Editorial

The new normal after six weeks

Published

5 years ago

2021/10/3

While the relaxing, not lifting, of the quarantine curfew which ran for an extended period of six weeks was compelled by socio-economic rather than preventive imperatives, it is obvious that the country cannot let down its guard. Cognizance of this reality by the decision makers is demonstrated by the fact that the “lockdown,” as it was commonly called, has not been totally lifted. The night curfew continues to be in force from 10 pm to 4 am and inter-provincial travel is still not possible. Health guidelines widely disseminated include restrictions on eateries, restaurants, salons and various other social gatherings including weddings, funerals and parties. The whole country without exception will hope that we are gradually returning to normal and the gains of the past two months will not be frittered away as was the case with the disastrous New Year relaxation.

Those of us who left our homes during the weeks of the lockdown, for valid reasons or otherwise, are well aware that the now relaxed restrictions were not tightly enforced. Police did not stop vehicles on the roads and question occupants on where they were headed, except on very few occasions. While the pre-pandemic traffic gridlocks were not in evidence, there nevertheless were a large number of vehicles moving particularly on city streets. While many businesses were closed, several remained open. People must obviously eat and procure their essential supplies so that a total lockdown was neither practical nor possible. Certainly public transport, meaning buses and trains, were not running but it was possible for those not fortunate enough to own a vehicle, be it a car or a motorbike, to find without much difficulty a three-wheeler to get to wherever they needed to go. Most people did not go to work and that accounted for much of the reduced traffic and movement on the roads. But this is now going to change to probably somewhat less than the bad old days. We must wait and see what the availability of public transport will be under this new order and also how employers, whether private or government, will minimize work attendance or insist on workplace presence.

The latest published numbers do reveal a significant decrease in infections and fatalities. But all of us must be fully aware of how quickly this can change as it has both in this country and elsewhere. It is human nature to place the best construction on impending events and there will be the temptation to return at least to near normal. This is most likely to happen for selfish reasons regardless of both personal risk and that to the wider community. Clear breaches of social distancing rules were visible, for example, when liquor shops were permitted to open during the tail end of the so-called lock down; and even physical brawls were seen outside the ubiquitous wine stores. There is no escaping the fact that the cash-strapped government, battling sharp revenue downturns, needed the excise revenues that are a major contributor to state coffers. The decision to reopen liquor shops would have, we believe, been taken totally mindful of the dangers in order to achieve a fine balance. The fact that they were not closed again even in the context of what happened when they were reopened clearly tells its own story.

Of course restrictions, or the lack of them, have their own imperatives. All of us are only too well aware of the sorry state of public transport in this country even in the best of times. Buses and trains are badly congested particularly during peak hours and it will be a job and a half, to use a common colloquialism, to prevent overcrowding and enforce social distancing in them during the new normal effective from dawn on Friday. Although there have been assurances by private bus operators to observe health protocols, accompanied by demands for fare increases on grounds of being compelled to run half-empty buses, how long, if at all, will that last? Like almost all businesses and most ordinary people, bus owners too are feeling the pandemic crunch. So will the police go all out to strictly enforce the rules? Probably not, and if they do, will the bus owners react by withdrawing services? All these are matters that still remain to be seen.

A vitally necessary effort has been made and continues to get the tourism industry restarted to whatever extent present conditions permit. Perhaps this industry, along with self-employed daily paid workers eking out a hand-to-mouth existence, has suffered the most from the pandemic and its economic consequences. There are signs that tourists, particularly from the west, are keen on dodging the forthcoming winter and are tempted to take holidays in warmer climes. They are further enticed by attractive packages on offer. We need not belabor the fact that hundreds of thousands in this country, directly and indirectly, are dependent on tourism for their living. The economic cost to the country as a whole from the drying out of that vital source of foreign exchange is also huge. But how successful these efforts will be even in the context of travel restrictions being relaxed at home and abroad remains to be seen in the weeks ahead. The relaxation of the rules last Sinhala and Tamil New Year was, no doubt, at least partly influenced by the need to give the hotel industry at least the benefits of selling rooms to domestic tourists. But that boomeranged.

What is now necessary is the need for all of us to exercise commonsense in the new normal that dawned last week. We must all continue to wear our masks outside our homes, despite some discomfort, frequently wash our hands, refrain from unnecessary travel, observe social distancing and continue to take necessary precautions under current conditions. Remember at all times that you can be an asymptomatic covid carrier and behave accordingly.

