Wednesday 11th December, 2024

A much-feared underworld figure named Arumahandi Janith Madushanka Silva alias Podi Lassi, charged with possession of narcotics, has been released on bail. Lawyers who appeared for him told reporters on Monday (09) that he needed protection because the STF had threatened him with death. What they left unsaid was that their client had issued threats to no less a person than the Head of State. In 2020, while being detained in the Boosa Prison, Podi Lassi and two other underworld characters known as Kosgoda Tharaka and Pitigala Keuma threatened to harm the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne, and some senior prison officers.

Sri Lanka has seen ambitious projects under successive governments during the past several decades to turn it into a hub of some kind or another in the region. Much-advertised campaigns to make it a centre of international shipping, global trade, IT, education, etc., have not reached fruition. However, some underworld kingpins have already turned it into a narcotic hub, to all intents and purposes if the sheer amounts of dangerous drugs frequently taken into custody are any indication.

Sri Lanka’s anti-narcotic laws are characterised by some inadequacies that allow clever lawyers appearing for drug lords to drive a coach and horses through them. They have done so on numerous occasions much to the dismay of the police and the public.

One may recall that a notorious drug dealer named Mohommad Najim Mohommad Imran alias Kanjipani Imran obtained bail in 2022. Everybody knew that he would flee the country, and he did so a couple of weeks later. The then Public Security Minister Tiran Alles claimed that some unscrupulous lawyers had facilitated Imran’s escape as well as that of another criminal called Ganemulle Sanjeewa. Who can ensure that Podi Lassi will not emulate Imran and Sanjeewa?

Imran was arrested in Dubai together with Sri Lanka’s Napoleon of Crime, Samarasinghe Arachchige Madush Lakshitha alias Makandure Madush, in 2019, and brought to Colombo. Madush perished allegedly in a crossfire between the police and an underworld gang while in custody. Imran has been running his crime syndicate here from overseas. He is believed to have masterminded the murder of Wasantha Perera or Club Wasantha about five months ago. No wonder Citizen Perera is on the same page as Mr. Bumble (in Oliver Twist), who says the law is an ass.

While Operation Yukthiya was proceeding at full throttle, under the previous government, we pointed out that the war on drugs had to be fought at sea, on the shore, and in ports. Most narcotic consignments find their way here in fishing craft and freight containers.

Last week, the Navy intercepted and brought to the Colombo Port a fishing craft with a haul of crystal meth weighing 400 kilos. In December 2013, the Customs found more than 131 kilos of heroin in a container which a coordinating secretary to the then Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne had requested the Customs to clear on a priority basis. In July 2017, more than 218 kilos of cocaine were detected in a shipping container of sugar delivered to the Ratmalana Economic Centre.

Whenever a drug czar is netted, a well-coordinated operation gets underway to secure his release, with lawyers, politicians, and some rogue elements in the police and other state institutions such as the Government Analyst’s Department springing into action. In September 2023, Nadun Chinthaka Wickremaratne alias Harak Kata almost made good his escape during an interrogation session at the CID headquarters. His plan to poison the police personnel on duty, and flee went pear-shaped thanks to some Argus-eyed STF personnel. Besides, more than a dozen Police Narcotics Bureau officers were arrested in 2020 over their links to drug dealers.

The foregoing point to the power of the netherworld of crime, and the enormity of the narcotic problem Sri Lanka has been striving to tackle all these years. Inadequacies of laws, corruption in the state institutions tasked with fighting the scourge of drugs, and political backing for narco barons have made the task of ridding the country of narcotics even more uphill.

The need for reworking Sri Lanka’s anti-narcotics strategy to optimise it to meet the existing challenges and the emerging ones vis-à-vis the powerful drug Mafia, which is becoming more resilient like a pathogenic virus, cannot be overstated. A major drawback of the ongoing anti-narcotic operations is the lack of a holistic approach to overcoming multisectoral obstacles that stand in the way of neutralising the hydra-headed scourge. This is something that the new government, which is keen to liberate the country from the clutches of the drug cartels should take cognisance of.

Tuesday 10th December, 2024

The JVP/NPP got pillorying its political rivals down to a fine art while it was in opposition. It questioned their academic and professional qualifications and even ridiculed some of them as charlatans. Never did it miss an opportunity to cast aspersions on some educated members in previous governments, claiming that they were the descendants of Mahadenamutta (a blundering self-proclaimed pundit in folklore). The boot is now on the other foot, and the current Opposition is giving the JVP/NPP a taste of its own medicine.

Speaker Dr. Asoka Ranwala is coming under increasing pressure to furnish proof of his academic qualifications, which the JVP/NPP has publicised. Former Chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Mahinda Deshapriya is among those who have reportedly asked the Speaker to prove that he has a university degree. If the Speaker fails to do so, he should resign, or the JVP/NPP must remove him from his post, Deshapriya has said.

The former EC Chief’s challenge has received wide publicity, but the Speaker has chosen to ignore it. The Opposition has got hold of something to beat the government with, and therefore it is not likely to give up its campaign against the NPP. So, Speaker Ranwala would do better to field the questions being raised about his academic qualifications and put the matter to rest if he has nothing to hide. The NPP flaunts what it calls its commitment to transparency, accountability and respecting the people’s right to information, and therefore its silence on the issue at hand has raised many an eyebrow.

