Tuesday 13th May, 2025

The title of today’s comment was inspired by the name of an award-winning 1990 film, Dances with Wolves, which is the sobriquet given to the protagonist, Lt. John Dunbar, by a Native American tribe because of his close interactions with a wolf he befriends. We were reminded of that epithet on seeing the JVP-led NPP waltzing with those it condemned as thieves before last week’s local government (LG) polls. The NPP government deserves the moniker, Dances with Thieves.

The morality of ruling politicians in Sri Lanka flies out of the window at the first sign of trouble which is likely to threaten their hold on power. Likewise, the Opposition’s insatiable thirst for power takes precedence over scruples. Hence there are so many strange bedfellows in Sri Lankan politics.

Whoever would have thought that the JVP/NPP would ever stoop so low as to woo the very politicians it lumped together with their political enemies and branded as thieves? The NPP adopted and propagated a binary view of politicians, created a dichotomy between the camp it represents and others, declared in no uncertain terms that all its political rivals, including independent candidates, were thieves—horu—and asked for a mandate to rid the political institutions of those ‘rogues’ once and for all; that pledge enabled the NPP to win the presidential and parliamentary elections, last year, but it did not prove equally effective in the recently concluded LG elections.

The NPP and the SJB are vying for the control of the hung LG bodies, especially the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). The government and its political opponents turned the recent LG elections into a contest between horu and boru; the NPP leaders including Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya urged the people not to vote for the independent candidates as well, who, they said, were also thieves or horu. The Opposition used boru or lies uttered by the NPP leaders to discredit the government and gain some political traction.

Both the NPP and the SJB are all out to engineer crossovers to muster majorities in the hung councils while accusing each other of trying to induce defections financially. There is no such thing as a free crossover in this country, where most politicians are Mammon worshippers, and money has a mellowing effect on their principles. So, neither the NPP nor the Opposition will be able to convince the public that the members who switch their allegiance to it, if any, have acted out of conviction.

What is legally acceptable may not be morally right. So, in the non-majority CMC, the SJB may be able to secure a majority, if it is lucky, but it is without any moral right to control the council, for the people of Colombo did not give it a mandate to do so, and, above all, its mayoral candidate failed to be elected in spite of being a respected professional. Similarly, the NPP’s all-out efforts to bag the much-coveted CMC outright did not reach fruition; it failed to obtain enough votes to secure an absolute majority. The same, more or less, holds true for other hung councils.

The NPP ought to realise that its vote share is in decline nationwide, as evident from the outcome of the LG polls, which its leaders including President Anura Kumara Dissanayake himself turned into a kind of national election, and the majority of voters have backed the NPP’s rivals, who contested severally. Likewise, the Opposition cannot deny the fact that it lacks popular support to govern the non-majority LG councils.

The NPP and the Opposition must realise that the electorate has rejected both of them in the hung councils, the difference between them being only a matter of degree. They must also bear in mind that unless they read the message contained in the people’s verdict accurately and respect it, they will incur public ire. Let them be warned that public disillusionment and resentment, which is palpable, will provide a turbo boost to the rising tide of anti-politics, which almost plunged the country into anarchy in 2022. Their leaders must stop vilifying one another and testing the people’s patience, and negotiate how to navigate the hung councils out of the current imbroglio and make them fully functional for the public good.

Monday 12th May, 2025

A tragic road accident near Kotmale claimed 21 lives yesterday and left 35 others seriously injured. Disaster struck when a state-owned bus plying from Kataragama to Kurunegala via Nuwara Eliya, veered off a winding road and plunged down a precipice. Yesterday’s tragedy has jolted politicians and officials alike into action, but it is bound to be forgotten soon. Sri Lanka lacks a proper national strategy to prevent road fatalities. Hardly a day passes without a fatal road traffic accident being reported. About 2,243 people were killed and 4,552 others seriously injured in road accidents in 2024. Of those mishaps 2,141 were fatal.

The cause of yesterday’s accident had not been established at the time of going to press. The ill-fated bus had gone out of control due to a technical fault, according to some reports, but a survivor has been quoted as saying the vehicle was speeding. One can only hope that the police, the SLTB and the Transport Ministry will conduct a thorough probe into Sunday’s accident and take action to prevent such tragedies.

A World Bank report, Delivering Road Safety in Sri Lanka; Leadership Priorities and Initiatives to 2030, reveals that ‘the high road crash fatality and injury rates on Sri Lanka’s roads undermine the economic growth and progress made over the past decade on reducing poverty and boosting prosperity’. The report says the annual crash deaths per capita in Sri Lanka are twice the average rate in high-income countries and five times that of the best performing countries in the world! Sri Lanka reportedly has the worst road fatality rate among its immediate neighbours in the South Asia region.

It has been revealed that many drivers operate while being impaired by alcohol or drugs. In 2021, then the government disclosed that about 80% of the private bus drivers in Colombo and its suburbs were under the influence of drugs while on duty. The situation must be more or less the same where other heavy vehicle drivers are concerned. Trucks ply like bats out of hell on busy roads, terrorising other road users, making one doubt the sobriety of their drivers. The initial detection of impaired driving with visual inspection is relatively easier where drunk drivers are concerned, but the task of nabbing drugged divers is far more difficult. Hence the need for methods such as random roadside drug tests.

