Ceylon Today Editorial

Honesty and Reliability: Sports Act or none

22 April 2017

As with many in Sri Lanka, another problem has arisen regarding actions of a National Sports Body the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Association (SLASA) regarding the disbursement of funds given by the Ministry of Sports to cover expenses; in the year 2015 swimmers from schools were participating in a swimming championship in Thailand. Funds were given to cover the cost of air tickets by the Sports Ministry, the cost of tickets had been collected from parents by the SLASA, of children who were to go to Thailand. And the parents are to report to the Minister of Sports that they have still not been reimbursed with monies due to them, even after two years, according to a report in Ceylon News.

In 1948 there was no sports law in Sri Lanka; but the country managed to win Olympic silver proving if one had the will that was all that was required to get to the top. It was proven again by Susanthika Jayasinghe known as the 'Asian Black Mare' when she went on to win silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and she too, although there was the Sports Act introduced by then, did it on her own strong will, convincing the authorities she could do it her way.

The Sports Act was introduced in 1973 and according to a former Secretary of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, it helped to bridge the gap between the Sports Ministry and the Sports Bodies. It has to be noted that what was written in the first paragraph might have given the reader a glimpse of what it was like when there was no Sports Ministry. But with the formation of the first Ceylonese Sports Ministry in the late 1960s under Minister V.A. Sugathadasa, the coordination between the Sports Bodies and the Ministry may not have mattered, for things were still new. The new minister under the first Sri Lankan Government may have thought otherwise and it was enacted in the National State Assembly as the Sports Act No 25 of 1973. With that came the National Sports Council (NSC), National Olympic Committee (NOC), National Sports Fund (NSF), National Sports Associations (NSA), District Sport Committees and Schools of Sports.

As with all Sri Lankan planning the all important National Sports Policy was not seen in this Act. It is the National Policy adopted that brings in a good reputation to any institute, and such reverence depends on the truthfulness and fairness shown to their clients, especially by such organizations as the Sports Ministry who get wide publicity across the globe. The question that comes to the minds of people is whether the National Policy being brought in is delayed on purpose.

If it is not so, then what is the reason behind parents having to dole out funds to purchase tickets for their children chosen for the tour. It has taken two years for the parents to bring this out in the open. Is it not because there was no policy to back the parents' cry for a refund? If the policy had been in place at the beginning, then would there have been cause to go for the purses of parents to purchase tickets?

It is not the first time such has taken place; there was the famous news conference that was organized by the Sports Minister to get to the bottom of the issue with the NOC regarding allegations of misusing powers to take unauthorized people to the Olympic Games held in Brazil. Although, the then Secretary of the NOC was requested to attend the meeting for reasons unknown he was missing and the President Hemasiri Fernando jumped in unceremoniously and uttered that he accepted the wrong doing and walked off the stage. What would have been the case if there was a National Policy in place? It is not only in athletics, this comes up even in cricket as we still do not have a Board controlling the game, running things in the best of interests of cricket itself.

Thugs have been taken to watch ICC Cricket World Cup fully paid up by the board.

As stated earlier there being no Sports Act, but the National Policy, and as a Dominion may have come from the British, at the time when Duncan White represented Ceylon at the 1948 Olympic Games; instead there was also a lot of responsibility and accountability in those who were in the Ceylon Amateur Athletic Association then controlling body of track and field. To bringing it all back we only need to have honourable officials who respect a National Sports Policy that could be honoured.

Daily News Editorial

Save Mother Earth

22 April 2017

Today, we celebrate the planet we live in. We affectionately call it “Mother Earth” because it is like a mother that looks after us. This is a universal expression – for example, the Sinhalese term “Mahee Kanthawa” means much the same thing. “International Mother Earth Day” (April 22) reminds us that the Earth and its ecosystems give life and sustenance. Remember, Planet Earth is our only home, at least until we colonise Mars and go in search of Exoplanets beyond the Solar System. But that is a long, long time away.

Earth Day, as it is better known, also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with Nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity. It provides an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.

We do not have to look far to realise the need for saving Mother Earth from man-made perils. The recent garbage dump tragedy in Meethotamulla is a grim example of the effects that Man is having on the environment and the Earth itself. Ignorance and/or the lack of knowledge on the importance of saving the environment is one of the leading causes of environmental damage. Hence the Earth Day theme for 2017 “Environmental & Climate Literacy”.

Environmental and climate literacy seems to be in short supply around the world. It is as important as alphabetic, mathematical and computer literacy though education planners have not paid any attention to this. If small children are not taught, for example, that dumping garbage indiscriminately will one day have disastrous consequences, our future will indeed be bleak. Raising awareness on environmental issues is essential, among both children and adults.

Education is the foundation for progress. As the UN says, we need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threats to our planet. We need to empower everyone with the knowledge to take action on environmental protection. Environmental and climate literacy is the engine for advancing environmental and climate laws and also for accelerating green technologies. This should be a global effort spearheaded by Governments and the media.

Climate change is the biggest environmental issue of our time. We have already felt the effects of climate change in Sri Lanka and around the world. Flash floods, long droughts, wildfires, heat waves (even in the Arctic), changed rainfall patterns, vanishing ice caps – these are all signs of climate change, caused mostly by the excessive use of fossil fuels.

