Ceylon Today Editorial

POLITICAL CRAP ABOUT MEETHOTAMULLA

20 April 2017

Had someone told US President Donald Trump about the Meethotamulla crisis, he would have blurted out his cryptic...and now famous... 'Not good', quip.
He would also have then frowned at the death toll...30, and still counting, as we reported, and said to Mattis and McMaster "Drop the attacks on Syria. The same number of people has died in that garbage dump called Sri Lanka and without Assad's chemical stuff".

Mattis and McMaster quip "You want us to take out anyone in Colombo then?
To which he would have said "No. Just get in there before the Chinese do".
So, then between the UNP, SLFP, SLPP, JVP and what have you ...AND! with the US, India and China and our new friend Putin all tearing and tugging at Sri Lanka, all we've got to show is a lot of garbage. Come election time then, it won't really matter who you vote for because they've all had their turn with the Rajapaksa's and friend Muzammil at the helm for ten years, and the Ranil- Sirisena combine now going into year three. The private sector 'garbage proprietors' (known as Kunu Mudalaliwarun in Sinhala) have meanwhile had a terrific run earning a couple of billions from the CMC or whoever to collect Colombo's trash and dump it all in Meethotamulla...and to hell with health hazards and the safety of the people living at the foot of that mountain of trash.

Mind you, Trump unleashed 59 missiles to end Assad's chemical weapon use in Syria where the death toll was near par with the deaths at Meethotamulla.

The point is whether it really matters how people die. The more relevant point here is that what matters is that Assad stays alive to kill more innocents. As far as the families in Meethotamulla who lost 30 loved ones in an avalanche of garbage, what matters is that someone's gross negligence killed them. But where does the buck stop? At the CMC? The GMOA that has yet not said a word about something that should directly concern them, but is busy raising hell to 'solve' issues not related to health. The Ministry of Public Administration? The Opposition? The Government? The President? The Prime Minister? The Western Provincial Council?
Where does the buck stop? Whose individual or collective negligence, immediate or over the years, led to the deaths of 30 or more people?

Transparency and accountability are words which have been flippantly bandied about ever since the LTTE were militarily defeated. But can we begin with just a little transparency and accountability, at least, as far as these 30 deaths are concerned. Let's forget all about the 40,000 deaths of Tamil civilians claimed by the UN.

If Meethotamulla's deaths were taken before a tribunal, who would the accused be? Elected representatives of Good Governance? Society at large? The health authorities? The housing authorities which issued legal deeds for houses constructed at the foot of an impending crisis where not even a dog should have been allowed to seek shelter? Who legitimized potential death? Who kept the guillotine in place knowing full well that a guillotine kills? Who earned billions out of creating a crisis and euphemistically called it 'garbage disposal'? How many politicians at Municipal, Local Government and Central Government level earned commissions from the Kunu Mudalalis who will now earn more billions a year by transporting Colombo's garbage twenty times further away from Colombo.

The incomparable Denzil Peiris used to say that where there's politics, there's garbage. But he never dreamt that the reverse would be true, that 'where there's garbage, there's politics.'

Transporting dirt costs money. No wonder then that political opposites have this unspoken truth as it were in the hidden story behind the dirt of Meethotamulla? How much have successive governments ultimately spent in aimlessly outsourcing garbage clearance to the private sector....and at what cost in terms of human suffering and life. How much does a life cost to a loved one left behind? What's the price tag on a mother dead under an avalanche of dirt? A father? Daughter, son? How much does a life cost? And who is accountable? Who will compensate enough? Here is a rare copulation of companions in crime: Opposition politicians, government politicians and the victims themselves who should have known better than to tolerate gross negligence by successive governments.

From era to era, politics is the last refuge of the scoundrel. As Anton Chekov put it profoundly "Ordinary Hypocrites pretend to be doves. Political and literary hypocrites pretend to be eagles. But don't be disconcerted by their aquiline appearances. They are not eagles. They are rats or dogs".

Daily News Editorial

The Gota project

20 April 2017

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila after lying in hibernation during the last few days has risen in defence of the Rajapaksa government vis a vis the Meethotamulla tragedy. Not showing himself at the scene, even though he must have received a substantial number of preference votes from the Meethotamulla residents, Gammanpila has sought to clear the Rajapaksa government from any sort of blame, albeit indirectly. This perhaps is an afterthought on the part of Gammanpila in order to offset the deafening silence maintained by the big guns of the Joint Opposition in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, a full five days after the tragedy, the Colombo District MP took pains to explain that had the solution to the Meethotamulla garbage problem devised by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa being implemented the residents would certainly have been spared the tragedy that befell them. The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader has certainly got wise after the event. One cannot recall the diminutive politician making any mention of this Gota project since the ouster of the Rajapaksa in January 2015. Surely as a parliamentarian representing the Colombo District he could not have been be unaware of the periodic protests made by the Meethotamulla residents. Or was the subject of garbage an unsavoury topic to the MP who is always clad in spotless white?

According to Gammanpila, Rajapaksa had suggested that the garbage collected daily within the Colombo Municipal Council limits and that which had already been piled up at Meethotamulla and Bloemendhal be transported by train to the Aruwakkalu limestone quarry in Puttalam.

