Sunday Observer Editorial

Let’s be grateful to Security Forces

Whenever Sri Lanka has faced any calamity, it is the Security Forces that have come forward bravely to assure safety and security to the country and its people. Be it man-made or natural, they have taken every possible risk and sacrificed their lives on many occasions so that others may live. Their selfless service has helped Sri Lanka to face many a storm, literally and figuratively.

It is not possible to begin at one particular point when it comes to their service to the Motherland, but the 30-year-war is a case in point. Thousands of service personnel made the Supreme Sacrifice while thousands more lost their eyesight, hearing and limbs. They ultimately triumphed over terrorism more than 10 years ago and gave us a brighter future.

When the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami battered Sri Lanka, it was the Security Forces who were in the forefront of rescue and relief efforts. Whenever floods, landslides, droughts and other natural disasters befall the country, they are the first on the scene. When the Easter bombings happened last year, they managed to defuse several other bombs in time and save possibly thousands more lives. Their contribution to the Motherland cannot thus be described in a few words.

It was therefore natural that they would be in the forefront of the battle against the novel Coronavirus that has now engulfed the whole world. In fact, they are the next line of defence after the health personnel, and both categories face the immense risk of contracting the dreaded disease themselves.

It is in this context that we should appreciate the services rendered to the anti-Covid-19 drive by the Security Forces and of course, the Police/STF. The Navy personnel who got infected contracted the virus in the course of their duty. They knowingly took the risk in order to minimise the risk of a wider spread of the disease. The Government has now taken all possible steps to stem the spread of the virus from the infected individuals in the Navy.

It is therefore heartbreaking to see reports that some of the Navy personnel and their families have been cast aside and disparaged by their neighbours and others. This has prompted Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne to appeal to the public to treat Tri Forces personnel with respect and gratitude as they are working tirelessly to control the spread of the Coronavirus.

He noted that with the spread of Covid-19 throughput the world, in Sri Lanka too the infected cases gradually began rising. At that point the Tri Forces worked hand in hand with the health services to handle those infected and those in quarantine. Based on the directives of the President all service personnel were brought back to their camps and all their leave cancelled. He urged the public not to forget that soldiers, sailors, airmen and Police/STF personnel are working tirelessly for the people of the country. “I would like to remind that these Tri Forces personnel got infected by trying to safeguard the others in society. We must show some compassion and gratitude as they have got infected by trying to safeguard others in society.”

This is indeed an apt message at this time when the health personnel, Forces personnel and essential services personnel are working round the clock to contain this disease, under the able guidance of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and other relevant persons and organisations. Society must fully cooperate with these persons and organisations to contain the disease, lest it spread and cause havoc like it has done in many developed countries where thousands are still dying daily.

Our anti-Coronavirus drive would not have been this successful without the active involvement of another sector of the Security Forces who do a silent service – the Intelligence personnel. It was due to their 24/7 tireless efforts that the authorities could do a very good job regarding “contact tracing” – finding the first, second and even the third ring contacts of any Covid-19 positive individuals. This is an exhausting, thankless job that may have already saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. And they continue this painstaking process even as we write this.

One must remember that the intelligence service was practically decimated by the previous Yahapalanaya regime, leading to the huge intelligence failures associated with the Easter Sunday bomb attacks exactly a year ago. (Foreign intelligence agencies had however warned of the attacks though the then leadership took no notice). In fact, one of the first tasks that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa accomplished upon being elected in November 2019 was revamping the Intelligence Services to meet modern challenges such as cross border terrorism, human trafficking, narcotics trafficking and other eventualities like the present pandemic. This has paid off in spades in the present context.

Let us also pause for a moment to think that the Forces and Police have to engage in this battle with an unseen enemy while fulfilling all their normal obligations, from manning checkpoints to nabbing narcotics smugglers. For example, the Police have made huge strides in their probe into the Easter attacks. The Navy has seized thousands of kilos of drugs on the high seas. The Air Force regularly conducts aerial surveillance of the maritime borders. The Army is bolstering up safety measures throughout the country. It is not an easy task under these extraordinary circumstances. Let us all express our gratitude to these heroes from the bottom of our hearts.

The Island Editorial

A straw in the wind

Our regular columnist, Kumar David whose trenchant writing attracts attention, though not necessarily the agreement of non-aficionados, has today floated a straw in the wind suggesting a national government, or "multi-party cabinet group" as he has it, of the parties represented in the last parliament to see us through the covid-19 pandemic. Conceding that we have neither a Churchill nor an Atlee among our political leadership, he has suggested that we do the best we can with the bad lot we are burdened with. Readers will remember the war cabinet with which Churchill and his allies were able to overcome Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The war was won but Churchill was defeated in the election that followed. That is the way of the world and how democracy works. However the current war against the deadly virus is being fought globally, and not only by some countries at war with each other.

