Daily News Editorial

It’s done, at last

02 March 2017

The long overdue action against corrupt medical practitioners in the Prisons Department has now been taken. Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has ordered the transfer of all doctors attached to the Prison Hospital. It was also revealed that one of the Prison doctors had already been transferred after having been found to have colluded in the admission of politicians to the Merchant Ward. But this worthy, it is has been revealed, was still staying put, which is an indication how the going had been good for this particular medico in particular and the doctors in the Prisons Hospital in general.

The public, for too, long have been taken for suckers by the doctors in the Prison Hospital who have maintained double standards, one for politicians and the well heeled, and another for the ordinary folk. Just transferring will not suffice. A full probe should be conducted on how certain VIP politicians of the former regime got themselves admitted to the Merchant Ward no sooner they entered prison.

There was the stand out case of Basil Rajapaksa, who, after scooting out of the country on election night, arriving to a rousing welcome at the BIA. Those who witnessed the younger brother of the former President waving lustily and gesticulating wildly to his supporters outside the airport would not, for a moment have thought, that he would need any medical care - not by a long shot. But lo and behold, no sooner was he arrested at the scene and deposited in the prison Rajapaksa gets himself admitted to the Merchant Ward. What was his ailment and who sanctioned his transfer from the Prison Hospital to the Merchant Ward is still shrouded in secrecy. Rajapaksa in an interview with a TV channel, when asked, why he sought admission to hospital no sooner he was thrown behind bars gave the tongue in cheek reply that those who enter prison are liable to have, whatever ailment they are afflicted with, compounded.

Not just Basil R. We have had a whole host of politicians making a beeline to the Merchant Ward, hardly after their cell doors have clanged shut behind them. On what basis is this done?

The public have had their intelligence insulted for too long. Not just this. Recently we have had imprisoned politicians getting themselves medically condemned in order to avoid appearing before a courts of law. The Prison Hospital, like the Prisons Department itself, needs an overhaul. Doctors with proven integrity should be recruited to man the scandal ridden Prison hospitals. It is only then that the public can expect evenhanded treatment.

Geetha got it wrong

Actress turned politician Geetha Kumarasinghe has taken a dig at the Yahapalanaya government, for the rising crime rate in the country. Addressing Joint Opposition women representatives, the Galle District MP says that people were being killed in broad daylight by underworld figures, a thing not seen even in America. Her Joint Opposition colleague Udaya Gammanpila, meanwhile, states that underworld activities that were brought under control by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who handled the underworld in a politically unbiased manner, had resurfaced. He said, under GR, most of the underworld figures fled the country but have returned, curtsey a powerful government Minister.

Both Geetha and Gammanpila are obviously peddling their political views without making a genuine assessment of the situation. The underworld was not the creation of the present government but a carry forward from the past. The Vambottas and the Julam Pitiye Amares were not the creation of the Yahapalanaya government just like the Soththi Upalis and Kalu Luckies were not the creation of the Chandrika government. All governments lent their patronage to underworld figures, which sadly has culminated in the type of situation that we witnessed the other day in Kalutara.

Geetha, who hints at a growth of crime under the present government, should cast her mind back a few years when the criminals in fact were dressed in political garb. Has she forgotten how the Superintendent of the Noori Estate was brutally done to death by a gang led by a Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman no less? Has she forgotten the episode, where, another PS Chairman was found guilty for the murder of a British national and the rape of his fiance in a hotel down south? Only, pressure from the British government brought in a prosecution. It was yet another PS Chairman who threw a party on reaching the milestone of raping his 100th victim.

Gammanpila who offers a bouquet to Gota for eliminating the underworld in the city cannot be unaware that the targets were carefully chosen, so that, only those supportive of an Opposition political party were in the crosshairs of the executioners.

The Island Editorial

Astrologers’ woes

02 March 2017

Fortunetellers’ fortunes are tied to those of their political masters and not to stars. This has been the case throughout human history. Haruspices, who pretended to be able to predict future for Roman emperors by looking at the insides of sacrificed animals and oracles who specialised in communicating with gods in glossolalia or some unknown language in ancient Greece attained the status of demigods. None of those seers survived the fall of their political masters. The same holds true for the modern era of human civilisation.

Humans are not free from atavistic fears in spite of their evolution which has reached a very advanced stage. Their rulers are in a far worse predicament; with their minds weakened by a gnawing sense of insecurity which causes them to see around them more devils than vast hell can hold, they seek solace in witchcraft and the occult, especially in the developing world. There have been apocryphal stories of some Sri Lankan leaders who had themselves bathed in milk at the crack of dawn and got into sacks of gingerly in the buff at the behest of their palace astrologers to ward off the malefic effects of some planetary combinations.

Superstition is said to be the religion of the feeble mind. Voltaire it is who has rightly said: "Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy––the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth." Astrologers get close to rulers and go places thanks to the insecurities which weigh down on the heads that wear crowns and make them slaves to the aforesaid two mad daughters—superstition and astrology.

This country has had its share of feeble minds at the levers of power and that may explain why some astrologers have become so wealthy and influential. Most political leaders’ wrists bear testimony to their superstitious beliefs; with many charmed threads of different hues wound around them, they look as ugly as the telephone posts disfigured by layers of old ropes once used to hang banners. Besides, they take pride in sporting extra-large gold rings studded with various gems on several fingers in a bid to neutralise the perceived adverse planetary effects. Some of them even carry with them astrologically determined, small gold objects embellished with precious stones, seeking divine protection.

