Editorial

Flutters of flag and pangs of hunger

Published

3 years ago

2022/02/4

Friday 4th February, 2022

The government has pulled out all the stops to hold the Independence Day celebrations on a grand scale while the country is sinking deeper into crisis. Today, political leaders will arrive at the Independence Square, in their limousines, puff out their chests and sing the national anthem with gusto. There will be a colourful parade with the military flaunting its assets. A fly-past will be the main attraction of the event. Political rhetoric will burst forth. We see this grand show year in year out.

Sri Lanka could hardly afford today’s big show. What is there to be celebrated, anyway? Funds for the ceremony have come from a depleted Treasury struggling to pay for food imports. The country remains underdeveloped and a huge burden on other nations; it borrows from even its developing world counterparts! Essential commodities are in short supply, and many people are skipping meals.

The celebration of ‘Independence’, however, is a time for reflection. Perhaps, the fate of the Trincomalee oil tank farm exemplifies the predicament of post-Independence Sri Lanka better than anything else. In early 1960s, during an SLFP-led administration, we were able to buy this strategically important asset built and owned by the British, but successive governments failed to maintain it, and today a part of it has been leased to India, which has also acquired a sizeable stake in a joint venture to manage the majority of tanks. A UNP government built the Gal Oya reservoir with local funds, but today not even a sewer could be constructed without foreign aid. Instead of rehabilitating ancient irrigation tanks and canals, and building new ones to feed the hungry and achieve national food security, projects are being launched to convert tank bunds into jogging tracks.

The current foreign currency crunch, which has crippled the economy, has come about as successive governments since 1977 have got the country’s investment priorities wrong. There is a tall tower in Colombo City and it is illuminated from time to time as if to glorify the monumental stupidity of our rulers who in their wisdom borrowed heavily from external sources for its construction, not caring how they were going to pay back the loans. The tower, too, is also likely to go under the hammer before long.

There has been no long-term strategy or a sustained effort to develop the economy and achieve the much-needed fiscal consolidation. Instead, vital assets including those built with borrowed funds are being sold or leased to raise funds for debt repayment. As for the debt crisis, the only solution that all governments could think of is to borrow more, and the self-proclaimed patriots who have been at the levers of power have not cared to make a serious attempt to break this vicious circle. They, too, have feathered their nests while wrapping themselves in the flag. It is popularly believed that if they were made to return to the state coffers a fraction of what they have helped themselves to and stashed away in offshore accounts, the country’s financial woes would disappear in next to no time.

Time was when Sri Lanka exchanged its rubber for rice from China, which is today donating rice to help dull pauperised Sri Lankans’ pangs of hunger. There have been some achievement, but, overall, we have lost our way.

The challenge before us is to retrace our steps, figure out where we took wrong turns, and forge ahead in the right direction as many other nations have already done. Easier said than done, but there seems to be no other way.

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Editorial

Right initiative: Follow-up needed

Published

9 hours ago

2025/05/15

Sahan Weerasooriya

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.

Editorial

Rides into the jaws of death

Published

1 day ago

2025/05/14

Sahan Weerasooriya

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.

Editorial

Dances with Thieves

Published

2 days ago

2025/05/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

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.