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Editorial

Who will guard the guards?

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Tuesday 8th April, 2025

The Opposition has been protesting against what it describes as a veiled threat issued by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, at a recent NPP Local Government (LG) election rally. The United Republican Front led by former Minister Champika Ranawaka has complained to the Election Commission (EC) that President Dissanayake has made a statement, implying that his government will make financial allocations expeditiously only to the local councils the NPP will win in the upcoming LG polls, and others will find it difficult to obtain state funds.

One can argue that it is not legally possible for a government to deprive the local councils controlled by the Opposition of funds, but threats of fund cuts or restrictions, made by the President himself, could demoralise the people who intend to vote for parties other than the NPP in next month’s LG polls. Political power takes precedence over the law, ethics and morals, in this country, and therefore anything is possible.

In politics, words can be as impactful as actions, shaping public opinion and influencing decisions. One may recall that in 2015, the then President Maithripala Sirisena, as the SLFP leader, queered the pitch for his bete noire, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was contesting that year’s general election as the prime ministerial candidate of the SLFP-led UPFA. In the run-up to that crucial election, Sirisena said in a television interview something to the effect that Rajapaksa would not be appointed Prime Minister even if the UPFA won enough seats to form a government. His statement had a devastating impact on the morale of UPFA supporters who wanted to make Rajapaksa Prime Minister. The rest is history. Besides, former Minister S. B. Dissanayake was sentenced to prison for contempt of the Supreme Court over a derogatory remark he made, at a public rally in 2003, about the judiciary and its rulings.

Meanwhile, there are numerous questionable practices pertaining to Sri Lankan elections. Political leaders in power, such as the President, the Prime Minister and Ministers, conduct election campaigns at a substantial cost to the state coffers, as we have argued over the past so many years. When the Presidents and other government leaders stump for their parties, across the country, the public has to bear the cost of their travel, security, etc. The Presidents and Prime Ministers even travelled in the Air Force helicopters for campaign purposes. The state-owned media outfits are misused as propaganda organs of the party in power although they belong to the people who hold diverse political views. A large number of meetings of state officials are held on some pretext or another, ahead of elections, to give a boost to the ruling party’s campaign. These practices are not only unethical but also tantamount to violations of the election laws, as they place the ruling party at an advantage at the expense of its rivals in elections. All Presidents, namely J. R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa, D. B. Wijetunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe unflinchingly used state resources for election campaigns. The public expected a radical departure from the past when they voted the JVP-led NPP into office last year. But what is unfolding on the political front does not offer much hope.

As for presidential statements, it was while speaking at a temple ceremony in the South in 1989 that the then President Premadasa announced his decision to ask India to withdraw the IPKF (Indian Peacekeeping Force) from Sri Lanka. Thus, the Executive Presidents’ statements should not be taken lightly, no matter where they are made.

How can a level playing field be ensured in the upcoming LG polls when the incumbent President himself goes around, issuing a veiled threat that the local councils will face fund cuts or restrictions unless they are controlled by his party––the NPP? It has been revealed in Parliament that at the height of a rice shortage, a few months ago, the NPP government did not supply some popular varieties of rice to the cooperative societies won by its rivals. Such action amounts to collective punishment meted out to the public for defeating the NPP in elections. So, the presidential threat in question, albeit veiled, cannot be dismissed as mere platform rhetoric. The JVP has demonstrated that it is capable of far worse things than fund cuts. The EC therefore must act on the complaints the Opposition has lodged in respect of the presidential statement if it is to arrest the erosion of public trust and confidence in the electoral process. That is also the only way the EC can prevent the public from thinking less of it.

As for President Dissanayake’s statement at issue and the EC’s alleged lukewarm response thereto, Juvenal’s famous question comes to mind: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? — Who will guard the guards themselves?



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Editorial

Right initiative: Follow-up needed

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Thursday 15th May, 2025

There appears to be no let-up in road accidents in the central hills. A van plunged down a precipice in Ramboda, injuring 11 passengers, yesterday.

The police swing into action after catastrophic road accidents—not to address the root causes of those mishaps but to adopt band-aid solutions to deflect criticism. Following Sunday’s fatal bus accident, which killed 23 passengers near Kotmale, they have launched a programme to inspect long-distance buses at night. This measure is welcome, but it will have to be coupled with roadside drug tests to enhance their effectiveness. Drug addiction is believed to be prevalent among heavy vehicle drivers. One can only hope that the new scheme will not end up being like the practice of placing night patrol visit books at houses and shops after break-ins and forgetting them after a few weeks. The night-time bus inspection scheme however has the potential to keep bus workers and their employers on their toes.

Much is spoken about substandard medicinal drugs used in the state-run health institutions. An ex-Health Minister and some former Health Ministry panjandrums are facing legal action for the fraudulent procurement of medicines, etc. The need for such drastic measures to rid the Health Ministry procurement process of corruption, bring the corrupt to justice and ensure the safety of patients cannot be overstated. Worryingly, there has been no such public debate on the substandard buses in operation, endangering the lives of passengers and other road users alike.