The closest we have had to a ‘national government’ was the 1965-70 administration of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake which the then opposition branded as the hath havula because of the seven parties that it comprised of. In this country at that time there could have been no national government without the UNP and the SLFP as well as e LSSP and the CP of the old left parties getting together. That was not possible. The prime minister had the allegiance of that part of the SLFP which defected under the leadership of Mr. C.P. de Silva to topple the Sirima Bandaranaike regime of the day in which the LSSP leader, Dr. N.M. Perera, was finance minister. That forced the 1965 election which Senanayake won with C.P. de Silva fielding his own slate under the banner of the new Sri Lanka Socialist Freedom Party (SLFSP). The UNP did not oppose the candidates of the SLFSP which joined the hath havula in the Senanayake administration. De Silva took the number two position in that government.

Other members of that government included Philip Gunawardene, the so-called ‘father’ of the left movement in then Ceylon, whose party adopted the name of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) under which banner SWRD Bandaranaike won his 1956 landslide; W. Dahanayake, a political veteran from the pre-Independence days and M. Tiruchelvam of the Federal Party. Other than the main SLFP from which de Silva defected and the old left parties, all other parties were in the administration which liked to call itself a "National Government" though without sufficient justification.

David argues that while our party leaders are busy scouting out their electoral prospects, "if forced to work together will gird their loins." He concedes that though he has sometimes urged the contrary, these politicians are not altogether useless. In today’s column, this highly accomplished electrical engineers who has held coveted academic positions in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, and remains unflinchingly loyal to his Marxist creed, says that "Gota, Mahinda, Sajith, Ranil, Sampanthan, a Muslim and Anura Kumara, if they put their shoulders to the plough can pull as a team." He suggests a National Leadership Team (War Cabinet) if it is premature to form a national government.

The people are tired of the never ending arguments about whether the last parliament be recalled or not, the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court be invoked to decide how constitutional or not the road we are traversing, when the twice postponed next election will be held – the politicians are more concerned about this than the voters - and many more. The State Intelligence Service yesterday claimed that the situation is totally under control. Whether it will be believed or not is another matter. If the situation was totally under control, (can something as devastating as this disaster be totally under control until a vaccine against the virus is found?), why then was the previously announced relaxation of the curfew in the densely populated and economically vital Western Province further extended. It is freely conceded that in a situation like this, inelastic decision making is impossible. It all depends on the existent ground situation which is changeable by the hour.

Prime time television news programs every day feature the hardships of people scrambling to collect the Rs. 5,000 dole, angry protests and heartbreaking stories. The government has resorted to the printing press and many billion rupees of new money has been released into circulation. This would mean more inflation and erosion the people’s savings. Daily paid workers and the self-employed earning just enough for the day are in a terrible predicament. They have no savings to fall back on or any other relief. Limited credit from the neighbourhood kadays may be available but the boutique keeper charges often exorbitant interest on credit balances. The old credo that there is no free lunch may be worn threadbare but it is nevertheless true. Obviously the lockdown cannot continue indefinitely in a poor country like ours. The economic consequences for ordinary people and the country itself at macro level is frightening. Yet it is not possible to flush down the toilet what has been gained since the restrictions began without risking a worse situation.

Political squabbling and jockeying for advantage is a ‘no no’ at this point of time. So can we not present a united front to an unprecedented challenge in the manner advocated by Prof. David?

Sunday Times Editorial

Constitutional governance: Clarity required

If the Opposition is right in what it says, then the first of the unconstitutional acts by the Government is now in motion, i.e. the Vote on Account that allowed state funds to be utilised lapsed on April 30 (last Thursday). There is no provision in law for the Government to draw more funds from the public purse without Parliamentary approval.

The Opposition has asked for the recall of Parliament to rectify this anomaly, but the Government remains steadfast in refusing to do so. The Government argues that the Constitution provides for the President to draw monies in a political vacuum that prevails today with delayed elections. Not always is the Opposition right, not always is the Government right.

The President has shown no interest in either recalling the Parliament he dissolved on March 2 or in seeking an opinion from the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of all of this. The former Speaker is in no mood to create a constitutional crisis by summoning the old Parliament, and advisedly so. In this backdrop it is the Prime Minister who has now invited the Members of the old Parliament for a meeting tomorrow (May 4). Not all want to attend. Already, his party colleagues have set the groundwork for this meeting by pooh-poohing the need to recall Parliament.

