates parking worries altogether. You just pay for your ride and go on your way since there is no need to worry about parking.

It will become completely obsolete when autonomous and driverless cars and Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communications become commonplace. All you have to do is to call up a robot car and it will take you to your destination. With companies from Google to Ford involved in every aspect of driverless cars, a parking-free future could be here in under a decade.

The Island Editorial

Stray quadrupeds and feral bipeds

18 February 2017

We have a ‘fine’ government. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration is dependent on fines to increase its revenue. The Budget 2017 proposed a twenty-five-thousand-rupee fine for some traffic offences. It is reported that the government is now planning to bring in new legislation to impose a six-month jail term and a twenty-five-thousand rupee fine on those who either abandon dogs in public places or let them stray. Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faizer Mutapha has reportedly said CCTV cameras will be installed to nab the wrongdoers. He has expressed his concern about the spread of rabies through stray canines.

The government has undertaken an uphill task. This is a country where police are unable to nab even armed robbers who walk into financial institutions and make off with millions of rupees with ease though the heists are recorded in CCTV cameras. It won’t be difficult for anyone to find a place without CCTV cameras to dump a litter of puppies and run away. One may argue that before worrying about stray dogs, the government ought to catch the dirty bipeds responsible for daylight robberies such as coal rackets and bond scams.

However, the fact remains that urgent action is called for to rid public roads of stray dogs, which must not be harmed in any way. Unconscionably hefty fines and jail terms cannot be countenanced. Minister of Megapolis and Western Province Development Champika Ranawaka has revealed that there are more than 16,000 stray dogs within his bailiwick as it were. Many of these animals end up as road kill daily besides causing serious accidents.

The government should also legislate for the owners of stray cattle to be dealt with. Minister Ranawaka has said there are more than 2,000 stray cattle in the Western Province. These animals pose a danger to motorists and motorcyclists alike and hamper the flow of traffic in most suburban areas. Herds of cattle are also seen in some urban centres. Their owners let them stray and feed on garbage, but religiously milk them every morning.

Time was when stray cattle were caught by municipal workers and their owners fined. Local government authorities no longer bother to do so. They are not bothered about even dengue mosquitoes, are they? The real problem is that the local councils have gone to the dogs. They shirk their responsibilities with impunity; the only thing they do efficiently is to collect rates.

There are some other creatures responsible for making roads extremely dangerous. They are far worse than the stray quadrupeds because they are either drugged or drunk. Private bus and tipper truck drivers are the worst culprits. A study commissioned by the Lanka Private Bus Owners Association (LPBOA) has reportedly revealed that 25 percent of the private bus drivers are addicted to cannabis and another 20 percent of them to heroin. LPBOA President Gemunu Wijeratne, following a tragic accident, once, likened private bus workers to animals. Drug addiction is prevalent among truck drivers as well. But, successive governments have done precious little to nab the druggies behind the wheel.

New legislation must be brought in to punish vehicle owners who employ drivers with a history of serious traffic offences. Some years ago a point system was introduced to deal with errant drivers; we were told that a specific number of points, assigned to a driving licence, would be reduced in keeping with the severity of traffic offences committed by its owner. The licence was to become invalid upon the exhaustion of all points. If this system is put into practice vehicle owners will be able to know the track records of their drivers, who will then have a choice between respecting the Highway Code and losing their livelihood.

Meanwhile, the onus is on Minister Mustapha to conduct the much-delayed local government elections without trotting out lame excuses and pressure local councils to deal with the problem of dogs and cattle on public roads. It is up to the government to ensure that druggies behind the wheel are brought to justice.