Thursday 11th December, 2025

The Opposition has blamed the severity of recent floods that devastated many areas, such as Gampola, on the controversial appointment of some engineers loyal to the NPP government to oversee the Kotmale reservoir in place of senior, experienced engineering professionals who could have responded to emergencies swiftly. It has claimed that if the experienced officials had been allowed to operate the reservoir, they would have begun releasing water early to prevent flash floods, without waiting for the sluice gates to open automatically.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been on a whirlwind tour of the cyclone-hit areas during the last several days. Obviously, his mission is not only to speed up the ongoing relief and rebuilding programmes but also to mitigate the adverse political fallout from the disaster. He however has his work cut out. The dash of the Leader of the Red Comrades across the country reminds us of the Red Queen’s remark to Alice: “It takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place.”

President Dissanayake would not have had to exert himself in this manner if his government had responded swiftly to the warnings of cyclonic winds and heavy rains, issued by local and foreign meteorological agencies, two weeks before the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah. It has now been revealed that as early as 13 November, the India Meteorological Department, which runs the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RMSC) responsible for monitoring the oceans in this region and issuing warnings of cyclones, alerted Sri Lanka to the impending adverse weather. The Sri Lankan government should have convened the Disaster Management Council and directed all state institutions to be prepared to face the impending extreme weather events.

Ironically, India’s warning of adverse weather came on 13 November, when the JVP leaders including President Dissanayake commemorated their party’s leaders and rank and file, who had died in the name of a cause that the JVP has since relinquished—defeating ‘Indian expansionism’ and ending Indian interference with Sri Lanka’s internal affairs’.

The Opposition insists that the severity of the Ditwah disaster could not be minimised owing to the JVP-NPP’s inexperience in governance. This argument is not without some merit, but the key members of the Opposition themselves have a history of ignoring dire warnings; they were in the dysfunctional Yahapalana government led by the UNP (2015-2020), which failed to act on repeated warnings of a series of terror attacks. They and other ‘experienced’ politicians in the Opposition are responsible for the rise of a group of inexperienced politicians to power.

It is not only power that corrupts; political experience also does, as evident from the prevalence of corruption under the watch of the so-called experienced leaders, who left the public with no alternative but to throw in their lot with a bunch of self-proclaimed messiahs with little or no experience in governance.

‘Inexperienced’ politicians’ rapid ascent to power can be traced to the people’s desperation to see the back of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose rule had become a metaphor for corruption, nepotism, abuse of power and political violence. But the country had to pay a huge price for electing Maithripala Sirisena, a mediocre politician, as President in 2015. He neglected national security and undermined the National Security Council, so much so that actionable intelligence about the Easter Sunday terror attacks went unheeded in 2019. Thereafter, the country took a huge gamble by electing Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President. His lack of experience in governance almost left the economy and democracy dead. Thankfully, he resigned without plunging the country into a bloodbath, but his failure paved the way for the meteoric rise of a bunch of inexperienced politicians to power; they stand accused of having failed to mitigate the impact of the recent disaster and save lives.

The need of the hour is for the self-proclaimed experienced Opposition politicians and the inexperienced government leaders to sink their political differences and join forces to accomplish the uphill task of providing relief to the disaster victims and helping rebuild their lives. Political battles and investigations into alleged lapses and failures can wait.

Wednesday 10th December, 2025

Grama Niladharis (GNs) are up in arms, claiming that the JVP/NPP politicians and their lackeys are interfering with disaster relief programmes. Sri Lanka United Grama Niladhari Association (SLUGNA) President Nandana Ranasinghe told the media on Monday that JVP/NPP politicians and their supporters were meddling with the ongoing disaster relief operations at all levels and even obstructing the GNs. He claimed that the political authority had sent letters to the District and Divisional Secretaries, directing them to appoint ruling party members to the state-run welfare centres. SLUGNA Secretary Jagath Chandralal said state officials had been directed to obtain approval from those attached to the government’s Prajashakthi programme for carrying out relief work.

Both Ranasinghe and Chandralal are of the view that political interference with the relief distribution programme has never been so bad. The SLUGNA has warned that its members will be compelled to resort to trade union action if the government politicians did not stop interfering with their work. The GNs play a pivotal role in identifying disaster victims and ensuring that relief materials reach the target groups, and therefore the government must do everything possible to prevent them from launching a strike.

The SLUGNA’s allegations against government politicians and their supporters are very serious, and must therefore be probed immediately. No room must be left for political interference with disaster relief operations.

Complaints abound that government members are distributing relief materials collected from the public, making them out to be donations from the JVP/NPP. These complaints must also be probed.

What the JVP-led NPP government stands accused of is the very antithesis of the new political culture it promised to usher in. It pledged to depoliticise the state service and govern the country in a democratic and transparent manner, without leaving any room for corruption and political interference.

