Sunday Observer Editorial

A grim milestone for the world

In the words of the World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the world passed the ‘grim milestone’ of five million coronavirus cases around the globe over the past few days, with more than 325,000 deaths. Indeed, it is a very bleak announcement that somewhat undermines the medical advances that we have gained over the past 100 years, after the Spanish Flu claimed more than 50 million lives back in 1918-20. However, it is also true that the death toll could have been much higher if not for advanced medical care and equipment such as ventilators. Moreover, measures such as lockdown and social distancing have also helped to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, which causes the Covid-19 disease that can be fatal in some instances.

Ever since the Coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China late last year, there has been a debate about its origin. One school of thought – and the dominant one – is that it is a virus that naturally occurs in bats which found its away to humans, a process called Zoonotic transmission. There is another, more controversial, theory that the virus had been created in a lab and has been accidentally released. Most scientists, however, believe the first hypothesis. Nevertheless, the WHO has agreed in principle to investigate the origins of the Coronavirus pandemic and its own response to it after nearly 100 countries forwarded a draft resolution to the WHO’s World Health Assembly (WHA) to identify the source of the virus and initiate an ‘impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation’ of the WHO’s response to Covid-19.

“The WHO is committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement. We welcome the proposed resolution before this Assembly, which calls for a step-wise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation. So, I will initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment,” the WHO Chief said. This is now likely to occur once the Coronavirus pandemic is controlled to some extent. Right now, in the words of Tedros, the focus should be on “saving lives”.

Even more importantly, the WHA has stressed the importance of equal access for all countries to any medicines and/or vaccines developed to treat Covid-19. This will be of crucial importance to emerging economies such as ours, which cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars per dose of an effective vaccine at a time when their economies have already been battered by the pandemic itself. If the rich countries get priority access to any vaccine or successful drug, the poorer nations will be left out to suffer dire consequences.

Hence the WHO has urged countries and international organisations to work collaboratively to develop, test and scale-up production of safe, effective, quality, affordable diagnostics, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines for the Covid-19 response – including in the licensing of patents to facilitate access to them. This is essential, because there already are signs that some countries are trying to limit supplies of promising drugs such as Remdisivir and also get first access to vaccines at the expense of other nations.

The Sri Lankan scientific community must necessarily get involved in this exercise, led by the Medical Research Institute (MRI), which was the first institute in the region to develop a test kit for the Coronavirus. Our research institutions and universities have world-class research facilities that can become part of this noble exercise. The focus must be on both counts – a drug and a vaccine. They can collaborate with similar institutions in Asia and elsewhere for this purpose. Once a viable vaccine is licensed for manufacture, the state pharmaceutical corporations must be equipped to manufacture it locally, which will help save foreign exchange as well.

Sri Lanka is also becoming a role model due to the way in which it has handled the pandemic. Our sister paper the Daily News carried several articles by foreign writers and news agencies which heaped praise on Sri Lanka’s Coronavirus Response, noting that Vietnam and Kerala State in India are the only other regions in Asia with a similar level of success. They pointed out that the successful nexus between the Security Forces and the Health Sector has been one factor for Sri Lanka’s comparatively low infection and death rates. In fact, a number of other countries are now following this model.

This has also enabled the Government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to cautiously re-open the country for economic and social activity, under strict health guidelines, even as the curfew continues in the Colombo and Gampaha districts, the two most heavily affected districts. So far, the results have been encouraging, with the public generally behaving responsibly (except perhaps for the scramble for the wine stores on a couple of days) in all areas of the country. Social distancing norms are also being observed by the public, along with other measures such as wearing masks.

But now is not the time to let down the guard – health experts say the coming period is the most critical as we must take all possible steps to prevent the formation of clusters and any community transmission of the deadly pathogen. We have so far avoided the latter factor and we should strive to keep it that way. The Police and Security Forces must now be stricter in enforcing the curfew and other social distancing measures, because only one reckless person can reignite the dreaded virus within the community. We only have to watch the world news to guess what could happen if we make one wrong move.

The Island Editorial

A disgraceful proposal

Sir. John Kotelawela, who was prime minister of this country over sixty years ago used a pithy Sinhala aphorism which spoke volumes when he said "henda athey thiyanakam bedaganilla." This literally means "as long as the ladle is in your hand, serve yourself." This is true for the recent approval of the so-called Independent Police Commission to assign units of serving policemen to retired IGPs and Senior DIGs to presumably serve during their (the ex-cops) lifetimes. This was sharply criticized by a retired Senior DIG. Mr. Merril Gunaratne, in the last issue of this newspaper.

