Connect with us

Editorial

A success story

Published

on

We are happy to publish today a reader’s letter unreservedly complimenting the ongoing covid vaccination process at Colombo’s Sugathadasa Stadium last week where people over 70-years old received their second AstraZenecca jab which they had been long waiting for. There have also been similar anecdotal reports from elsewhere in the Colombo Municipal area. Readers are very well aware of earlier vaccination trauma in many parts of the country having been “treated,” if we may use that expression, to television pictures of long snaking queues, rows over preferences accorded to a favoured few, ugly displays of political muscle including that of a suburban mayor intimidating a medical officer of health (MOH) doing her best to enforce the rules. Sadly, policemen standing by did little to control the politician. The resultant bad publicity triggered a belated arrest and the matter is now before court.

What was demonstrated at the Sugathadasa Stadium (and elsewhere in the CMC area) was the intelligent use of technology to ensure the best possible results. First, those eligible for their second jab received text messages on their mobile phones setting a date and time for their vaccinations. Details were even posted outside the stadium where public health inspectors, policemen and military personnel – mostly women soldiers – were on duty. The intention, obviously, was to eliminate long queues and the rastiadu inevitably associated with projects such as these. We all know that today the majority of adults in the country, including the non-affluent, own mobile phones. Thus it was possible to build an invaluable data bank of the mobile phone numbers of those receiving their first dose of the vaccine. This was used to maximum effect to give them appointments for the second dose.

There were, of course, unavoidable problems. People without mobile phones of their own gave numbers of others close to them. Where the elderly were concerned, these were often phone numbers of their children. The messages were obviously passed on when the texts arrived but many of those to be vaccinated did not carry a phone to display the message to gain easy entry to the vaccination center. But policemen on duty at the entrance to the centre, courteously listened to explanations offered and did not throw insurmountable roadblocks, using their discretion to be as helpful as possible. So many elderly people, armed with their national identity and vaccination cards, were allowed to enter despite their inability to show an appointment text on a mobile phone.

This writer can say from personal experience, like the writer of the letter published in this issue who was Chairman of the Ceylinco Insurance Company and a former head of the Inland Revenue Department who narrated what he and his wife experienced, that the kindness and humanity displayed at the Sugathadasa Stadium vaccination center was near unparalleled. There were wheelchairs offered to people who found it difficult to walk. A covered spectator stand beside the running track with sitting accommodation was made available to those awaiting their turn for the jab; and, believe it or not, they were served coriander (kottamalli) water with a piece of jaggery to go with it. Policemen in gym kits handled the service on trays and retrieved the disposable plastic containers. People were sent in batches to the vaccination point to avoid overcrowding there, keeping the rest seated under the shelter. The way the whole business was handled was truly unbelievable.

Having said this, it may be useful for those handling these arrangements, to make some suggestions. First, it would have been useful to announce that those granted appointments by text message were entitled to entry preferences without waiting in long queues. There were announcements from a public address system mounted on a three-wheeler at the stadium entrance. But they were inaudible to those at the tail of a long queue who could her something being said but could not decipher what it was. Instead of being stationary at the stadium entrance, the vehicle could have been moved to different points along the queue and the announcements repeated. Having received his own appointment text message only in English, the writer does not know whether messages were sent in Sinhala and Tamil also. We are all aware that people who know English are at a distinct advantage in this country over those who don’t. Hopefully this did not apply in the present instance.

It would also have been useful if the media, both print and electronic, were utilized to give more detailed instructions to the public on how they can receive their jabs with the least possible inconvenience or delay. When word gets around that vaccines are being administered wherever, there is a tendency for those needing the jab to flock to such places, lengthening queues and upsetting carefully designed plans to ensure maximum efficiency of delivery. We observed some people obviously under 70-years old at the stadium vaccination center. We do not know whether they got their shots or not but there is no escaping the reality that they added to the numbers. But we do know that at one center, a lady who had already received her second jab elsewhere, but summoned by text message to a particular center, took a friend there to inquire whether she could instead obtain the allotted jab. This lady was under 70-years old and a doctor there politely explained that if she was over 70 it could have been easily done, but he had to abide by the rules. He assured that the next round would be for people between 60 and 70 and the person concerned would get her chance in the near future.

We say all this to point out that good results are possible in this country despite all the everyday negatives around us, and to congratulate those responsible for a superior performance. Hopefully this example can be replicated elsewhere in the country to improve te efficacy of the entire programme.

 



Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Editorial

A budget replete with optimism

Published

on

Tuesday 18th February, 2025

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies, yesterday presented his government’s maiden budget in Parliament. He said the goal of Budget 2025 was to fulfil the aspirations of the people who had voted the NPP into power, hoping for sustainable growth and development.