Worse, the government has been striving to have one of its loyalists appointed as Auditor General. Thankfully, the Constitutional Council has rejected three names submitted by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake for the post so far, but the government is sure to do everything in its power to achieve its objective. Why the JVP/NPP is so desperate to have one of its cronies appointed to that high post is not difficult to guess.

As for the GNs’ allegation against pro-government individuals attached to the community-level Prajashakthi outfits, one may recall that the SLFP-led United Front government (1970-77) also set up a network of committees purportedly to enable the participation of workers and ordinary citizens in governance. They were popularly known as ‘Janatha Committees’ (JCs), which subsequently became overpoliticised and mere appendages of that regime. The heads of those committees thought no end of themselves although their powers were nominal, and made a huge contribution to the downfall of the UF government.

The rule by committees, as it were, which paves the way for centralised control on the pretext of facilitating wider participation in governance, is a main feature of authoritarianism. Hitler used that method and introduced Gleichschaltung, which was a process of coordination, designed to bring all aspects of German life under Nazi control.

Hence the need to monitor the activities of all committees appointed by governments, socialist or otherwise, to further their political interests. They must not be allowed to have the state service on a string and subjugate the interests of the public to their party agendas. Eternal vigilance is said to be the price of liberty.

Tuesday 9th December, 2025

Perhaps the unfolding political drama in Sri Lanka could be considered an even better example of the Theatre of the Absurd than Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot or Eugène Ionesco’s seminal absurdist work, The Bald Soprano. Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe has called for legal action against Opposition politicians for what he describes as their failure to warn the public about extreme weather events in the lead-up to the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah. He has said so in response to the Opposition’s allegation that the government failed to act on warnings issued by the Meteorological Department about floods and cyclonic winds, as early as 12 November 2025. He has claimed the government was not aware of any such warnings! Another ruling party MP has blamed Derana TV for not having alerted the public to the impending disasters although a Meteorological Department official warned of them in an interview with it! Not even King Kekille—a legendary monarch known for his absurd judgements—would have rushed to such illogical, if not moronic, conclusions. If the task of monitoring weather forecasts as well as expert views thereon and warning the public of possible disasters is to be left entirely to the Opposition or a private television station, what then is the government for?

Most political issues that undermine national interest in this country boil down to the fact that the JVP-led NPP government has an opposition mindset and the SJB-led Opposition a government mindset. More often than not, the NPP forgets that it is in power and carries out Opposition-style propaganda attacks on its opponents, and the Opposition, which is full of self-important politicians, behaves as if it governed the country.

When the 2004 tsunami struck this country, there was no economic crisis. The economy was not unstable during the Covid-19 pandemic. When the economy went into a tailspin, the pandemic was over. But today the country is reeling from the crippling impact of a mega disaster while trying to straighten up an ailing economy. Economists have warned of a possible slowdown of the economy, with the deadline for resuming debt repayment approaching. A colossal amount of state funds will have to be allocated for disaster relief and rebuilding. Foreign aid currently flowing could fizzle out if global attention shifts to a new crisis elsewhere. That is the way the cookie crumbles.

Both the government and the Opposition have failed to grasp the gravity of the post-disaster situation. Otherwise, they would not have continued their political battles at the expense of a concerted effort to manage it. They are fighting while mountains are collapsing and rivers are bursting their banks, heedless of the pitiable cries of the disaster victims, just as Nero fiddled while Rome was burning.

There is no better place than the parliament complex for the ruling party politicians and their equally pugnacious Opposition counterparts to address environmental issues related to climate change and find ways and means of managing the impact of Ditwah and preparing the country to face future weather disasters. Besides housing the national legislature, the parliamentary complex is a monument to the nation’s fatalistic attitude towards, if not reckless disregard for, natural disasters. It has been flooded at least twice.

The impact of Cyclone Ditwah is not limited to economic and political fronts; an expert has warned of a possible ecological disaster, according to our lead news item today. Professor Siril Wijesundara of the National Institute of Fundamental Studies has issued a stark warning that Sri Lanka may be facing one of the worst biodiversity losses in its recent history, yet the country still lacks a coordinated, scientific assessment of the damage. Doctors have warned of possible outbreaks of diseases, such as dysentery, dengue and rat fever. Some disaster-stricken areas are still inaccessible. Many victims have not yet received any relief.

The government alone cannot handle the post-disaster relief programmes and reconstruction projects; others must put their shoulders to the wheel. It must swallow its pride and abandon its belligerent attitude and confrontational approach before asking others to join the relief and rebuilding efforts. The self-righteous Opposition should stop settling scores with the government and seeking political mileage by criticising the ongoing programmes to deliver relief to the disaster victims and rebuild their houses and shops.

Rhetoric and absurd sideshows are of no use to the disaster victims; what they need is relief as well as help to rebuild their shattered lives.