Star gazers are usually circumspect and care to hedge their bets by making several vague predictions at a time, but there have been instances where some of them threw caution to the winds and got into hot water as a result. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s palace seer is now in the wilderness as his bold predictions went wrong and his boss lost power. Other astrologers who threw in their lot with Rajapaksa have also got into trouble.

An astrologer who made some malicious predictions about incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena and circulated them via the Internet has been arrested and remanded. It is a pity that he could not foresee trouble! We thought much publicised predictions that went wrong were good enough punishment for any astrologer and there was no need for any other punitive action. But, the champions of ‘compassionate governance’—whatever that means—are convinced otherwise.

It is baffling why President Srisena, who pardoned a terrorist who conspired to kill him, has not shown any mercy to the astrologer in trouble. Is it that he considers a false prediction that he will lose power or some harm will befall him is a more serious offence than an assassination plot? Never mind astrologers! Even those who caused massive losses to the state coffers, amounting to billions of rupees, through bond scams and were held responsible by Parliament for that criminal offence have not been arrested for interrogation. They are seen in the exalted company of their political masters. Is making false predictions a far more serious crime than abusing public funds?

Some crooks seem to have all the luck! Did we hear someone say they were beneficiaries of their masters’ raja yoga?

Ceylon Today Editorial

Electricity and Poverty

03 March 2017

State controlled 'Daily News' quoting Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe on its Tuesday's edition said that by modernizing poultry and the dairy subsectors in the agriculture sector, it would be able to generate greater employment and industries within the village itself.

He had said this at the opening of the Rural Economic Affairs Ministry in Colombo.

The Premier had further said that economic development, both rural and urban, has become a dire necessity for the government.

"We need to look at alternative incomes, jobs and try to reduce imports," Wickremesinghe had said. "Despite such a need however....Sri Lanka's situation remained unchanged over time. We have not progressed despite the end of the war and the main reason for this is the lack of national unity. We are working on it now," he had further said.

The Premier had also said that over the last few decades what had happened vis a vis the rural economy had been the unemployed moving to an urban centre or to the Middle Eastern, Italian or Singaporean economies: Thus affecting the village economy. "How do we create development within the rural economy?" he had asked.

In the first flush of Sinhala nationalism, beginning in 1956, the seemingly 'ideal' village was identified by having in place, 'the tank and dagoba.'

The tank for the nourishment of the mainly agro-based rural economy with rice taking pride of place and the 'dagoba' for the uplift of the villager's 'spirituality,' in the backdrop that 70% of the population is Sinhala Buddhists.

But, despite seemingly targeting to achieve these twin aims by politicos in the events leading up to and post 1956, Sri Lanka suffered a bloody but abortive insurgency in 1971 led by Sinhala extremists in the form of the Marxists JVP which led to the deaths of 13,000 Sinhala youth.

Unemployment in the country was in the double digit region, then.

Six years later, the government elected to power in 1977, at least tried to keep the 'tank' aspect of this 'pledge', by launching the accelerated Mahaweli Development project, telescoping a programme which was previously earmarked to take 30 years, to seven years. This was possible, mainly after obtaining grant aid from the West. That brought irrigated water to the North Central Province (NCP), a part of the island's dry zone, a key agro area of the country, where a sizeable number of its population at least then was farmers, thereby making a giant stride in making Sri Lanka self-sufficient in rice, which politics dominated the country's landscape for a quarter of a century since the bloody Hartal of 1953.

Large numbers of indigent and the landless from other areas of the South were also resettled in the NCP under this programme, being provided with lands for both paddy cultivation and for housing, thereby apparently tackling the twin problems of the country not being self-sufficient in rice and unemployment. The accelerated Mahaweli Development programme perhaps fulfilled the 'tank' pledge in the 'tank and dagoba' political contract covering the Sinhala villager.

Nonetheless, like all man made and man thought out projects, the weather aspect was probably overlooked. As, current events prove, no rains mean no rice harvest, once more leading to a situation where Sri Lanka is not self sufficient in rice.

And, the other drawback, the cause of Sri Lanka's 26 year old terrorist war, a pawn in the hands of the Jaffna Tamil political machinery was a result of its machinations in the preceding years leading to this tragedy, thereby making it seemingly intractable for Colombo to reach out to this, the island's largest minority population, then.

But, 40 years on, after much blood has been shed, the Jaffna Tamil politico now realizes that the way forward is by joining hands with Colombo and not by being hostile towards it.

That was perhaps what led Wickremesinghe to say that the reason why Sri Lanka has not progressed was due to the lack of unity with the Jaffna Tamil. However, that may be only one aspect of the story. The Premier also cannot afford to ignore the hopes and fears of the majority in this equation. A historical example of this was the 'unholy' events that culminated in the unfortunate July '83 riots, followed by the second JVP insurrection of July 1987, coinciding with the infamous Indo-Lanka Peace Accord.

Rural poverty which predominates Sri Lanka's socio-economic landscape, has led to three bloody revolts, two in the South and one in the North, thus far since Independence. It may have to be tackled by giving 'Industry', whether it be agro-industry based or not, and 'Services' a boost and not necessarily 'Agriculture' only.

A start may be made by making electricity cheap and reachable to the rural poor, thereby making refrigeration no more a luxury, but a necessity. Then only the Premier's vision of making the island self-sufficient in dairy and poultry exports being a realizable possibility, to tackle rural poverty.