The Election Commission is passing the ball around hoping someone will seek an opinion from the Supreme Court and the Opposition is vacillating without taking the matter to court. The Supreme Court itself is in lockdown mode and probably waiting for a party to come before it as it does not have suo moto jurisdiction to intervene on its own.

That the Government will be toppled with a no-confidence motion is far-fetched. The former Government voluntarily ceded office once the Presidential election was over, but unless the Government is edgy that reconvening Parliament may open the door for fresh nominations and thereby squander the advantage of having caught the Opposition flat-footed in March. However, “what if what the Government is doing is in fact unconstitutional?” A non-political Head of State might well have done what the Constitution provides for him to do to resolve a knotty question of constitutional law, i.e. consult the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, political issues have surfaced when the entire focus of the nation ought to be on overcoming a virus that is not abating and which has thrown the country’s economy topsy-turvy.

Fears that the country is being run for too long without a Parliament and Courts — i.e. the Legislature and the Judiciary — and only by the Executive under an undeclared state of emergency with the military, are not unfounded. There is a certain shadow over the democratic process and these are not matters that can be adjudicated over TV talk shows or via media statements.

It seems that someone needs to go before the Supreme Court very soon and get an authoritative determination either way and settle this unsettling constitutional quagmire.

Probe on origin of the Covid virus

There is a growing call worldwide for a thorough investigation into the origin of COVID-19. And why not?

It is a virus that has turned the whole world on its head. It has caused tens of thousands of deaths, infected millions and ruined the livelihood of several millions. And still, nobody can say with certainty how it all began.

What is an established fact so far is that the virus emerged from Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province. But China was quick to spread some early disinformation that the virus may have been introduced by the United States and thereby triggered a slanging match between the two countries. This debate over whether the virus really emerged from the disgusting meat markets of Wuhan or was man-made has only helped create a fog blurring the real picture.

The US President, partly because he wants to deflect attention from his own mishandling of the crisis at home was quick to label the virus “the China virus”. A Washington Post article says the man shaping the US President’s hardline on China is a onetime journalist who faced intimidation while reporting from China. Now the deputy national security adviser at the White House, his view is that China’s handling of the virus has been “catastrophic” and the whole world is the collateral damage of China’s internal governance problems.

The US tried to get the G-7 nations to sign a statement with the phrase “Wuhan virus”, which those countries refused to do saying it was racist. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is under fire though for bending to Chinese pressure and naming the virus – COVID-19.

Now with the US withdrawing funds from the WHO, China has stepped in with a fat cheque to the UN agency. As the big power politics plays out on the world stage over the virus, the WHO has probably lost the moral right to hold any such investigation contemplated.

The Chinese are touchy, very touchy, over any call for an investigation of this nature maintaining that their response to the crisis has always been ‘open, transparent and responsible’, and that they have been supportive of professional visits and exchanges between their experts and international scientists. One would think they should welcome an investigation if they feel it will help clear the country of worldwide condemnation.

Recently, China’s ambassador in Canberra threatened Australia with cuts in the import of wines and beef and suggested Chinese students may not want to enrol in Australian universities in the future if Australia wished to back the US call for an investigation. Beijing has clearly instructed its embassies around the world to be proactive in challenging anti-Chinese rhetoric based on COVID-19 casting all diplomatic norms aside. Such is its sensitivity to what it sees as ‘unfounded charges’. The China stance is that the international investigation, if there is any, should have a solid basis; they query why it is only targeted at China without any medical professional evidence but accusations from politicians.

It all depends, however, on what an “independent international” inquiry is. Sri Lanka has faced, and faces, so-called ‘independent international’ witch-hunts and knows only too well how utterly partisan they can be. Nor can such an investigation be like the Nuremberg trials after World War II to apportion blame and sentence culprits to the hangman for ‘crimes against humanity’.

Many countries hard done by the outbreak of COVID-19 still feel this may not be the time for an investigation as the focus remains on the expeditious eradication of the deadly virus. Given Sri Lanka’s own dependence on China, it would not want to damage its relations with Beijing’s all powerful Communist Party. In the scheme of things Lanka’s voice on the international stage would anyway be negligible.

And yet, at some stage soon, the world will have to know what happened and how it happened. And how COVID-19 knocked the world to the floor in such quick time and is likely to keep it there for a long time more.