The biggest threat is the rise in global temperatures and sea levels. This year is on track to become the hottest year in recorded history, with spring coming early in many places. Some projections say temperatures could rise by nearly 5 Degrees Celsius by 2100. Many small islands could disappear off the face of the Earth in the next 100 years as a result of rising sea levels. There is irrefutable evidence to suggest that climate change is definitely not a hoax. Other environmental disasters continue unabated – including deforestation, extinction of animal and plant species and the depletion of water sources.

We do not have to wait till the next climate change summit to cut down on fossil fuel emissions. Governments must fast-track the usage of renewable energy, especially wind and solar where possible. Germany already derives 30 percent of its electricity output from renewable sources with the eventual goal of achieving 100 percent penetration. Governments must encourage the use of hybrid, plug-in electric (and hydrogen fuel cell) cars along with solar-powered chargers and improve public transport networks to reduce the citizenry’s reliance on private cars.

However, Governments cannot act alone to protect the environment without the support of citizens. Every little bit helps in this endeavour. If you turn off an unwanted light bulb, you reduce the consumption of fossil fuels for thermal energy. If you walk or cycle to the junction to buy your groceries instead of taking the car, you save fuel and hence, cut down on emissions. The “mantra” to remember is Reduce, Re-use and Recycle (3Rs). We can reduce the wastage of food and fuel, re-use our bags for shopping (non bio-degradable polythene will last up to 1,000 years in a landfill) and recycle everything from aluminium cans to paper. These steps do not cost a cent, but could save a fortune. This should essentially be a part of the environmental literacy drive in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

The world is facing many challenges from famine to drought that are primarily brought about by climate change. As the world population reaches nine billion by 2050, it will be crucial to share the Earth’s resources in a sustainable manner. If we fail to act now to save Mother Earth, future generations will suffer. That should be our overriding concern on this Earth Day.

The Island Editorial

Kolombata hunu, gamata kunu

22 April 2017

 

People who, troubled by the contamination of their wells owing to effluent from a factory, asked for clean water, got bullets from the previous government at Rathupaswala in 2013. The present administration seems to think the panacea for people’s burning problems is water; it unflinchingly has police use water cannon liberally to disperse protesters demanding redress for their grievances as we saw on Thursday. People who took to the streets against Colombo’s garbage being dumped in Dompe came under water cannon and tear gas attacks.

A special police unit set up by the Rajapaksa government to deal with litter louts came to be dubbed kunu [garbage] police. That outfit, credit where credit is due, functioned efficiently and nobody dared dump garbage on the roadside under the previous dispensation. All signs are that the yahapalana regime will have to establish a special military unit or a kunu hamudawa to crush protests against rubbish dumping and protect garbage trucks. The present-day leaders came to power promising to adopt the Licchavi method of problem solving i. e. meeting, deliberating and dispersing peacefully, but today they are dependent on water cannon, truncheons, teargas and rubber bullets to neutralise dissent. They amply demonstrated in Hambantota in January this year that they did not hesitate even to get rock-throwing goon squads to operate alongside the riot police. Let it be stressed that the yahapalana government is not a collective of angels; it consists of former members of the Rajapaksa Cabinet, who unflinchingly endorsed the use of violence to overcome dissent and a bunch of UNPers with a history of carrying out goon attacks on dissenters. They are only laying bare their true faces at present.

The government is lucky that our Rathu Sahodarayas have chosen to float like bees and sting like butterflies in dealing with it for reasons best known to them. They were instrumental in preparing the ground for the 2015 regime change and the formation of the present administration. Else, they would have by now coined a slogan like kolombata hunu, gamata kunu—‘whitewashing for Colombo and garbage for villages’ to instigate the rural folk to rise against the government. One may recall the catchy attention grabbing phrase, kolombata kiri, gamata kekiri—‘milk for Colombo and melon for villages’; they very effectively used it during their disastrous insurrection in the late 1980s to capitalise on the seething resentment of the rural youth towards the glaring urban bias in the allocation of state resources.

If the government thinks it can neutralise public resentment with coercive methods, it is mistaken. It is staring down the barrel of a gun. For, such measures only aggravate protesters’ frustrated rage, which tends to find expression in other forms of agitations and a massive protest vote. The yahapalana government had better listen to protesters and try to convince them of the difficult situation it is in and secure their consent for temporary waste disposal measures it has had to adopt to prevent a garbage crisis in the Colombo city; a prerequisite for persuading the irate public to stop protests is for the government to reveal how it intends to solve the garbage problem once and for all and assure them that their areas won’t be turned into huge waste dumps like Meethotamulla. There is a severe trust deficit, which the government has to overcome as a matter of urgency if it does not want to be relegated to the dustbin of politics.

There is no way the UNP-led government can justify using force instead of negotiations to overcome resistance to garbage dumping. For, the UNP has a history of negotiating with the LTTE for years in spite of the latter’s crimes against civilians such as massacres in a bid to find a solution to an intractable problem. Protesters in areas such as Dompe, Wattala and Karadiyana are not terrorists, are they?