Wednesday 7th October, 2026

Fuel queues have returned, with long lines of vehicles reported at filling stations in many parts of the country. Foreign companies engaged in fuel trade have reportedly curtailed supplies, claiming that they are incurring substantial losses as fuel prices determined by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) are not sufficient to cover their costs despite a 70-rupee diesel subsidy. The government appears to be watching helplessly while fuel queues are lengthening.

Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka has told Parliament that the government expects fuel supplies to return to normal in a day or two. Instead of adopting such a fatalistic attitude, the government ought to do everything in its power to ensure an uninterrupted fuel supply.

Experts questioned the advisability of opening the petroleum sector to foreign companies, without adequate safeguards to protect the country’s energy security. Their warnings went unheeded. Today, the CPC’s market share is reported to have shrunk significantly, with many of its filling stations currently run by four foreign companies, which curtail fuel supplies if the CPC-determined prices do not meet their expectations.

The incumbent government cannot be held responsible for the petroleum-sector agreements which are allegedly favourable to foreign companies. Yet, while in opposition, the JVP/NPP leaders pledged to review all vital agreements, particularly the one with the IMF, claiming that they were detrimental to the country’s interests. Before the 2024 elections, they promised to abolish fuel taxes. Such pledges helped them muster enough popular support to win elections. They went so far as to amend the Constitution to raise the retirement ages of the superior court judges purportedly to tackle a huge case backlog. Why haven’t they resorted to such radical action to address fuel queues?

It is imperative that the government ensure transparency in fuel pricing, as we have argued previously. The public should be shown the complete cost reflective pricing formula together with the exact international benchmark, exchange rate, landed cost, taxes, levies, CPC costs, any loss-recovery component, etc., every time pump prices are revised. Consumers have a right to know how fuel prices are calculated. Taxes and levies account for a significant component of the prices motorists pay for fuel.

The JVP-NPP government is coming under increasing pressure to reduce taxes on fuel. There is no gainsaying that fuel needs to be taxed, but taxation should not become excessive. The government has to raise state revenue substantially and manage public funds prudently to prevent another rupee crisis, but it should be neither as miserly as Silas Marner or Ebenezer Scrooge nor as ruthless as Shylock.

While out of power, all leftist movements project themselves as Robin Hood and his Merry Men, promising to champion the rights of the poor, fight corruption, and redistribute wealth through progressive or “Robin Hood” taxes, but the JVP/NPP, ensconced in power, is behaving like Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham, squeezing taxpayers dry to raise government revenue. A single-minded pursuit of higher state revenue, by fair means or foul, can only aggravate the woes of the public and eventually fuel political discontent.

One may recall that there were protracted power cuts for weeks, if not months, during the SLPP-UNP government, but they came to an abrupt end following a massive electricity tariff hike. Is it possible that the current fuel shortage is also being allowed to create the conditions for another price increase? Shortages often precede price hikes in this country.

Market models that work in Western countries, where governments are strong enough to stand up to powerful corporations, cannot necessarily be replicated in the developing world, where private companies are guided by Rafferty’s rules, and the state has to intervene to prevent exploitation and safeguard the national interest. The current fuel crisis provides a compelling argument for the JVP-NPP government to reinvigorate the CPC by expanding its filling-station network, thereby ensuring a reliable fuel supply and strengthening the country’s energy security.

Tuesday 6th October, 2026

The US has been doing everything in its power to force Iran into submission, but without success. Its no-holds-barred methods of warfare remind us of some ruthless warriors of yore, who even weaponised hunger to achieve their military goals. Many were the instances where Genghis Khan’s army laid siege to fortified cities and cut off supplies to force its enemies to surrender. During the American Civil War, General Philip Sheridan’s scorched-earth campaign in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley was so thorough that he reportedly boasted that even a crow flying across the Valley would have to carry its own provisions.

A recent Wall Street Journal report has revealed that Sri Lanka is under US pressure over 20 Iranian oil tankers stranded in international waters off the island. It has been reported that some of those oil carriers, anchored about 15 miles (24 km) off Sri Lanka’s south-western coast, are running short of food, fuel and fresh water. However, Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath has claimed that the US has not asked Sri Lanka not to provide food and water to the Iranian vessels.

In 04 March 2026, a US submarine sank an Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, in an unprovoked torpedo attack, which claimed 104 lives off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Seven months on, the US stands accused of trying to starve an undisclosed number of Iranian sailors on board about 20 oil tankers. Strangely, the powerful nations that pontificate to the Global South about the virtues of human rights and humanitarian assistance are looking the other way. The stranded Iranian sailors must be provided with food, water and medical care. Powerful nations and the UN ought to step in to ensure that the Iranian tanker crews receive lift-sustaining supplies of food and water and medical care urgently.

We believe that the international maritime and seafarers’ law imposes obligations on states to ensure the safety and basic welfare of seafarers, including access to essential supplies and medical assistance. There is a strong humanitarian precedent that the world must follow. One may recall that during the early stages of the Ukraine conflict, the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization expressed serious concerns over the Ukrainian seafarers lacking access to fresh food, water and medical supplies, and called for humanitarian assistance to reprovision the stranded ships. It also stressed that civilian seafarers should not become collateral victims of political or military conflicts. This principle must apply to the stranded Iranian seafarers as well.

