Ceylon Today Editorial

Dengue out to cull our population

22 March 2017

Every year we experience at least two dengue outbreaks. Both of which are accompanied by the monsoon rains. This year, sticking to its strict schedule has turned up again to cull our population.

Dengue cases are in record level this year during the year's first outbreak. During the first three months of this year 22,562 suspected dengue cases have been reported islandwide, while the most number of cases were reported in this current month of March where the disease reached an epidemic level. Approximately 41.52% of dengue cases were reported from the Western Province.

Last year, 2016, saw the most recorded number of cases being reported across the nation with 54,945 dengue fever cases, compared to 2015's 29,777. However, by January 2017, a record 1,311 dengue cases were reported. At this rate, 2017 might just surpass the record of last year in this epidemic.

The pattern of increasing number of dengue cases, correlated with the monsoonal rains (from May to August and November to January) has allowed the local health sector to come up with a battle plan against the disease. Accordingly, the Colombo Municipal Council's Health Department issued a notice to all hospitals and medical institutions in and around Colombo, advising them to be prepared for another dengue outbreak this month.

Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne has announced a motion to increase the fine for facilitation of mosquito-breeding places in their environs up to
Rs 25,000.

Minister Senaratne had noted that the present laws should be amended to control the dengue fever spreading and decrease its incidence. More efficiently, he suggested making it a legal obligation to pay compensation to the immediate relatives of a dengue victim, by those who maintain dengue breeding sites in the area.

Extreme as it may sound, this is in fact, a rather plausible approach to creating awareness through stricter laws. Citizens who negligently maintain dengue breeding sites are currently being fined – but the fine is insignificant and therefore, can be ignored. There are many who do ignore the fine. However, once the fine system is reinforced and the fine increased, people will finally start noticing.

Similarly, the government should also take immediate steps to strengthen the dengue control programme in certain areas. Dengue, being an urban disease, is mainly contracted by citizens in city areas such as Colombo. Fumigating dengue breeding sites take place almost regularly in Colombo, but not so much outside of Colombo. Thus, measures should be taken to address this and strengthen the procedure.

Similarly, the Colombo Municipal Council has initiated a plan to identify potential dengue mosquito breeding sites in the city of Colombo. Under this Anti-Dengue Drive, red notices have already been issued to the owners of 623 residences following inspection by officials, earlier this week.

According to the Dengue Control Unit, so far 76 people have died due to dengue haemorrhagic fever this year. The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry noted that during the last 12 months of the year 2016, 47,182 suspected dengue cases have been reported to the Epidemiology Unit from all over the island. Approximately 49.73% of dengue cases were reported from the Western Province.

The dengue outbreak is a recurring case and easy to predict. The most deadly animal in the world is the mosquito. It might seem impossible that something so miniscule can kill so many people, but it's true. According to the World Health Organization, mosquito bites result in the deaths of more than 1 million people every year – meaning that these tiny insects kill more humans than human murderers. The majority of these deaths are due to malaria, with dengue in the second position.
It is not just the authority's responsibility to prevent this insect from killing more humans. It is also our responsibility to protect ourselves as well as others.

Daily News Editorial

A disturbing trend

22 March 2017

There is an ongoing disturbing trend, if not arrested in time, could develop into an anarchic situation, with grave consequences. We are here referring to the increasing incidents of intimidation of the police by unruly mobs and the unbecoming scenes at several schools, during the recent weeks, where students, together with parents, were seen staging demonstrations, destroying the atmosphere associated with a school.

Mobs surrounded the Moratuwa Police station, the other day, demanding the handing over of the drivers of a bus and a lorry, responsible for the death of a mother and her 13-year-old daughter in an accident. The mobs were seen on Television, threatening the police personnel who were trying to calm the situation, to no avail, necessitating the summoning of police reinforcements from a nearby station. Meanwhile, the day before, in Badulla, yet another mob were seeing besieging the police contingent who had come to settle a dispute over the takeover of a playground. Later the mob who became increasingly unruly were seen hooting at the police.

True, Monday's incident was not the first time that a police station was surrounded by mobs. One recalls a similar instance, not many moons ago, when the Angulana Police station was surrounded by villagers following the death of two youth in police custody. However the recent trend points to rising hostility towards the country's law enforcement, if not contained, could threaten the maintenance of law and order in the country. The Police should assert itself during such situations, not allowing mobs to take the upper hand, lest this conveys the wrong impression to trouble makers that the police could dealt with at their whim. Today, with the Television spotlight focused on all incidents, the tendency could be for mobs to be seen as heroes, with their intimidatory tactics, to browbeat the police into submission. Hence, IGP Pujitha Jayasundera should issue specific instructions to his men not to allow things to get out of hand and for troublemakers to be dealt with severely, without the police getting on the defensive, as we have seen on many an occasion.