Sri Lanka needs educated politicians, but education alone does not make a good politician, and one need not necessarily have dazzling professional and/or academic qualifications to be able to do well in politics and serve the country to the satisfaction of the public. There have been numerous instances where doctorate holders failed and others succeeded in Sri Lankan politics. So, a person without a doctorate can make a good Speaker, but let it be repeated that the NPP ought to provide proof of Speaker Ranwala’s academic credentials.

Some political parties make university dons in their ranks out to be mavens, but the question is why those worthies have not been able to help raise the standards and rankings of the state-run seats of higher learning. True, successive governments have not cared to develop the state universities, which are affected by severe resource constraints and political interference, but the blame for the current sorry state of affairs in the groves of academe should be apportioned to university teachers as well.

The NPP government bears some resemblance to its immediate predecessor where the parading of its members’ doctorates is concerned. The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government also had a phalanx of academics drawn from various disciplines and self-styled intellectuals in its ranks. In fact, it wasViyathmaga, a diverse group with an eclectic mix of members including university professors, that promoted Gotabaya as ‘a visionary leader’, and enabled the Rajapaksas, who suffered an ignominious defeat in 2015, to make an early comeback four years later. Those dons secured key positions in the Gotabaya government, but could not prevent its failure and the collapse of the economy. Some of them were responsible for Gotabaya’s downfall itself; they persuaded him to plunge head first into disastrous experiments like his organic farming initiative coupled with a blanket ban on agrochemicals; they also made him resort to draconian measures such as the mandatory cremation of the Muslims who died of Covid-19. Viyathmaga turned out to be an exclusive club of know-alls, who ruined the SLPP government and the country. Many of them stooped so low as to offer their services as bootlickers to the Rajapaksas. They undertook to defend the indefensible for the sake of the ‘Family’ and cut pathetic figures in the process. The NPP also seems to have a me-too version of Viyathmaga, and one can only hope that its members will not make the same blunders as the self-proclaimed pundits who ruined the Gotabaya government.

Monday 9th December, 2024

The Millers’ Mafia has won another battle, a very decisive one at that. It has been able to coerce the mighty NPP government into increasing the maximum retail prices (MRPs) of all varieties of rice except keeri samba by Rs. 10. By opting for an upward price revision, the government has unwittingly justified the millers’ unlawful practice of selling rice at prices above the MRPs previously. What it has chosen to do is like hurling a chunk of umbalakada (‘Maldives fish’) at a cat that is running away with a piece of fish, as a local saying goes. We hear champagne corks popping in rice mills, especially in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, at a meeting with a group of rice millers in Colombo over the weekend, announced the government’s decision to increase the MRPs for rice. He appeared to be reading the millers the riot act, but in the end the latter had the last laugh—as always.

It has been reported that the rice millers agreed to adhere to the revised MRPs and release adequate rice stocks to the market, but whether they will go on doing so or ask for further price increases, after a while, remains to be seen. President Dissanayake has indicated that noncompliance will be severely dealt with. One can only hope that he will match his words with deeds and ensure that the interests of consumers and farmers are safeguarded.

Taming the powerful rice millers, who have become a law unto themselves, is a stupendous task that not even war-winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa was equal to. He gave in to their pressure and allowed them to do as they pleased. Former frontline combat officer-turned President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whom his political opponents made out to be an autocrat, also chose to touch his forelock to the Millers’ Mafia.

Successive governments have capitulated to the millers, who have demonstrated their ability to make politicians eat out of their hands. Political leaders go ballistic on election platforms, vowing to take tough action against those who exploit the public, but their roars give way to mews after being ensconced in power. This is why politicians and their parties must be made to reveal whether they have benefited from the slush funds of the millers and other members of the mudalali fraternity given to exploitative practices.

The owner of ‘Araliya Rice’, Dudley Sirisena, who is one of the powerful millers blamed for manipulating the rice and paddy markets and profiteering, in an interview with Hiru TV, on 02 Dec., claimed that the current rice shortage had come about because rice was used for manufacturing beer. Claiming that the beer companies preferred nadu to other varieties of rice, he sought to deflect blame for the current rice shortage. Interestingly, he was among the millers who met President Dissanayake the other day, and agreed to make all varieties of rice, including nadu, available at the revised prices. If the rice shortage has been caused by the beer companies, as Sirisena has claimed, how come the millers have undertaken to release rice to the market? Are they going to turn beer into rice?

However, Sirisena’s tall tale is not without an iota of truth; it is public knowledge that beer companies use rice as a raw material although they cannot be blamed for the current rice shortage, which is mostly due to hoarding by a cartel of unscrupulous millers. The government must take action to ensure that rice is eaten and not ‘drunk’ (in the form of beer).

Curiously, the government has reportedly decided to sell imported nadu rice at the previous MRP (Rs. 220 a kilo). Rice to be imported from India is believed to cost only about Rs. 110 a kilo, and the 100-rupee markup on a kilo of imported rice is nothing but unfair. It is unbecoming of the State Trading Corporation and Sathosa, tasked with importing rice, to make such unconscionable profits.

Worse, some large-scale millers responsible for market manipulations are among the rice importers; they are known to take imported rice all the way to their mills in North Central Province, and release it to the market after rebranding and repackaging it. They will now be able to sell a kilo of imported rice at Rs. 230 and earn a profit of Rs. 120 besides fleecing the public by keeping the prices of locally produced rice artificially high. They will get the best of both worlds!