We must first commend this retired policeman, who would personally benefit from the proposal if it is implemented, for publicly coming out strongly against it. That is not something we frequently see in this Island of ours where many, if not most, will feather their own nests given the opportunity. The proposal that seems to be up in the air at present, recommends that a five man unit plus a driver be assigned to each retired IGP and a similar three member unit, also with a driver, to the former senior DIGs. Whether it will be implemented or not remains to be seen.

Apart from retired policeman Merril Gunaratne’s comment last Sunday, a special correspondent writing to this issue of our newspaper has socked it in his horror very much harder than the previous writer did. We commend that article to the reader if he has not already read it. That writer, perhaps sarcastically or cynically, asks whether this sought-after perk is a reward for the gigantic security failure that resulted in the Easter Sunday massacre. Some of those who bear accountability will possibly or probably be among the beneficiaries. Worse, two would-be beneficiaries are among the members of the Police Commission. Did they promote this would be a fair question. But who cares? This business of giving retirement benefits at taxpayer expense has a long and sorry history in this country.

These range from senior public servants being permitted to buy, at book value, the vehicles they used at the time of retirement – often refurbished and repaired at government cost – as D-day approaches. The political establishment too has not done badly out of this generosity with other people’s, read the taxpayers’, money. Former presidents enjoy government housing, a personal staff and other privileges that probably includes (we are not sure) official cars. Few will begrudge Mrs. Hema Premadasa whose husband was assassinated by the LTTE these privileges but many people may think otherwise of some of the other beneficiaries.

We have in this space said that former President Maithripala Sirisena, now seeking to prolong his political career as a Member of Parliament for the Polonnaruwa district, has committed impeachable offences although he has not been held to account. A full bench of the Supreme Court undid his sacking of his own government, replacing it with that of Mahinda Rajapaksa, with full knowledge that Rajapaksa did not command a parliamentary majority, The numbers were expected to be engineered, but that was not to be. The result was that Sirisena had to eat humble pie (not hoppers) and reinstall Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government. This same politician, via a cabinet decision, was permitted to keep government housing specially created for him by joining two mansions, to befit a serving president.

That’s the name of the retirement benefits game that is played in this republic of ours which is supposed to be democratic and socialist. Our special correspondent says that the effort to serve the gravy to retired policemen was due to former service commanders having a similar privilege. That is a plausible suggestion although it is ONLY the commanders and not their chief-or-staff who are entitled to the privilege. But in the police, the privilege is sought to be conferred not only on the IGPs but also on their senior deputies. It won’t be long before similar benefits are sought for all DIGs – and there are dozens of them – if this ridiculous suggestion is implemented.

In his article, Senior DIG Merril Gunatratne made a case for special security for some officers – he named STF DIG M.R. Latheef – who may well have made lifelong enemies of underworld hoods who may seek revenge. Thus special protection, depending on the threat perception, may properly be accorded to them. We are not aware of any IGP who may be at risk of the underworld seeking to bump him off. This goes for the Senior DIGs too. Most people would agree that these proposed special squads may well turnout to be valets or domestics in the households of ex-cops. We have seen special squads, assigned to protect politicians during particularly the second JVP insurrection, being used as private armies to pay off political scores. There was also an allegation that one former MP had wanted the police officer assigned to her to work in her paddy field.

Nobody would quarrel with families of servicemen (and policemen) killed in action looked after by the state with taxpayer money. This country can be proud that she does that with posthumous promotions of one rank, continuing pay till the age of retirement and thereafter a pension. Disabled and maimed servicemen are also similarly cared for. It is questionable whether the proposal that has been made falls within the mandate of the Police Commission. If permitted, this will be the single swallow making a springtime. Retirees from other services, prisons for one, would make similar claims. Perhaps the concerned authorities revisit the perk accorded to retired service commanders as well.

We are not saying they should live in penury but would add that there was a former commander of the SLAF who traveled on a motor scooter. Ours is a relatively poor developing country with limited resources. These will be further strained post the Covid Emergency. The asinine and immoral proposal should be rejected out of hand. Those who made it should be ashamed of themselves.

Sunday Times Editorial

Victory for all

COVID-19 or not, the new Government was not going to let go an opportunity to ‘celebrate’ an anniversary commemorating the defeat of the LTTE. Some of those who mutter from abroad that the Government is showcasing “triumphalism” are the very ones who saluted the victorious battles of World War I a century back and WW II 75 years ago.

