Editorial

Pangiriwatte and after

Published

4 years ago

2022/04/3

There is no escaping the reality that the Thursday night Pangiriwatte Mawatha protests near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Mirihana home was an outpouring of mass anger at the hardships the people are bearing at present. The poor, as always, are the worst hit but others too are at the end of their tether coping with gas queues, fuel queues, unavailable essentials and prices of everyday needs rising to hitherto unknown levels. Businesses without export cushions are in deep distress. Many small businesses have shut down altogether. Banks are unable to provide hard currency even for most essential imports and no light is visible at the end of a long dark tunnel. Where it is going to end is anybody’s guess. Regime change is not going to be any kind of quick fix with many convinced that successors are going to be no better than incumbents.

Many of the protests, catalyzed by despair, are spontaneous. But political elements looking at seizing opportunities cannot be discounted altogether. Today, April 3, has been picked for countrywide protests and how far they will spread and how effective they will be remains to be seen; so also the response of the regime. The police curfew imposed on several parts of the city and suburbs on Thursday night could well have been an effort to prevent the swelling of numbers at Mirihana especially after what began peacefully took an ugly turn with stones thrown and a vehicle used as a roadblock set ablaze. Doubtlessly middle class, educated protesters who are mostly apolitical feel that they owe both themselves and their country the duty of registering their dissatisfaction at the manner in which the country is being misruled.

Kumar David, our regular columnist, who wrote a recent column in the Colombo Telegraph has claimed authorship of the ‘Go Gota Go’ slogan and its various renditions and juxtapositions. He says he is happy to have been the source of the slogan, but the way things are moving is more serious than anyone’s authorship. There was another protest outside the president’s private home a few weeks earlier and this protest, middle class and female oriented, was attributed to ex-MP Hirunika Premachandra. A retaliatory demonstration outside her home followed. Very many small candlelit protests where participants carried placards in both English and Sinhala have been part of the everyday scene recently. Voice cuts from protesters, in both languages, have been aired on national television indicating a middle class presence in the demonstrations. Some arrests have been made and journalists covering the protests claim to have been roughed up by the police with photos of a few of the injured lying on hospital beds published.

Demonstrators participating in the various protests must not be unmindful of the possibility of goon elements infiltrating them for obvious reasons. Given the turn the Mirihana protest, which began peacefully enough but later turned violent, took with the arrival of a motorcycle squad wearing full face helmets has its own message. The use of tear gas too may have been provocative but middle class protesters do not resort to violence as goons do – even retaliatory violence. The intention may well have been at attempt to suggest that protests mean violence and therefore there should be a clamp down on all protests. There was an attack on an earlier JVP protest where rotten eggs were thrown. One miscreant was arrested and allegations made that he belonged to a regime supporting paramilitary outfit was widely made. But, as in many similar cases, investigations have been dragging on without conclusion. Such tactics are commonly used by state agencies for their own purposes and resort to them cannot be discounted in the present context.

Today’s economic crunch is largely due to the hard currency shortage that has been long building up. Responsible advice that debt repayments be re-negotiated at least as far as the last sovereign bond settlement was concerned was totally ignored. The government has been trying to pass off much or our current difficulties to the covid pandemic which forced lock downs and restrictions. But it has been clearly pointed out that at least in the region we have done much worse than our more severely affected neighbours. Bangladesh which Henry Kissinger once labeled as an “international basket case” is doing very nicely we have had to resort to currency swap arrangements with that country to tide over our difficulties.

There is no need to labor the fact that we have for long lived way beyond our means. Two of our major problems are a highly overloaded public service and an outsized military. No serious effort has been made to trim these behemoths to realistic proportions. The last budget announced a freeze on public sector recruitment but this is merely scratching the surface of the problem. Our armed forces grew to their present size as a result of the civil war. But no effort was made to downsize the military after the war ended. On the contrary our defence budget keeps increasing annually.

As in the years before the war, we have to think of our military primarily as an internal security force supplementing the police. We cannot ever hope to repel a foreign aggressor as clearly demonstrated when India engaged in the infamous parippu drop at the time we might have ended the war at Vadamarachchi. The SLAF was no match for Mirage fighter jets escorting Hercules transport aircraft carrying food supplies for what was falsely alleged to be a starving population. So let us be realistic in our defence spending without blasting the few resources we have on an unnecessarily large peacetime military.

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Editorial

Cops as whipping boys?