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Editorial

Sanctity, rights and politics

Published

16 hours ago

2026/05/1

Thilina Walpola

Friday 1st May, 2026

Two full moon Poya days fall in May 2026, and there are two schools of thought about when Vesak should be observed. One insists that Vesak should be celebrated today, and the other is of the view that Vesak falls on 30 May. This difference of opinion has given rise to some confusion in the minds of the public and even protests in some quarters. The government has said its decision to observe Vesak on 30 May was taken on the recommendation of the Maha Sangha. This issue has come about and drawn so much attention because the International Workers’ Day, known for grand political events in this country, also falls today.

The overlap of Poya and May Day this year has been a blessing for some political parties that are not strong enough to stage shows of strength today. They have declared that they do not want to engage in political activities on a day of religious significance and therefore will not hold May Day rallies. Even if Poya had not fallen today, they would not have been able to hold successful May Day rallies.

Among the political parties that have decided against holding rallies today are the SLPP and the UNP, which has also used Poya as an excuse for turning down the SJB’s invitation to hold a joint May Day event. The UNP has written to the SJB that it will perform religious observances today in keeping with the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s policy that the UNP should not hold May Day rallies if the International Workers’ Day coincides with Poya. The subtext of its letter is that Sajith Premadasa, who leads the SJB, does not follow his late father’s policy.

The convergence of Poya and May Day has deprived the JVP/NPP of an opportunity to make a display of its political strength while it is reeling from several scandals and the Opposition is on the offensive. It has opted to hold May Day rallies at the district level. But they will not be as effective as a mammoth May Day rally in Colombo in boosting the morale of the rank and file of the JVP/NPP and sending a message to the Opposition that the government is far from weak.

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva has said the JVP/NPP decided not to bring its members to Colombo for a May Day rally in view of the current fuel crisis. This is not an implausible excuse in that the government would have drawn heavy criticism if it had held a political rally in Colombo while urging the public to use fuel sparingly. It would also have been criticised if it had held a grand May Day event in Colombo on a Poya Day.

No political issue would have arisen today if the workers’ day had not been politicised. Those which pass for labour day celebrations are shameful displays of workers’ servility to political leaders who have a viselike grip on the labour movement. Of course, there have been progressive, visionary politicians as well as independent labour leaders who championed the workers’ cause wholeheartedly and made a tremendous contribution towards the protection of labour rights. Those leaders must be remembered today, but unfortunately trade unions have become appendages of political parties, serving the interests of politicians rather than those of workers. These political trade unions are the bane of the labour movement. Political agendas of the parties controlling trade unions will continue to take precedence over workers’ interests unless the labour movement is liberated from the clutches of politicians. Trade unions have a pivotal role to play in helping the country achieve progress, but their political affiliations have prevented them doing so.

What workers, trade unionists and the politicians who claim to champion labour rights should do today, when a day of religious significance to Buddhists falls, is to remind themselves of the Buddha’s teaching on work, based on three main principles––doing no harm through one’s livelihood, earning honestly and using wealth responsibly and ethically.

Editorial

Sobering truth vs belligerent bluster

Published

2 days ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

Thursday 30th April, 2026

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for being critical of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Instead of countering the German leader’s compelling arguments, Trump has alleged that Germany is not opposed to Iran’s nuclear programme. He has written in a social media post that Merz thinks it is all right for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and does not know what he is talking about. If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the whole world would be held hostage, Trump has claimed. Merz has said nothing to suggest that Germany is soft on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Instead, he has very convincingly pointed out that the US-Israeli military strategy is ill-conceived and flawed.

Trump is known for using circular reasoning and false dichotomy when he tries to defend the indefensible. His claim that Iran has to be prevented from acquiring nuclear capability is self-defeating, for US Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard herself has testified before the Congress that Tehran is not building nuclear weapons. Washington has manufactured a casus belli again, the way it did in 2003 to justify the invasion of Iraq; it claimed that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical weapons.

Ironically, President Trump, who has been eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize, is not at peace with the rest of the world, including the NATO member states. Having bombed Iran, destroying assets worth billions of US dollars and killing thousands of civilians, he has opted for negotiations with Tehran. International media reports and defence analysts have indicated that the US has exhausted a substantial portion of some of its missile stockpiles, and now it has to rebuild the inventories, a task that will take a considerable time; this could affect Washington’s preparedness for future conflicts, they have pointed out. Trump is believed to have made a virtue of necessity by declaring a ceasefire.

Merz’s criticism of the US-Israeli war on Iran has struck a responsive chord with all peace-loving people around the world. His assessment of the West Asian conflict is spot on. He has rightly pointed out that Washington is being humiliated by Tehran’s negotiating tactics. Iran has openly stated that it did not ask for a ceasefire.