Why pray was this brainchild of the all powerful former Defence Secretary kept on the back burner while the garbage was continued to be dumped at Meethotamulla even after a Supreme Court ruling banning garbage dumping at the site, in 2009, when the Rajapaksa power was at its peak after the defeat of terrorism. Surely, funds could not have been a problem as vanity projects like the Cricket stadium at Sooriyawea, Mattala, Hambantota Port, a lavish Commonwealth summit the Nelum Pokuna theatre etc, all running into several billions of rupees, came about around this time. Or was it that people living amidst garbage was not a priority for the Rajapaksas, like for instance night races?

Gammanpila, after keeping a low profile all these days following the tragedy, has now suddenly returned to his former bellicose self and seeks to palm the blame for the Meethotamulla catastrophe on the Yahapalnaya government. He goes onto say that a sum of Rs. 2 billion was set aside in the 2015 budget for the Puttalam project conceived by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa but a change of regime put paid to this. Why pray, did the Rajapaksa government wait until 2015 to get the project going when the garbage was climbing sky high in Meethotamulla from as far back as 2007? Were there other priority projects that brought in fat commissions and Meethotamulla had to wait? Surely Rs. 2 billion would have been chicken feed given the colossal amounts that went into ‘deals’ at the time. And who was it that got the police to baton charge residents of Meethotamulla in 2011 when they protested against the dumping of garbage in their environs? Why wasn't the Puttalam project conceived then and executed before things got out of hand?

True, the present government should be blamed for not tackling the Meethotamulla garbage problem as a priority issue. But by no stretch of the imagination can the Rajapaksa government absolve itself of blame. It is the cumulative sins of both governments that had visited upon the residents of Meethotamulla. By calling on the government to implement Gota's Puttalam project without considering who gets the credit, Gammanpila is shamelessly using the Meethotamulla tragedy for political gain in typical fashion. Perhaps, this could also be part of the campaign, now in full swing, to promote Gota as the next Presidential candidate.

It is time that Gammanpila and his ilk realise that people cannot be fooled by empty words. Had the Rajapaksas acted in time, instead of waiting till 2015, this tragedy could well have been averted. That much he has to concede. Asking the present government to implement a project that had been relegated to backstage all those years was unacceptable. Understandably, the elements in the Joint Opposition were relatively mute during the past few days, perhaps taking cognizance of the fact that their leaders indeed had been culpable. It is only now that they keep coming out, like termites from the woodwork, to find fault with the government for not implementing Gota's project. There is bound to be more attacks on the government and the promotion of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the days ahead, what with Provincial Council elections round the corner. The likes of Gammanpila are bound to seize on the Meethotamulla tragedy to hoodwink the people and absolve their own leaders. Hence the government ought to be prepared with a counter strategy and expose the commissions and omissions of the Rajapaksa regime vis-a-vis Meethotamulla, that finally led to the tragedy.

The Island Editorial

Grasp the nettle!

20 April 2017

There is hardly anything that Sri Lankan politicians do not fight over. They get on like a house on fire only when public funds are misused to feather their nests. At present they are hurling rotting garbage at one another, so to speak, instead of putting their heads together to help solve the Meethotamulla garbage issue. It looks as if they were competing with one another to set a new world record by holding the most number of media briefings. Some of them are trying to settle old scores. They seem to have taken the masses for asses.

Interestingly, the ‘promising’ politicians who took the Meethotamulla people for a ride by undertaking to have the landfill, troubling them, shifted, and won the last general election with their votes, haven’t been sighted anywhere near the disaster site during the last few days. Were they near the garbage dump when it collapsed or are they scared of facing the irate public?

Ironically, those who flayed the Rajapaksa government for deploying the military personnel to clean canals and wayside drains have had to use them to dig a huge, stinking waste dump and protect garbage trucks against protesters.

Following the April 14 disaster in Meethotamulla people are taking to the streets to prevent the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) from dumping garbage in their areas. Their concerns need to be appreciated. The CMC has a remarkable ability to create a huge landfill anywhere almost overnight and nobody wants to get buried alive in a ‘garbageslide’. At this rate, the government may have to take out the security forces to ensure the protection of municipal workers engaged in garbage disposal!

The closure of the Meethotamulla dump has led to garbage piling up in the city and CMC is now using alternative sites to dump its waste. It is not possible to solve the garbage problem overnight and waste cannot be allowed to accumulate in Colombo; the CMC’s desperation is understandable. Until a permanent solution is found garbage has to be dumped somewhere whether one likes it or not. But, if the CMC is allowed to dump waste at Karadiyana, the entire Bolgoda Lake will be polluted like Beira. People living in areas adjacent thereto have been complaining of an unbearable stench and they has already started protesting.

Joint Opposition firebrand and former CMC Opposition Leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara, told the media on Tuesday that Colombo’s garbage problem couldn’t be solved because of some racketeers thriving on municipal waste. He said those elements by greasing the palms of politicians and bureaucrats put paid to all efforts to solve the issue. He is telling the truth. These rogues have made a very lucrative business out of garbage and will go any extent to scuttle plans to get rid of mountains of waste. It behoves President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Minister of Environment, to have these serious allegation probed and bring the culprits to book. Neutralising the kunu (waste) Mafia will be half the battle in solving the garbage problem. Are the yahapalana leaders equal to the task?

There is no way either the UNP or the SLFP can absolve itself of the responsibility for having created the garbage problem. The UNP-SLFP coalition should seriously consider summoning Parliament and appointing a presidential task force to study the issue and proposed solutions, ascertain views of experts, both local and foreign, and figure out how to deal with the problem effectively.

The time has come to grasp the nettle.