Thursday 9th January, 2025

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s signature project, ‘Clean Sri Lanka’, is experiencing some teething problems. One of this catch-all project’s objectives is to enforce road discipline, the absence of which is the main reason for the ever-increasing fatal accidents which snuff out precious lives at the rate of seven or eight a day. As for road chaos, the worst culprits are the undisciplined private bus and trishaw drivers, who are now all out to prevent the police from depriving them of the freedom of the wild ass they have been enjoying all these years under successive governments.

Private bus owners are on the warpath. They have threatened to stage a countrywide strike unless the police abandon the ongoing operation to prevent traffic law violations and strip private buses and trishaws of unauthorised accessories. Speculation was rife at the time of writing that the private bus operators were likely to succeed in their endeavour. A bus strike is something that a new government needs like a hole in the head.

Some bus mudalalis and tuk-tuk drivers have sought to give their campaign against the police a religious twist; they claim that the police are ordering the removal of dashboard Buddha figurines. Private buses and trishaws are mobile shrines with various religious icons obstructing their drivers’ field of vision. All these objects must be removed to ensure road safety. If the drivers who display them are as religious as they claim to be, they should be compassionate and considerate towards others, especially their passengers. In fact, the police are doing a great service to religions by removing the icons associated with them from the vehicles driven by undisciplined individuals.

It is a supreme irony that the private bus operators who readily followed the JVP’s illegal orders in the late 1980s, are now refusing to obey the law under a democratically elected JVP-led government!

The police insist that their special operation to discipline private bus and trishaw drivers is legal, and their claim can be thought to stand to reason, for the owners of private buses and trishaws have not challenged their action in court. Instead of resorting to legal action, the protesting bus mudalalis and trishaw drivers are trying to leverage their political connections to scuttle the ongoing programme to enforce road discipline. They overwhelmingly backed the NPP in last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, and in doing so, they endorsed, among other things, the NPP’s solemn pledge to restore the rule of law and ensure that nobody would be above the law. Now, they are pressuring the NPP government to bend the law to safeguard their interests. With supporters like them, who needs enemies?

When the NPP enlisted the support of the trishaw and private bus fraternities to win elections last year, we warned it that it was making a huge mistake. It could have won elections without their backing. The public is antipathetic towards the private bus and trishaw operators who are bent on exploiting passengers, and therefore such characters cannot help a political party gain any traction, much less shore up its chances of winning elections.

If the NPP government gives the police a free hand to deal with the errant bus and trishaw operators firmly and ensure road safety, its approval rating will skyrocket.

There were over five million nonvoters in the last general election, and the NPP may be able to secure the support of most of them by taking action to restore the rule of law, which is a prerequisite for turning this country around. Even most of those who are not well-disposed towards the NPP and voted against it in the last two elections are likely to soften their position if the government tells the bus and trishaw operators where to get off. Will the government pluck up the courage to do so?

Tuesday 7th January, 2025

The JVP has a history of disrupting universities, schools, and workplaces. Thankfully, since its ascent to power, the seats of higher learning and public institutions have remained calm. But, now, it stands accused of having disrupted one of the holiest shrines in Sri Lanka—Sri Saman Devale, Ratnapura. All workers of the shrine have launched a strike in protest against the appointment of an Acting Basnayake Nilame (Chief Custodian). The appointment is politically motivated, and the person concerned is not eligible to hold that post, the protesting workers have said, claiming that never has there been a previous instance of such blatant political interference with the administration of the shrine. Commissioner General of Buddhist Affairs R. M. P. Ratnayake has said there is nothing wrong with the appointment of the Acting Basnayake Nilame, but the issue is far from resolved.

Political appointments desecrate religious places. Sadly, elections to the Basnayake Nilame posts at many shrines are political battles in all but name. Everything that politicians touch turns into a mess. They meddle with religious places on the pretext of ridding them of malpractices and settling internal disputes. If there are allegations against the custodians of holy shrines, let the proper process be followed in probing them. Politicians must keep away from the affairs of religious places.

Having trounced its political opponents in the last general election, the JVP-led NPP is apparently trying to take the battle for dominance to the celestial level. It has chosen to vie with the deities for superiority, no less. Minister of Health and Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has drawn heavy flak for a controversial statement he made at a recent ceremony to mark the opening of a children’s bone marrow transplant unit built at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama, with generous financial support from the Ruhunu Kataragama Maha Devale. After reportedly praising the chief custodian and the workers of the shrine and the devotees who made the completion of the project possible, Minister Jayatissa in his wisdom said, among other things, that not even God Kataratagama or the 330 million deities who are believed to be guarding this country would have been able to match the funds the Sri Lankan governments had allocated for the Health Ministry. The incumbent NPP administration would make an even bigger financial allocation for the health sector from Budget 2025, he said.