Complaints abound that passenger buses are not properly maintained or even regularly cleaned. Their owners try to teach politicians how to govern the country while they are doing precious little to operate their own buses in a civilised manner. Successive governments have not cared to arrest the deterioration of the SLTB, much less develop it to provide a better service. About 2,000 SLTB buses are out of service, mainly for want of spares, according to the Transport Ministry, and the roadworthiness of the ones in operation is reportedly in question. No surprise that the SLTB fleet is plagued by technical defects.

Meanwhile, a road safety expert, a few years ago, proposed that bamboo be planted on the slopes adjacent to curvy roads to stabilise soil, maintain the integrity of land in those areas and complement engineered structures such as guardrails to prevent vehicles from plunging down precipices. Nothing much has since been heard about this proposal, which deserves the attention of the authorities responsible for ensuring road safety.

Road safety experts have identified the following factors, inter alia, as the common causes of crashes on expressways and other roads in Sri Lanka: speeding, distractions, recklessness, fatigue, driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, inclement weather conditions, inadequate road conditions, tailgating, improper lane changes, inexperience of drivers, overtaking dangerously, poor visibility, unroadworthy vehicles, poor signage or lack of road markings and impatience or time pressure. One of the aforesaid factors or a combination of two or more of them could lead to fatal accidents on any road. So, any strategy to prevent road mishaps consists in addressing those causes.

One can only hope that yesterday’s tragic accident will galvanise the authorities concerned to make a truly national effort to save lives being lost on roads.

The missionary life is no highway paved with comforts. It is a journey of grit and grace, often walked amid many difficulties and hardships. You leave behind your homeland, your language, your family and begin afresh in lands where your name means nothing and your faith is everything. You must learn to speak a new language, eat what the people eat, walk where they walk and suffer as they suffer. It’s not a life for the fainthearted, but for those made of sterner stuff and deeper faith.

Two such men embodied that calling. One was Guillermo Steckling, a German Oblate who served with distinction in Paraguay. The other, an American Augustinian named Francis Prevost, laboured in tough terrains of Peru. Their missionary work was not just about building churches but about building lives – working alongside the poor, walking with the marginalized and anchoring the Church in places long forgotten by power.

They were, quite literally, men with little say but had big hearts to help the poorest of the poor and the marginalized. But Rome had its eye on them. Their work bore such fruit that both were called to lead their global congregations. Steckling became Superior General of the Oblates and Prevost Prior General of Order of St. Augustine.

Still, Pope Francis, ever the shepherd with a nose for humble holiness, sent them back – not to offices in Rome, but to the dusty front-lines where they had made their mark. Steckling returned to Paraguay as Bishop. So did Prevost in Peru. Pope Francis loved missionaries and he knew they were capable men. It was a move as pastoral as it was prophetic – a strategy to shape the future leadership of the Church not through ambition, but through service.

Today, that same Francis Prevost has succeeded his mentor Pope Francis as Pope Leo XIV – shepherd of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. A professor of Canon Law and a mathematician by training, he was never considered a front runner for pope by Vatican watchers. In fact, when he entered the Sistine Chapel for the Conclave, he had been a Cardinal for barely two years. Yet, four ballots later, the white smoke rose.

Cardinal Prevost’s election recalls the October Conclave of 1978, when little known Karol Wojtyła, the Polish Cardinal who became John Paul II. But unlike 1978, where a stalemate between Italian heavyweights led to a compromise choice, this time the Cardinals rallied behind Prevost early. The two-thirds majority came swiftly after four ballots unlike in 1978 where they had eight ballots.

When he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, his first words were not lofty proclamations, but a whisper to a wounded world: “Peace be with you.” In an age riven by conflict – in Gaza, in Ukraine and in Kashmir – his greeting rang out like balm on an open wound.

Pope Francis had often urged global leaders to be instruments of peace. Pope Leo XIV seems poised to carry that mission forward – not with diplomatic finesse, perhaps, but with the moral weight of a man who has lived among the poor and who speaks not from a podium but from the heart.

He has never shied away from uncomfortable truths. Even before his elevation, Cardinal Prevost voiced his concerns over U.S. immigration policies, particularly the practice of separating children from their families. He took on Vice President J.D. Vance – a fellow Catholic – when Prevost said, “Jesus does not ask us to rank our love.”

He may be the first American Pope, but he does not carry the triumphalism that often trails that label. Born in Chicago, yes – but shaped in Peru. His spiritual passport bears the stamps of Lima’s slums, not Washington’s corridors. His theology is rooted not in ideology but in going after the lost sheep.

His choice of name – Leo – is a signal in itself. The last to wear that name was Leo XIII, the great “Pope of the Workers,” who reigned for 25 years at the turn of the 20th century and became a beacon for social justice. Leo XIII was the author of an encyclical that championed the rights of labourers and demanded dignity for those who toil. It was a milestone in Catholic social teaching. By invoking that name, Pope Leo XIV seems to be saying: the mission continues.

Indeed, for centuries the papacy was seen as Rome’s to keep. That hold was first broken in 1978. John Paul II broke barriers in a papacy that ran for 27 years.

This time, many assumed the pendulum would swing back to Italy, especially with several seasoned Italian Cardinals in contention. But the College of Cardinals, guided by the spirit of Pope Francis, chose not a bureaucrat, nor a diplomat – but a missionary. A man who has “the smell of the sheep.”

Pope Leo XIV may have entered the Conclave a rank outsider; he now carries the keys of St. Peter to further Pope Francis’ mission and vision for the church.