Convener of the Road Safety Task Force Dr. Sanjay Perera has, in a recent television interview, told some home truths about the public transport sector and its deficiencies. Besides factors such as overloading and drivers’ fatigue, the poor quality of buses on Sri Lankan roads also contributes to ever increasing road accidents, he has said.

Dr. Perera has pointed out that most buses are not worthy of the name, for they are actually truck chassis fitted with seats; these ‘truck-buses’, as it were, are without any safety features, and, worse, have metal bars for headrests, which could pose a serious risk of neck injuries and spinal cord damage in the event of accidents. No wonder most commuters complain of back pain, neck and shoulder strain, postural problems, etc. These are believed to be the results of frequent travel in boneshakers with poor suspension and cramped seating. Dr. Perera has stressed the need for importing modern buses like the ones in operation on expressways.

Although the state-owned bus service has been drawing a lot of flak of late due to the Kotmale tragedy, the private bus operators are the worst culprits. Dr. Perera has called upon the SLTB and the transport authorities to enforce the laws and regulations already in place to ensure road safety. But the incumbent government apparently lacks a clear vision to develop the SLTB. It is also without the courage to tame the private bus owners, who have risen above the law just like the wealthy rice millers. The bus Mafia has effectively put paid to the government’s efforts to remove unauthorised accessories from private buses.

Successive governments have done very little to standardise the bus service. Their focus has been on fare systems and scheduling, and nothing has been done by way of improving driver training and behaviour and maintenance protocols. Private bus operators therefore are under the impression that they can run their buses the way they want.

The government should seriously consider making it mandatory for all bus workers to wear uniforms besides abiding by laws and regulations governing the transport sector. Enforcing discipline among bus workers will be half the battle in ensuring road safety.

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Editorial

Rides into the jaws of death

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Wednesday 14th May, 2025

It never rains but it pours. Less than 48 hours after Sunday’s tragic accident, where an SLTB bus careened off a winding road and plunged down a precipice near Kotmale, killing 22 passengers and injuring 35 others, a private bus veered off the road, injuring 30 passengers, in Kandy, on Monday night. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. The mishap has been attributed to a brake failure. The Grim Reaper has been in overdrive on Sri Lankan roads.

The police are reported to have appointed a committee headed by SDIG Ajith Rohana to probe Sunday’s fatal accident. It is hoped that the committee members, who are senior police officers, will conduct a thorough investigation, and action will be taken, based on their findings and recommendations, to prevent road accidents.

No sooner had Sunday’s accident had occurred than some SLTB officials claimed that the ill-fated bus had experienced a sudden brake failure while negotiating a bend. But an inspection of the vehicle, or what remains of it, has reportedly revealed that it experienced no mechanical defect. Some media reports have said the driver of the bus had been working for more than 12 hours continuously and was fatigued. The SLTB is overstaffed, and it defies comprehension why its workers have to exert themselves to the point of burnout.

Safety regulations require that heavy vehicle drivers work for only about six hours a day lest they should be fatigued and drowsy. Road safety experts inform us that most road accidents occur due to human error—drivers become either reckless, distracted or fatigued; due to the circadian rhythm, most drivers become drowsy between midnight and 7:00 a.m. and between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. This is believed to be the main reason for most crashes on expressways as well as other roads. It has to be addressed as a national priority to prevent crashes and make roads safe.

As for drowsiness or sleep-related road accidents, which have become a significant concern, there is a need for more rest areas along the expressways. Besides, technology provides solutions. There are electronic devices that detect signs of fatigue or distraction of drivers and alert them to prevent accidents. Modern vehicles come fitted with them, and some drowsiness detection systems can be retrofitted to older vehicles to help save lives. Making such technologies available at affordable prices should be part of any road safety programme. Most of all, measures should be adopted to ensure that heavy vehicle drivers are well-rested and sober before getting behind the wheel, and all vehicles must be inspected to ensure their roadworthiness.

Meanwhile, the police should reveal what action they have taken against the NPP activists who parked buses on the Southern Expressway illegally on May Day. A few days prior to that incident, the police had fined the driver of a bus carrying a group of schoolchildren for the same offence, we are told. If the culprits are allowed to get off scot-free because they are NPP supporters, a very bad precedent will be set, and the government’s approval rating will plummet further. Sadly, the culture of impunity, which the present-day leaders promised to do away with, persists.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, taking part in a television interview a few days before the recent local government polls said those who were responsible for the expressway incident would have to face legal action. He also said they may have been compelled to stop on the expressway as the rest areas had been full of vehicles. If so, they should have taken the next exit, had lunch and re-entered the expressway. Nothing can be cited in extenuation of the serious offence they committed.

The success of any programme to ensure road safety hinges on the strict enforcement of traffic laws. Impunity undermines public trust and compromises road safety efforts.

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Editorial

Dances with Thieves

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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.

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