Minister Jayatissa has triggered an avalanche of criticism, and the government propagandists have sought to control damage by launching a vilification campaign against the Kataragama Devale Basnayake Nilame D. Gunasekera. They have been making allegations of various malpractices against him. If there is credible evidence to prove those allegations, legal action must be instituted against him, but his leadership for a successful campaign to save the lives of cancer-stricken children must be lauded. There are many other religious places as well as secular organisations providing generous financial support to the state-run health institutions. They deserve praise for their concern for the sick and generosity. It behoves the self-important politicians to refrain from making snide remarks that hurt and dishearten such donors.

Interestingly, Minister Jayatissa has contradicted one of the government’s claims, albeit unwittingly; the NPP has said that previous governments contributed nothing towards public wellbeing for 76 years after Independence. It has gone to the extent of calling the post-Independence period the ‘76-year curse’. But the Cabinet Spokesman has declared that successive governments have even outdone the deities in providing funds for free healthcare! Equally, Dr. Jayatissa is a past student of the C. W. W. Kannangara Central College, Matugama. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake attended the Thambuttegama Central College, which was also born out of the vision and mission of Kannangara, the ‘Father of Free Education’ in Sri Lanka. An article published in this newspaper today reveals how other political leaders like A. Ratnayake made a commendable contribution towards making free education a reality. So, how can the NPP, which cannot even carry out a simple task like making rice and coconuts freely available at affordable prices, say the country did not gain anything for 76 long years?

True, Sri Lanka has not been able to achieve its development goals mainly due to corruption and blunders of previous governments. The challenge before the NPP is to put the country right without fighting political battles, interfering with religious institutions and tilting at newspaper offices.

It is hoped that the absurd behaviour of some key government leaders does not exemplify what the deities are said to do to those whom they wish to destroy.

Monday 6th January, 2025

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s ambitious, catch-all project, ‘Clean Sri Lanka’, is in the same perilous situation as pedestrians in this country—it runs the risk of being knocked down by private buses and trishaws, in a manner of speaking. As part of the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative, the police have been in overdrive during the past few days to nab errant private bus and trishaw drivers and strip their contraptions of unauthorised accessories, deafening horns, blinding lights and overly loud exhausts. They are also deploying plainclothesmen in buses to watch out for traffic law violations committed by drivers. They have so far instituted legal action against a large number of drivers. More power to their elbow!

Associations of private bus and trishaw operators are letting out howls of protests against the ongoing programme to make roads safe. Claiming that drivers find it extremely difficult to operate under the current circumstances, those outfits have issued warning to the government; they say they will be compelled to adopt countermeasures unless the police abandon the road safety programme. If private bus and tuk-tuk fraternities abide by the law, they will not be affected by the ongoing police operations. They are protesting because they commit offences such as driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, reckless driving, using mobile phones while driving, lane jumping, ignoring signal lights, disregarding pedestrians’ right of way, etc.

Having backed the JVP-led NPP to the hilt in the presidential and parliamentary elections, last year, the warring private bus and trishaw operators seem to think they enjoy legal immunity. Their spokespersons have audaciously asked the police not to devalue the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ programme by conducting the ongoing operations aimed at making roads safe for everyone!

The NPP government has already capitulated to a bunch of big-time rice millers who have become a law unto themselves, and are apparently running a parallel government. They bankroll election campaigns and have government leaders eating out of their hands. This has led to a situation where a handful of wealthy millers are exploiting consumers and paddy farmers with impunity.

The NPP leaders used to bellow rhetoric, vowing to tame the millers and ensure that the interests of the farming community and the public would prevail, but they float like bees and sting like butterflies when they confront the millers’ cartel. Whether they will give in to pressure from the protesting bus and trishaw operators and ask the police to give the lawbreakers free rein remains to be seen.

President of the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association Gemunu Wijeratne, who is protesting against the current traffic police operations, has gone on record as saying that about 50% of bus workers are addicted to narcotics. That is the reason why the police must keep a watchful eye on private bus drivers to ensure the safety of all road users. Instead of flaying the police and the government, he ought to extend the fullest cooperation of his association to them. Similarly, the government should look into the private bus drivers’ grievances. They are without proper rest areas. Most of them are overworked and therefore fatigued. Stress may be one of the reasons for their addiction to alcohol and narcotics, and this aspect of the problem needs to be addressed. But nothing can be cited in extenuation of the violation of traffic laws and endangering the lives of road users. The police must be given a free hand to deal with the drivers from hell and prevent road accidents which destroy about seven lives a day.

The NPP leaders may be able to hold their political enemies at bay, but it looks as if they needed divine help to save themselves from their ‘friends’ in the garb of millers, cabbies and private bus drivers.

In fact, with friends like the protesting private bus and trishaw operators, the government needs no enemies.