Published

12 hours ago

2025/12/20

Thilina Walpola

Saturday 20th December, 2025

Disciplinary action has reportedly been taken against several police officers for their alleged failure to conduct a proper investigation into a recent accident caused by NPP MP Asoka Ranwala in Sapugaskanda. This move, we believe, has the trappings of a diversionary tactic. The police would have incurred the wrath of the government if they had conducted a breathalyzer test on Ranwala and produced him before a Judicial Medical Officer immediately after the crash where an infant, his mother and grandmother were injured.

Ranwala was subjected to a blood alcohol test more than 12 hours after the accident, according to media reports. The police would not have dragged their feet of their own volition. They were obviously made to do what they did. The law applies equally only to ordinary people. Will the police top brass explain why no disciplinary action was taken against the police officers who unashamedly sided with a group of JVP members involved in grabbing an office of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) in Yakkala in September 2025. After turning a blind eye to that blatant transgression, the police provided security to the JVP members who were forcibly occupying the FSP office. Thankfully, a judicial intervention made them leave the place. The current rulers claim they have not placed themselves above the law, unlike their predecessors. A wag says they have placed the law below them instead!

Having made a mockery of its much-advertised commitment to upholding the rule of law by intervening to prevent Ranwala from undergoing an alcohol test immediately after the aforesaid accident, the government is making attempts at face-saving. Curiously, blood samples obtained from Ranwala have been sent to the Government Analyst for testing! The government seems to have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the public, who voted for it overwhelmingly, expecting a ‘system change’.

It is being argued in some quarters that the disciplinary inquiry against the police officers has been scripted, and the charges against them will be dropped when the issue fizzles out. This argument is not without some merit, but there is a possibility of the government going to the extent of trying to clear its name at the expense of the police officers concerned if push comes to shove.

Successive governments have scapegoated police personnel and other state employees to safeguard their interests, and the incumbent administration is no exception; it has already sought to shift the blame for its failure to mitigate the impact of Cyclone Ditwah to the Meteorological Department, which, it has claimed, did not warn it about the extreme weather events fairly in advance. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament on Thursday that the government had muzzled some senior officials of the Meteorological Department.

Some leaders of the incumbent government are bound to face legal action for their commissions and omissions when they lose power, and the state officials pandering to their whims and fancies will have to do likewise.

The public officials who are at the beck and call of politicians and carry out illegal orders should realise that they run the risk of being left without anyone to turn to in case they have to face legal action for their transgressions. Their ruthlessly self-seeking political masters will not scruple to sacrifice them.

Editorial

Disaster relief mired in dirty politics

Published

1 day ago

2025/12/19

Thilina Walpola

Friday 19th December, 2025

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has accused the government of interfering with the ongoing disaster relief programmes. Speaking in Parliament, on Thursday, he produced what he described as documentary proof to support his claim that disaster victims were required to have their applications for compensation endorsed by the heads of the Prajashakthi committees controlled by the JVP apparatchiks. Several other Opposition MPs have levelled the same allegation against the government in Parliament.

Two trade unions representing the Grama Niladharis have complained of political interference with their work, and even threatened to pull out of the disaster relief programmes unless they are allowed to carry out their duties and functions, free from political pressure.

Sri Lanka United Grama Niladhari Association (SLUGNA) President Nandana Ranasinghe told the media on 08 December that JVP/NPP politicians and their supporters were meddling with the disaster relief programmes at all levels and even obstructing the Grama Niladharis (GNs). He claimed that the political authority had sent letters to the District and Divisional Secretaries, directing them to appoint JVP/NPP members to the state-run welfare centres. SLUGNA Secretary Jagath Chandralal said state officials had been directed to obtain approval from the government members of the Prajashakthi committees for carrying out relief work. A few days later, addressing the media, Convenor of the Sri Lanka Grama Niladhari Association Sumith Kodikara also made a number of similar allegations. He said the NPP politicians were arbitrarily helping their supporters obtain Rs. 25,000 each as compensation. He stressed that only the disaster victims had to be paid compensation, and never had disaster relief programmes been politicised in that manner. These allegations are shocking enough to warrant probes, as we said in a previous comment.

Initially, the government denied the involvement of its Prajashakthi members in the process of selecting disaster relief beneficiaries, but now it allows them to work alongside state officials openly. This is an instance of the arrogance of power, which became the undoing of several previous governments, especially the ones led by the UNP and the SLPP. Minister K. D. Lal Kantha has gone on record as claiming that the Prajashakthi functionaries too should have a say in relief provision!

Funds the government is distributing among disaster victims belong to the state, and therefore no political party must be allowed to influence or control their disbursement. One can argue that it is prima facie unlawful for anyone other than authorised public officials to get involved in the process of distributing state funds as disaster relief. The Opposition should find out whether there is any legal provision for the involvement of the Prajashakthi functionaries in relief distribution or whether they are committing a transgression.