The eventual defeat of the LTTE on the battlefields on the North-east of the island is part of this country’s contemporary history. Where the credit must go is debatable, but many who steered the final assault on the terror organisation are now in power and place. Several, now retired from active military service are being called up and rewarded, slotted into key state sector posts amidst murmurs of protest and resentment over the increased “militarisation” of the civil administration. The President who was the war-winning Defence Secretary at the time clearly believes these officers can deliver the goods for him in civvies as they did in uniform.

There is a natural reaction to the Government flaunting the war victory. In the North, remnants of the LTTE and radicalised youth are still being fed a diet of communal hatred by fringe elements in the political arena, ironically those who can now wage their politics purely because the LTTE was eliminated from the Northern political equation as the “sole spokesman for the Tamil people”.

These groups are egged on, financially and otherwise, by a sulking diaspora in the West that has become an active lobbying force in those countries. They lobby naïve local politicians, feed them with unverified statistics and horror stories of “genocide” in Sri Lanka and retain lawyers to plead their case. The cry for Eelam is mainly raised from abroad.

Last week our Political Editor wrote of effigies being burnt of a Northern politician who is seen as a bridge between the North and the South. This was not the first time his effigy was set alight by persons who don’t want any such bridge.

It is nothing new either in the politics of the North. When Sri Lanka was on the cusp of winning Dominion status on the eve of Independence, moderate politicians like Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam who had the ear of the majority in the South, were mocked and ridiculed by the communal minded as “turbaned heads” for the way they dressed, but more for their rapprochement with the South.

With the refusal of the Northern politicians to integrate their people as Sri Lankans, the North has not profited. Not that the South did all that much better either in years gone by. The Southern insurrection of 1971 was a precursor to the Northern uprising and there was so much in common in both. It was just that the Northern rebellion was foreign-backed with geo-political connotations and therefore more virulent with an ethnic flavour to justify it.

The Government has taken the unprecedented step of promoting more than 14,000 officers and men of the Armed Forces to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, and the political aspect to it given the new dispensation’s increasing reliance on the military is clear as clear can be.

There will need to be, however, some corresponding benefit that must accrue to the North and the people there if they are not to continue feeling betrayed, second class citizens, who have been marginalised from the scheme of things and still being asked to be Sri Lankans first.

From COVID-19 to clean air

The findings of a scientific project jointly conducted by two universities, in Moratuwa and Brisbane (published on Page 16) prove what is commonly known — the air we breathe is much cleaner now because of the curfew and lockdown imposed due to COVID-19. But for how long?

These findings are relevant in no small way because clean air and COVID-19 are both directly interrelated to respiratory issues. While COVID-19 is a virus and got the headlines it deserves, air pollution has not received adequate attention.

The reason could be attributed to the dramatic swiftness with which the virus, frequently described as an unseen enemy, attacks people. Polluted air that maybe unseen to the naked eye can still be monitored, but it can equally affect most of the organs and systems of the human body to the point of fatality. Young children and the elderly – with chronic respiratory diseases are particularly at risk.

With the pressure on the Government to relax the stringent curfew and reopen the economy, we are no doubt going to see one mad ‘back to the future’ rush. Thousands of cars and buses and almost a million tuk tuks are revving up to hit the asphalt. Already, within just a few days of the curfew being partially relaxed to enable people to return to work, Colombo’s air quality has begun to deteriorate, says the Air Quality Unit of the NBRO (National Building Research Organisation).

Air quality is a global issue.

Carbon monoxide (CO) from vehicular and aircraft emissions and industries is the main culprit. The world is moving towards alternate solutions — like electric cars — and only those like the US President who seems live in another planet are in denial of climate change and global warming. The London Financial Times in an editorial last weekend says governments should seize the chance of a green recovery and that it is not a menu of options (for governments). “This year was meant to be a turning point for climate action. It is up to policymakers to make sure that goal is not lost in a post-COVID-19 world,” it adds.

While the rest of the world embraces clean energy, Sri Lanka is still pursuing ‘dirty coal’ options by extending the high polluting, regularly breaking down plant at Norochcholai that distributes toxic ash all around the Puttalam area. Solar, wind, ocean power as alternate energy sources are being ignored. So too liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydro power on which successive governments have heavily invested seem to be going out of favour as different power sector interest groups with cash in their pockets dictate government policy.

Spineless governments that are reluctant to even ban CO pouring two-stroke tuk tuks from polluting the main cities and fouling up the air because they are owned by a million voters cannot pin all the blame on global warming and external factors. They have to take decisive steps themselves. Clean Air and COVID -19 are just two sides of the same coin.