Left vs. Right

It is becoming increasingly apparent by the day that the government is coming under mounting pressure to lock down the country and at least slow, if not halt, the roaring Covid pandemic gaining steam by the day. The daily statistics beamed into homes countrywide by the prime time news bulletins of the different television stations, publicize the growing number of infections and death. Each day’s numbers are higher than the previous day’s. The third line in the statistical tables, giving the number of recoveries so far, is intended to cast at least a single ray of sunshine into an ever-blackening picture. But given the current situation, even that hardly serves to dispel the gloom.

Word came on Friday afternoon after this (now revised) comment was written that the government, or really President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who took the last call, had finally caved into the strident demands dinning his ears these past several days. The ‘too little too late’ accusations will now follow as surely as night follows day. Even the ranks of Tuscany must, and do concede, that the president and his government were confronted with a ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ situation. There is no disputing that the logic presented by the best health professionals in the country pushing hard for a lock down is iron clad and rock solid. But the economic consequences of such a measure for the country as a whole and its very large daily wage earning population is equally terrible.

The Mahanayakes joined the chorus on Thursday demanding a week’s lock down. Others want a considerably longer period running for three weeks, a month or even more. Obviously any lock down for too short a period will be an absolute waste. It is better to bite the bullet and not lock down at all rather than engage in a less than useless exercise. Though Friday’s lock down announcement said it’ll run till the end of this month, whether it will be extended or ot will depend on how things pan out. The minor parties in the Pohottuwa coalition, 10 in all and mostly left inclined, also pushed for a lock down just before it was finally imposed. We all know that most of their leaders now in Parliament, would have not been electable had they not run under the Rajapaksa colours or secured themselves patronage appointments under the Pohottuwa National List. But they are not without influence within the government as the East Container Terminal episode amply demonstrates.

Along with their lock down demand now conceded, there is the concurrent pressure to support the least affluent segment of society including the daily wage earners, who live hand to mouth eking out their existence, in the best way possible with essential food packs, cash allowances and whatever if the country is closed. This was resorted to last time round with some measure of success but a larger measure of failure as has been the case in most (if not all) poor relief attempts including Janasaviya, Samurdhi and whatever, not excluding the various long established schemes of the Social Services Department and various local bodies. We believe that the Colombo Municipal Council continues to run its long established Charity Commissioner’s Department, and many of the other larger Municipalities would also be doing the same.

It is well known that that a large number of persons not qualified to receive Samurdhi and other benefits draw them while perhaps a larger number in desperate need of such support are left out in the cold. Time was when the Communist Party’s Aththa newspaper exposed the case of the parents of a Member of Parliament receiving Samurdhi. These schemes are highly politicized and politicians obtain benefits for their supporters in return for votes. The writer is personally aware of an instance where a domestic aide hailing from an estate in Badulla, working in a well-to-do Colombo home, insisted on going to her line room to cast her vote at an election. When the employer pointed out to her that she would have to bear a travel expense of at least a thousand rupees and an exhausting journey, she said she must vote or her family’s Samurdhi benefits will be at risk. This, unfortunately is the way the papadam crumbles.

There is no need to labour the fact that if, indeed, a lock down is imposed as it now has been, any relief scheme for those most in need will not work as it should. But there is no escaping the reality that something is better than nothing. A very large question mark also hangs over the government’s ability to properly fund such a scheme. Not doing so will obviously add to the discontent. A deserving person seeing his neighbour getting a benefit he does not will naturally seethe with resentment. There will be those who will urge the government to resort to the printing press to meet such emergency expenditure. Money printing has already reached record levels and its effects are all too evident.

It is clear that a Left vs Right contest has emerged in the lock down or not debate. The majority of Pohottuwa constituents who on Thursday urged the president to lock down are left inclined. So are many of the unions pushing for this measure. Much of the organized private sector tilts towards staying open both in their own interest and that of the national economy. Such interests supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the last presidential election. Many of their employees were on fully salary during the last lock down although some did suffer pay cuts. Public servants, a sizable segment of the work force, were on full pay and pensions were paid. All this reflected on the huge pressure exerted on the president and his government by the contending forces. We have now seen which way the tide eventually turned. Whatever happened, the country and its people will have to pay through their noses to survive Covid and support the unfortunate pinned with their backs against a wall.