The NPP government’s efforts to present an election-oriented budget have partially succeeded and borne mixed results. However painful the IMF bailout conditions may be, they have made the new administration remain focused on the need to achieve economic recovery and act with some restraint, ensuring that, inter alia, its revenue will amount to at least 15% of GDP, and the primary account will have a surplus. The Economic Transformation Act (ETA) has also become a kind of straitjacket on the government. With the local government polls approaching, what the NPP administration would have done to garner favour with the public, if not for the IMF programme and the ETA constraints, is anybody’s guess. President Dissanayake has said his government intends to amend the ETA. If it is planning to lower the bar for itself, such politically-motivated action will entail adverse economic consequences.

There is no gainsaying that workers deserve better salaries. However, one wonders whether the NPP government, just like its predecessors, is labouring under the misconception that it can grant relief to the public by increasing the state sector salaries. In the late 1980s, the JVP coined a pithy slogan—kolombata kiri, gamata kekiri (‘milk for Colombo and melon for the village’)—to highlight the glaring urban bias in the allocation of state resources. Today, it looks like a case of kiri for state employees and kekiri for their private sector counterparts, who have to bear the burden of maintaining the ever-burgeoning public sector by paying high taxes. President Dissanayake lamented in Parliament that the state employees’ real income had decreased. The same holds true for the non-state workers, and other members of the public as well, but they have been left fending for themselves.

Among the budget highlights flaunted by the government is what it calls the highest-ever fund allocations for the health and education sectors. The government has undertaken to allocate Rs. 604 billion for health. The cost of social welfare (Aswesuma) will be Rs. 232.5 billion. Capital expenditure will amount to 4% of GDP. Such spending will benefit the public, but much more needs to be done to mitigate the economic hardships they are facing.

Bridging a 6.7% budget deficit will be a gargantuan task. President Dissanayake is hopeful that a 5% economic growth will be attainable in 2025. He says growth will be facilitated by a strong export sector, where the government expects the exports of goods and services to reach an all-time high of close to USD 19 billion in the current year; this growth in non-debt creating inflows along with robust economic growth and a primary account surplus of 2.3 percent of GDP will ensure that Sri Lanka will be well placed to make debt service payments from 2028 onwards.

President Dissanayake has said he expects the relaxation of restrictions on vehicle imports to deliver a bulk of the country’s revenue gains for 2025. It is fervently hoped that he is not being as optimistic as the proverbial poor man who ordered oysters for dinner hoping to settle the bill with pearls he expected to find on his plate. Some economic analysts have argued that there is the possibility of extremely high taxes, which are sure to drive automobile prices up, causing a drop in the sales of imported vehicles and preventing the government from achieving its revenue targets. How does the NPP administration propose to handle such an eventuality?

Continue Reading

Editorial

Sailing between Scylla and Charybdis

Published

on

Monday 17th February, 2025

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) may be no hero like Odysseus, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the irate public are certainly no immortal monsters, but the perilous economic voyage AKD has embarked on is akin to sailing between Scylla and Charybdis. The NPP government’s maiden budget is to be presented to Parliament today. It will be the moment of truth for the incumbent dispensation troubled by more than its fair share of problems. What AKD has undertaken to perform on the economic front is a high-wire act, and balance is of the essence; he has had to keep the budget within the confines of the IMF bailout programme while granting relief to the resentful public, whose patience has been wearing thin owing to economic hardships.

It is being claimed in some quarters that the budget to be presented today has already passed muster with the IMF, but even so, problems are far from over for the government. Whether the budget will be acceptable to the public at large remains to be seen. Otherwise, it will entail a heavy political price for the NPP.

In a bid to rally popular support, President Dissanayake has promised pay hikes for state employees, who number more than 1.25 million, according to official statistics, but private sector employees (about 3.63 million) and own-account workers (about 2.8 million) constitute the majority of Sri Lanka’s workforce. The number of contributing family workers is about half a million, according to the Department of Census and Statistics. So, pay hikes for the state employees will leave millions of non-state sector workers disgruntled ahead of an election.

Meanwhile, the relaxation of import restrictions on vehicles may help the government meet the IMF-prescribed revenue target (15% of GDP) without increasing the existing taxes that are already very high or introducing new ones. However, the resumption of vehicle imports is bound to have an adverse impact on the country’s foreign currency reserves, causing the rupee to depreciate and the prices of imports to rise. This is a Catch-22 situation the government may not be able to avoid.

People are in no mood for excuses, and what they expect from the government is the expeditious delivery of its election promises, which range from bringing the prices of essentials down to affordable levels and slashing automobile prices to make cars accessible to everyone. So, the challenge before the government and President Dissanayake is to ensure that today’s budget meets the expectations of the public, with local government elections slated for April.

The government finds itself in the current predicament of having to deliver on its promises even before settling down properly because the JVP-led NPP raised people’s expectations beyond realistic levels to win elections, which looked like promise-making contests, as it were. In the past, the JVP/NPP would take to the streets, asking every newly elected government to grant relief to the public; it called for pay hikes even at the height of the current economic crisis. Now, the boot is on the other foot.