The police, as the country's law enforcement authority, cannot be seen to be cowering before a mob. This is not only humiliating to the police service, but also degrading in the eyes of public, considering the awe and respect the khaki uniform commanded in the past. The frequent running battles by the police to control the recent spate of protests, that the public often see on Television, too is a humiliating spectacle that serves to bring down the esteem of the police. Hence, the proposal made by the authorities to confine these protests to designated venues in the city should be seriously considered. The police personnel, by the way, should be given all the incentives to carry out their duties effectively. It goes without saying that only a contented, satisfied, police force will be able to rise to the occasion in the face of any challenge. If not, only halfhearted attempts will be made, not only to control unruly mobs, but also the general duties assigned to them. It is in this light that the proposal to increase the salaries of policemen in certain ranks is to be welcomed. This, while keeping our policemen out of corruption’s way, would also make them put their hearts into their jobs, that would see a more efficient law and order machinery.

While our police are being intimidated by unruly mobs, certain schools too are witnessing mob violence, which, incidentally, are not the doings of hired mobs, but carried out, courtesy, the students themselves, and what is more, with the parents too joining the party. The recent incident at Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Kotte, is a case in point. Here, students and parents had banded together, demanding the ouster of a new principal taking office and the form the protest took is something the authorities should sit up and take note. While the students were creating the ruckus, some even lighting crackers within the schools premises, the parents wore black bands across their faces, gesticulating wildly, aiding and abetting the mayhem. In the melee, the principal, who was besieged, and taking refuge in a room, was forced to tender his resignation and leave, amidst the din.

This is hardly the picture one associates with a school, whose chief role is, not only to impart a sound education to the children, but mould their characters and be responsible for their correct formation, to make them worthy citizens of the country. But what the public was made to witness were scenes of anarchy, and what is worse, two teachers of the school were said to be behind the incidents of instigating and inciting the students to oust the principal.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam should initiate a full scale investigation, in order to get to the bottom of the whole incident. The principal concerned came to take up duties as per the Ministry instructions and what eventually took place was an affront to the Minister and the government no less.

The Island Editorial

Tracking the killers of scribes

22 March 2017

 

The CID has earned notoriety for its selective efficiency. It has suddenly woken up like Rip Van Winkle after eight long years and made some ‘revelations’ about the 2009 assassination of The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. It has been going hell for leather during the last several months to bring to justice those responsible for some murders under the previous regime.

A special team under the command of the then military intelligence chief killed Lasantha and attacked other journalists, the CID has claimed on the basis of a statement made by former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. Denying the allegation, Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has demanded to know why Fonseka had taken no action if he had been aware of the existence of such a team.

Who is telling us the truth?

It boggles one’s mind why the CID had failed, till a team of medical experts exhumed Lasantha’s remains and conducted a second postmortem, to find out the kind of weapon used to kill him. We are now told that a sharp weapon was used in the killing. Police should at least have been able to establish whether shots had been fired by the assassins of Lasantha. That is a task even a rookie cop, who visits a crime scene for the first time, is equal to.

Of what use is a police force incapable of telling injury inflicted on a victim with a sharp instrument from a gunshot wound? There is reason to believe that some police bigwigs were party to a conspiracy to suppress the truth about the Lasantha assassination. The police officers who probed that crime, under the Rajapaksa government, must be made to explain their serious lapses. Were they under political pressure to hush up investigations? Or, did pressure come from some other quarters?

We believe that the CID has been remiss in its duty. It has not yet questioned former UNP MP Joseph Michael Perera. Making a special statement in Parliament in July, 2008, in his capacity as the Chief Opposition Whip, Perera declared that a special team which operated directly under the then Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, was carrying out attacks on journalists. What has prevented the CID from questioning the former MP so far?

The public as well as the media has a right to know whether Perera, on behalf of the UNP, misled Parliament to gain some political mileage or revealed the truth. Let media rights activists ratchet up pressure on the government to order the CID to question Perera and get to the bottom of it. His statement is far too serious to be ignored. Perhaps, police are wary of opening up a can of worms for their political masters.

As we have pointed out through these columns repeatedly, former Associate Editor of The Nation newspaper, Keith Noyahr, currently living in Australia, is capable of helping identify those responsible for attacks on media persons under the last government. For, he is the only journalist to have survived torture and interrogation at the hands of those who harmed journalists; being a senior journalist, he must have been able to guess from the kind of questions put to him who had really ordered his abduction. Keith will be able to shed more light on the issue.

The yahapalana government, too, has reduced police to a pliable tool to further its interests. In a telephone conversation, which happened to be telecast a few months ago, the IGP promised a minister that police would not arrest a politically connected nilame (lay custodian of a shrine) who had run afoul of the law. So, there is no guarantee that the guardians of the law won’t act likewise in respect of those responsible for attacks on journalists if they have government connections.

It is hoped that the probes into attacks on journalists will help bring the culprits to justice without adding to the ongoing political circuses, which are legion.