Daily News Editorial

Reflections on Poson and Nature

Legend has it that one fine Full Moon Poya Day 2,328 years ago, King Tissa was hunting deer in a park close to the royal city of Anuradhapura. Then he heard someone calling his name. Since no one dared to call the King by name, he turned upward to see just who could denigrate the King in this manner. It was a sight that immediately calmed him down – a retinue of saffron-robed monks and a sage.

The visitor on top of the rock was none other than Arahat Mahinda, son of Emperor Dharmashoka in neighbouring Jambudvipa, present day India. He had brought the precious gift of the Buddha Dhamma to Sri Lanka. It did not take too long for the King and his 40,000 followers to embrace the timeless words of the Enlightened One. The King even earned the sobriquet “Devanampiya” (Beloved of the Gods) after he embraced Buddhism. This was the precise moment that started a Buddhist civilisation and an agri-based socio-cultural revolution in the land that continues to this day. Thus Poson can be called a watershed moment in Sri Lanka’s annals.

While Sri Lanka later on embraced a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural milieu, the tenets and ethos of Buddhism have permeated to every level of our society, regardless of ethnicity and religion. It is this unique adherence to the Four Sublime States – Metta (Loving Kindness), Karuna (Compassion), Muditha (Sympathetic Joy) and Upekkha (Equanimity) that has enabled Sri Lankans to wither any obstacle in life, be it the war, tsunami and now the Coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, this year’s State Poson Festival in Mihintale, which will be graced today by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is being marked under the theme “Arogya Parama Labha” (Health is the Greatest Wealth) in the context of the pandemic faced by the entire world. These timeless words of the Buddha, uttered more than 2,500 years ago, have never been more appropriate. The Buddha Dhamma gave prominence to two factors that are essential for life – health and the environment. This was not surprising, since the Buddha had realised the essential link between the two.

Again, our affinity for Nature and the Environment goes back all the way to that initial interaction between Arahat Mahinda Thera and King Devanampiyatissa at Mihintale. Arahat Mahinda stopped the King’s hunt, extolling that all life is precious and that we should radiate compassion towards all beings. He then tested the King’s intelligence with questions about the mango grove in Mihintale, which the latter successfully answered. From then on, ancient Kings declared Abhaya Bhoomi or sanctuaries where life was allowed to blossom freely. As Arahat Mahinda Thera espoused, respect for the environment is one of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism.

It is thus a happy coincidence that we are also celebrating World Environment Day (WED) today. Accordingly, the National Poson Festival will also have a component to mark the WED. This year, the WED theme is biodiversity – a concern that is both urgent and existential. Recent events, from bushfires in Brazil, the United States, and Australia to locust infestations across East Africa – and now, a global disease pandemic – demonstrate the interdependence of humans and the webs of life, in which they exist. This is a lesson for all of us here in Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

Biodiversity is the foundation that supports all life on land, air and below water. It affects every aspect of human health, providing clean air and water, nutritious foods, scientific understanding and medicinal sources, natural disease resistance, and climate change mitigation. Changing or removing one element of this web affects the entire life system and can produce negative consequences.

A recent UN report warned that human actions, including deforestation, encroachment on wildlife habitats, intensified agriculture, and acceleration of climate change, have pushed Nature beyond its limit. It would take 1.6 Earths to meet the demands that humans make of Nature each year. If we continue on this path, biodiversity loss will have severe implications for humanity, including the collapse of food and health systems.

This is no laughing matter – if, for example, bees go extinct, there is every possibility that all life on Earth could follow suit. The emergence of COVID-19 has underscored the fact that, when we destroy biodiversity and interfere with Nature, we destroy the very systems that supports human life. Ironically, Nature bounced back in a remarkable manner during the last 2-3 months of lockdown sans human activity, which in itself is a lesson for humanity.

Today, Nature is under severe strain due to a variety of factors from plastics pollution to fossil fuel usage. Many of the animals and plants that we now take for granted could be gone from our midst in just 30-40 years. If we continue burning fossil fuels, our coastal cities could be inundated by 2100 as a result of Climate Change and an associated sea level rise. It is time for the world to work together to honour commitments to the environment and save the only planet we have.

The Island Editorial

Confusion worse confounded

Sri Lankan elections, save the presidential polls, are apparently jinxed; they are not held on schedule. In 1975, an SLFP-led government postponed a general election by two years. Five years later, a UNP government went to the extent of replacing a general election with a heavily rigged referendum to retain its five-sixth majority, which it abused to its heart’s content. The UNP-led yahapalana government postponed local government elections by nearly two years and put off the provincial council polls indefinitely. The LTTE did not allow most elections to be held in areas under its control, and even the ones that took place there were far from free and fair. Most of the elections in the other parts of the country were also marred by violence, rigging and other forms of malpractice. Now, another general election has been delayed, and nobody knows when it will take place.

Chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Mahinda Deshapriya has said the much-delayed general election will be held either in July or August, and his outfit has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that it cannot be postponed beyond August. In an interview with Derana TV, yesterday, he said that although the EC had previously asked for nine weeks for preparations, that period could be reduced. If the election can wait until the end of August, the question is why the EC previously set 20 June as the date for it, amidst the Covid-19 crisis, triggering a legal battle.

What if something unexpected happened and the August deadline could not be met? Nothing is so certain as the unexpected, as the saying goes. Whoever would have thought, in early March, Covid-19 would make it impossible to conduct the general election in late April and even in June?

There are several schools of thought anent the constitutional provisions governing the conduct of a general election. One insists that only the President is constitutionally empowered to decide on the date for a general election, and it was wrong for the EC to postpone the election to 20 June; the new Parliament has to have its first sitting before the expiration of three months from the dissolution of the previous one. It maintains that unless this constitutional requirement is fulfilled, the dissolved Parliament has to be reconvened. The SC has dismissed the fundamental rights violation petitions against the EC for setting 20 June as the date for the election. One can argue that the constitutionality of the EC decision to postpone the general election beyond 02 June is no longer in doubt.

The EC Chairman has not explained why the general election has to be conducted before the end of August. One of the tasks the EC has undertaken is to educate the public on matters related to elections and franchise. It conducts seminars, etc., for that purpose. It should clear up confusion in the minds of people as regards its decisions and the legal position thereof.

Meanwhile, the EC Chairman usually does not pull punches or prevaricate. He faces curveballs in interviews or at media briefings boldly and even launches counterattacks, as it were. He dominates discussions, but, strangely, he was on the defensive in the Derana interview, especially when he was asked to comment on dissension in his institution; he did not look confident or sound convincing. He ought to give straight answers to questions on discord in his outfit; the public has a right to know what is going on there. When one member of the EC often strikes discordant notes, even criticizes some of the commission’s decisions and actions and goes so far as to challenge them in courts, then there is a serious problem, which needs to be addressed.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Is there help for Sri Lankans stranded in Kuwait?

The migrant workers’ affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and stranded mostly in the Middle East is a matter of concern. 

Accusations are aimed at the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for the lukewarm interest it shows in bringing down these workers. The regime however was quick to bringdown some workers from Seychelles during the height of the pandemic.

The talking point right now relates to the Sri Lankan workers stranded in Kuwait. Official figures reveal that as many as 19,000 Sri Lanka workers are stranded in Kuwait. These Sri Lankans have been the victims of a cold war between the state officials of Kuwait and Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan officials have aired that Kuwait is selecting workers who are infected with the virus and sending them back to Sri Lanka.

The island’s airports remain closed for the public. Hence expatriate Sri Lankan workers have to receive government patronage or intervention to return to Sri Lanka. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that he hopes to implement a new mechanism to bring down these foreign workers. But he has not specified as to how he would set about this task. 

These expatriate workers are as important as any other worker who sweats in Sri Lanka for a living. The GoSL must take note that these expatriate workers are helping the country earn foreign revenue and also raise the country’s profile. Most of these expatriate workers are qualified or part qualified and are employable overseas. For the record these expatriate workers help the island earn something close to US $ 7 billion. The Sri Lankan expatriate work force is said to be around 2 million.

The GoSL showed the world that it shows a lion heart when extending its hand to help people during a crisis. The island’s government came in for praise for acting quick and bringing down stranded Sri Lankans; who were affected by the pandemic. The state’s COVID-19 combat programmes have also come in for praise because now new patients are only being found within identified clusters. 

Given this scenario the government mustn’t get into conflicts with other nations; largely because it is debt-ridden and needs to keep ends warm with these Middle Eastern nations for the prospect of future employment.

It is heartening to know that the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) has taken measures to issue circulars to foreign employment bodies and embassies to educate sponsors through them. These circulars specify that sponsors must take care of Sri Lankan expatriate workers and refrain from neglecting worker rights, terminating contracts and paying them less.

The SLFEB is operating a hot line (1989) which operates 24 hours. 

For the record Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa has also thrown his weight behind these stranded Sri Lankan expatriate workers in Kuwait. He has spoken to Kuwait Embassador in Sri Lanka Khalif bu dhhair and sources say that the outcome was positive. 

However when the Health Minister of Sri Lanka states that many Sri Lankan returnees are infected by COVID-19 it amounts to ‘taking about the problem, but not the solution’. According to Sri Lankan newspapers as many as 522 Sri Lankan migrant workers who were infected by the virus have been repatriated. Many more are expected to return to the island.

At present the prospect of them returning home looks bleak. This is because the state took a decision stop planned air flights to bring back Sri Lankan migrant workers from Middle Eastern countries who are infected with this virus. 

The GoSL has to take all precautionary measures to protect those citizens not affected by the pandemic. But the regime also has to do all it can to look into the welfare of migrant workers who are at risk due to inadequate and crowded living conditions, limited access to health care and poor work conditions. 

The government has to walk the tight rope with an election on the cards, but it must not jeopardize the wellbeing of its citizens here who have done well to survive the pandemic till now.