The NPP is being dogged by its own pre-election promises, rhetoric and unreasonable demands during previous governments. One may recall that the NPP in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, claimed that petroleum prices could be reduced by as much as Rs. 160 overnight, and farmers paid Rs. 150 per kilo of paddy. It either did not realise the gravity of the country’s economic situation or erroneously believed that it, too, would be able to get away with broken promises, like past governments, which followed the Machiavellian precept—‘the promise given was a necessity of the past, and the word broken is a necessity of the present’. It is now under pressure from the people who gave it a supermajority to grant them relief.

Continue Reading

Editorial

Local elections

Published

on

The Supreme Court determination on the Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Bill read out in Parliament on Friday makes clear that these elections, last held in 2018, due in 2022 and postponed thereafter on various pretexts must be held in the coming weeks. But the question is when? The opposition urges that they be held after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year holidays are over. They argue that with the president, as finance minister, due to present his first budget which is expected to be voter friendly on Monday and the budget debate will take much of March.

The majority judgment held that the Bill must be passed by a two thirds majority which the present regime holds and has not required a referendum so there will be no legislative challenge. The matter of fixing the election dates is for the Independent Elections Commission and the government should have no say in the matter. Nominations for these elections were called and a polling date fixed in 2023 post aragalaya after President Ranil Wickremesinghe had assumed office. Deposits were paid and nominations received. But the elections were not held on the grounds that the government had no money to fund them. The courts ordered that they be held “as soon as possible.”

Some candidates for that election had entered parliament. Others have emigrated and some have died. There is an obvious need for the refund of deposits and call fresh nominations before polling which the Bill provides for. The question therefore will be in the timing of the election. Certainly it cannot be held before the budget. The present regime is very well aware that the election will be an acid test after its heady election victory and will be intent on demonstrating that it remains popular. The opposition will be determined to regain lost ground. How will events pan out? That is the million dollar question.

Gifting sight to the sightless

At the World Governance Summit hosted by the United Arab Emirates a few days ago, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made a reference to a subject generally taken for granted by most Lankans and no longer accorded the importance or merit it deserves. This relates to the fact that Sri Lanka is the world leader for eye donations – the gifting of human corneas from those no longer living to the sightless or persons with reduced vision. The president said in his speech that anybody using a smart phone could instantly verify this fact for him or herself. The latest figure at 94,959 corneas sent abroad exceeds the 80,000 stated in the Internet. These eyes have been sent to as many as 114 cities in 57 countries since the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Eye Donation Society was founded in 1961 by the late Deshabandu Dr. Hudson Silva. This vast endeavor of gifting sight to the sightless has benefited over 58,000 people locally and also enabled 40,000 plus corneas being made available for research.

In his speech, the president said that the fact that this country is the world leader in overseas eye donations is ample demonstration that we are a warmhearted people, a quality that can win us friends globally. No doubt the Buddhist ethic that permeates this dharmadweepa is surely a factor that has influenced the gifting of eyes by those who no longer have use of them; and corneal grafting is now commonplace in ophthalmology. Dr. Hudson Silva’s was a household name from the 1960s onward when he enthused the nation to participate in this meritorious practice and set up the infrastructure to do so so. But, sadly, he is no longer remembered as well as he should. However, the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society which later extended its work by setting up a human tissue bank in addition to its original eye bank remains a lasting monument to a truly remarkable man.

As a medical student in 1957, Hudson Silva was inspired by the vision of transplanting corneas from the eyes of those no longer alive to those in need of them. He told his mother to donate his eyes when he was no more. She responded that she was likely to die before him and to make sure that her eyes are donated. From this tiny acorn a mighty oak grew and today the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society performs a tremendous service free of charge. It attracted support from the Government of Sri Lanka and various other benefactors at home and abroad and today owns an impressive headquarters building at a prime location in Colombo. At the beginning the society collected the corneas of people without custodians in government hospitals, homes for the aged and executed prisoners. It carries in its books the names and addresses of over 22 million people who wishes their eyes to give sight to another after their deaths.

It should be known that a human cornea should be removed within four hours of a death to be of future use. The eyeball can be preserved in ice for 24 hours and thereafter for 14 days after the cornea is separated from the eyeball and preserved in a special fluid. The society has over 250 branches with trained technicians to remove eyeballs so that its coverage is almost island-wide. The late Dr. Hudson Silva who captured national headlines calling the government health department “a sick giant” when he was in government service had brilliant public relations skills and media savvy for his time so that the story of what little Sri Lanka was doing in this field was carried the world-over by the international press. Thus it is gratifying that a short excerpt of a speech that the president made at a global summit has once again attracted attention both nationally and intentionally to what Sri Lanka is doing in the area of giving sight to the sightless.

Continue Reading

Trending