The government is apparently labouring under the mistaken belief that it can use disaster relief to shore up its approval rating as well as electoral prospects in view of the next election––the Provincial Council polls which it is coming under increasing pressure to hold next year. Political interference with disaster relief only exasperates the public beyond measure. A large number of disaster victims have held protests in several areas, claiming that they have been overlooked.

The JVP/NPP, which came to power promising to depoliticise the state institutions and revitalise the public service, should be ashamed of having stooped so low as to politicise the process of providing disaster relief. Politicians have a sense of shame only when they are out of power.

If the JVP/NPP leaders are wise, they will learn from the predicament of the Rajapaksas, who had to pay a heavy price for testing the patience of the public. The latter had to head for the hills with angry people in close pursuit. Now that the people have successfully got rid of a bunch of failed rulers, they may take to the streets again if their patience runs out. The government would do well to follow the established procedures in carrying out disaster relief programmes, without subjugating them to its political agenda and undermining their integrity.

Editorial

Flawed drug regulation endangers lives

Published

2 days ago

2025/12/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Thursday 18th December, 2025

Serious concerns raised by Sri Lankan medical professionals over the quality of some batches of the Ondansetron injection, manufactured by Maan Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., India, and the subsequent withdrawal of them from hospitals here, have shed light on a bigger issue. The use of nine other parenteral products has been suspended with immediate effect, according to media reports. They will be subjected to quality assessment, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) has said.

Spokesman for the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe has stressed the need for thorough tests on Ondansetron. He has told the media that the NMRA is responsible for testing imported pharmaceuticals for quality. However, Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has told the media during the weekly post-Cabinet media that not all drugs imported by Sri Lanka are tested by the NMRA for quality, as it lacks laboratory facilities to do so, and drugs are tested rigorously only if there are complaints of adverse reactions. Is it that the NMRA goes by what pharmaceutical companies say about their products when it approves medicines? The present-day politicians and the health panjandrums have not learnt from the procurement of fake cancer drugs during the previous regime.

Minister Dr. Jayatissa has sought to give the drug controversy a political twist. He has said Ondansetron manufactured by Maan was approved for five years, in 2022, the implication being that the previous government was responsible for the registration of the drug. He hastened to add that proper procedures had been followed in procuring it. Interestingly, among the four batches of Ondansetron found to be contaminated, two were imported under the current dispensation! The NPP government has passed laws to deprive the former Presidents of their retirement entitlements and evict them from their official residences, and it came to power, promising to renegotiate the IMF agreement. So, cancelling the registration of any drug that does not meet stipulated standards should be child’s play for the powerful NPP administration.

On the question of quality issues concerning Indian drugs, it is worth recalling that in the late 1980s, the JVP assassinated Chairperson of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation Dr. (Mrs) Gladys Jayewardene for importing drugs from India, which the JVP likened to a giant octopus spreading its tentacles over Sri Lanka. About three and a half decades on, the JVP-led NPP government has gone to the extent of recognising the Indian Pharmacopoeia amidst protests from Sri Lankan medical professionals!

Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa, who leads the Doctors’ Trade Union Alliance for Medical Civil Rights, has said more than 100 batches of medicines imported from India have been withdrawn during the past two years or so due to concerns about their quality. Flaying the Health Ministry, the NMRA, and State Pharmaceutical Corporation for serious flaws in drug regulation, he has called for the resignation of the top officials responsible for ensuring the quality of imported medicines. Health Minister Dr. Jayatissa should also resign as he has retained the officials responsible for the registration of substandard and falsified drugs in the past, Dr. Sanjeewa has said. The most serious issue, in our book, is that the NMRA is without adequate laboratory facilities to conduct stringent quality tests on all medicines it approves, and apparently takes leaps of faith, leaving patients at risk. Successive governments have paid lip service to the need for state-of-the-art labs to test medicines and ensure that they meet international standards. The NMRA must be fully equipped to test all drugs properly before they are approved, and no room must be left for the import of substandard and falsified medicines.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least one in 10 medical products in low-and middle-income countries fails to meet quality standards or is falsified. This shows the enormity of the problem of falsified and substandard drugs. Quality failures of pharmaceuticals not only harm patients directly but also impose large economic burdens on individuals and health systems, including wasted resources on ineffective treatments and costs related to managing adverse effects, WHO has pointed out. The need for a thorough investigation to find out why the NMRA approved the aforesaid drugs cannot be overstated.