The civilised world must not look on while the crew members of the Iranian oil tankers are reportedly languishing without access to essential supplies. There have been some instances of radical humanitarian interventions in support of the Palestinians trapped in Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest maritime mobilisation for Palestine in history, is a case in point. Israel thwarted an attempt by the courageous Global Sumud Flotilla activists on a peaceful solidarity mission to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver medical aid and supplies to the Palestinians facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. If a large number of boats from different countries set sail simultaneously carrying provisions for the trapped Iranian tanker crews, will the US be able to stop them?

It may be recalled that the US was among the western nations that forced Sri Lanka to continue to send food and medical supplies to the LTTE-held areas during the Eelam war although it was obvious that the LTTE seized most of them. They were right in insisting that Sri Lanka was duty bound to ensure that civilians in the conflict zone had access to food, water and medicines among other things. But why aren’t the US and its allies equally considerate towards the Iranian sailors trapped between the Scylla of US military aggression and the Charybdis of enforced global submission?

Foreign Minister Herath has said the Sri Lankan government has not supplied goods to vessels subjected to US sanction, and private sector individuals providing goods and services to ships have a responsibility to understand the prevailing circumstances and act responsibly. Minister Herath has only obfuscated the issue. If his claim that the government is not under US pressure is true, then Sri Lanka can reprovision the Iranian vessels urgently, can’t it?

Monday 5th October, 2026

The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) has held several media briefings during the past several months to highlight a host of unresolved issues affecting the university system, but the government seems to be unconcerned. Addressing the media, over the weekend, the FUTA raised those problems once again, pointing out that all state universities had been left with only about 5,000 teachers because a large number of academics had already left the country, mostly for economic reasons. The situation was taking a turn for the worse, it warned.

University teachers are among the professionals who played a pivotal role in enabling the JVP-led NPP’s meteoric rise to power, but today they are shouting themselves hoarse in a bid to draw the government’s attention to the problems besetting the university system, but in vain. The same holds true for the state-sector doctors, who have got short shrift from the government, which rides roughshod over the GMOA (Government Medical Officers’ Association) as well as the BASL (Bar Association of Sri Lanka), whose members also campaigned hard for the NPP.

The incumbent government, just like its predecessors, has apparently prioritised a plan to increase the number of universities in keeping with what looks like a politically determined agenda over resourcing and staffing the existing universities adequately. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his wisdom, has promised to establish 50 new universities across the country while almost all state universities are experiencing severe resource constraints, with many academics voting with their feet.

A quality university system cannot be created simply by increasing the number of universities or admitting more students. The need is for a combination of capable academics, adequate resources, institutional autonomy, rigorous standards and a system of accountability. There are certain other conditions that need to be fulfilled for a country to create a vibrant university system that conforms to international standards. First of all, there should be a clear national higher education strategy to establish a diversified, future-oriented tertiary education system that is adequately resourced and staffed.

Universities cannot function properly, much less achieve academic excellence, without enough qualified teachers and appropriate student-to-staff ratios. Adequate and sustained funding, strong research capacity, academic freedom, institutional freedom and rigorous, independent quality assurance, industrial and international links are among the other factors that help ensure the robustness of a university system.

The World Bank’s recent assessment of Sri Lanka’s higher education sector has identified scarcity of qualified academic staff, inadequate research and innovation output and passive student learning among the challenges facing the sector.

FUTA members have told the media that foreign research grants have to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers; the approval process is frustratingly slow, and therefore universities are without enough funds for research. There are arguments for and against government oversight on research grants, but the real issue is why the government cannot expedite the approval process. Teaching and research are traditionally regarded as inseparable functions of a university. Besides, universities need sufficient freedom to determine curricula, conduct research, appoint staff and make academic decisions without inappropriate political or bureaucratic interference. UNESCO regards academic freedom and institutional autonomy as important conditions for universities to fulfil their teaching and research functions.

It is doubtful whether Sri Lankan governments have learnt from history how other countries achieved their development goals. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has revealed that universities played a central role in the development of the Global North by producing the educated workforce, scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, administrators and other professionals needed to build modern economies and strong public institutions. They also became major centres of basic and applied research, generating knowledge that helped drive industrialisation, technological innovation and productivity. The OECD notes that universities in most developed economies remain major providers of research and important contributors to the development of new technologies. The rise of strong university systems was not merely a result of development in the Global North; universities themselves helped usher in progress. It is hoped that Sri Lankan policymakers, particularly politicians, will take cognisance of this simple fact.

The incumbent government has raised the retirement ages of judges. It even went to the extent of amending the Constitution amidst protests from national and international organisations, claiming that it had to do so to clear a backlog of cases. It has also launched a substantial programme to recruit and train thousands of police personnel. Why can’t it take similar action urgently to resolve the shortage of university teachers? It should heed the university teachers’ warning; students who qualify for university admission may have to wait for several years before the commencement of their academic programmes, and universities might end up being empty shells.