It is obvious that Trump plunged headfirst into war, without having an exit strategy. He and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have expected to make short work of Iran, engineer a regime change and install a puppet regime in Tehran. Iran’s resilience and strategic moves made the US-Israeli military plans go awry.

Merz has cogently argued that the problem with conflicts like the current one in West Asia is that “always you don’t just have to get in – you have to get out again, as was seen in Afghanistan for 20 years and in Iraq”. In Afghanistan, after two decades of fighting, which caused thousands of civilian deaths and cost the western taxpayers about a trillion dollars, the US and its allies replaced the Taliban with the Taliban, as it were.

In an asymmetric engagement, there is hardly anything that the weaker side, fighting for survival, does not weaponise. Iran effectively shifted the war to the economic front while attacking Israel, the US bases in the region and the critical assets of the American allies within its missile range. The closure of the Hormuz Strait, which Iran is using as a strategic lever, has disrupted global oil and fertiliser supplies passing through that chokepoint. Massive oil price hikes could not have come at a worse time for Europe, which is still struggling to deal with the fallout from the Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic. The soaring oil prices have become a double whammy for the European nations as well as others. It is only natural that Europe does not want the West Asian conflict to drag on. US farmers are also complaining of staggering increases in production costs due to soaring fertiliser prices. The US naval blockade has not helped Washington solve the problem—the closure of the Hormuz Strait for international navigation. Oil prices are rising and economies are screaming the world over. Trump has had to clean up the mess he and Netanyahu created in West Asia.

Editorial

Stop mob intimidation

Published

3 days ago

2026/04/29

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wednesday 29th April, 2026

The police yesterday intervened to prevent a clash between a group of JVP activists and some Opposition politicians who held a protest near the private residence of Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, in a Colombo suburb. The protesters complained of a cow dung attack by the JVP members, who denied the charge. Tempers were flaring, and the two groups would have come to blows but for the police presence.

There is no gainsaying that citizens have a right to conduct peaceful protests near state institutions where scandals occur or in other public places. On Monday, a large number of anti-government activists were seen near the Finance Ministry protesting against an illegal diversion of Treasury funds. They shouted themselves hoarse before dispersing. But some self-proclaimed anti-corruption campaigners obviously overstepped their limits and became a nuisance when they protested near Dr. Suriyapperuma’s house the following day. Such demonstrations, in our view, amount to mob intimidation.

The family members of Dr. Suriyapperuma or other Finance Ministry officials obviously have nothing to do with the theft of Treasury funds and must not be made to suffer distress. One may argue that the JVP, which resorted to similar tactics in the past, has been hoist with its own petard. The JVP even made a determined yet abortive bid to march on Parliament at the height of a popular uprising in 2022. If it had succeeded in its endeavour, the country would have been plunged into anarchy. But two wrongs don’t make a right.

Lessons learnt during the final phase of Aragalaya in 2022, when scores of houses belonging to the then ruling party politicians and their family members were torched and an SLPP MP was murdered, must not be forgotten. Protests and counter-protests tend to spiral out of control once tension rises and seething anger blinds mobs to reason. Hence the need for the organisers of such events to act with restraint and take precautions. Political leaders ought to keep troublemakers among their supporters on a tight leash.

Pressure must be ramped up on the government to stop shielding the corrupt and have the Treasury theft and other scandals probed thoroughly, and the Opposition’s right to hold peaceful protests cannot be questioned, but under no circumstance must protesters be allowed to mob the residences of politicians and officials.

Ad hoc funds

Everything seems to have gone wrong at once for the JVP-NPP government. While the Opposition is flogging the issue of a Treasury fund diversion to a rouge account, Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) and SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva has raised concerns about the legality of the Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund (RSLF), which was set up in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah last year.

On Monday, addressing the media, Deputy Minister of Finance Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando assured the public that the RSLF was safe. Donations had come from Sri Lankans and foreigners in 49 countries, he said, dismissing as baseless a claim that the fund had not been properly utilised. Responding to him, the COPF Chief has said that the RSLF has no legal validity. He has argued in an X message that under the IMF programme several funds were abolished, and only statutory funds are maintained. He has repeatedly questioned the Finance Ministry officials on issues regarding the RSLF only to be informed that they are still working on them, according to his social media post.

The RSLF has been free from allegations of irregularities, but its lack of statutory grounding could give rise to issues about transparency, regulatory oversight and public trust. Statutory recognition will help foreclose criticism that often has a corrosive effect on the integrity of relief funds.

It is hoped that the COPF will ensure that the Finance Ministry officials appear before it and explain why they have made no serious effort to obtain statutory status for the RSLF. The practice of establishing ad hoc relief funds needs to be discontinued.