Editorial
Potential Petri dishes
Wednesday 12th August, 2020
Schools have reopened at last, and attendance is reportedly improving. What with the threat of a second wave of COVID-19, all precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of students, we are told. Media reports say facilities have been provided for hand-washing, and temperature tests are being conducted. Schools cannot remain closed indefinitely. The Education Ministry was finally left with no alternative but to reopen them. However, we have to tread extremely cautiously, learning from the experiences of other countries which reopened schools before us.
The possibility of the school system becoming a Petri dish for coronavirus cannot be ruled out, as a New York Times (NYT) report on Israel’s experiment with school reopening points out. Confident that the pandemic had been brought under control, and there was no threat of a second wave of infections, Israel reopened all schools, in May, adopting preventive measures. A few days later, infections began to occur in ones and two, in schools, and then increased exponentially before rippling out to students’ homes and neighbourhoods, forcing schools to close.
What has been Israel’s advice to other nations as regards school reopening? Eli Waxman, a professor of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Chairman of the team advising Israel’s National Security Council on the pandemic, has been quoted by NYT as saying: “They [other nations] definitely should not do what we have done … it was a major failure.” These words should be heeded.
Sri Lankan schools, including the so-called popular ones, are characterised by serious space constraints. There are as many as 50 students to a class in most schools which are bursting at the seams with hardly any room for physical distancing. The education authorities, here, have sought to overcome the problem of congestion by allowing students in some grades to attend school only a few days a week, but the feasibility of such ad hoc measures is in question. As it stands, we may not have a silver bullet to neutralise the coronavius threat in the foreseeable future, but schools will have to be fully functional; they have to be provided with necessary facilities. Many schools also lack proper sanitary facilities, and this problem will stand in the way of the Education Ministry’s plans to ensure the safety of students vis-a-vis COVID-19 as well as other infectious diseases.
We live in a country where even adults do not follow the health guidelines in place to prevent COVID-19, and children cannot be expected to adhere to them to the letter. Common practices such as sharing food and drinks and exchanging books can expose students to infections. Children are gregarious and no amount of advice or warning will prevent them from playing together or make them avoid physical contact.
Transport is another issue that should be factored in. Most students travel in school buses/vans or use public transport. School vehicles are overcrowded. These contraptions sans proper ventilation pose health risks to students even when there are no contagions around. The same goes for buses and trains. Initially, they transported passengers in keeping with the health guidelines, but now they are chock-full so much so that a single Covid-19 patient among commuters can cause an explosive spread of the virus, making contact tracing impossible.
The pandemic situation may seem to be under control, here, but we must not lower our guard under any circumstances. New Zealand, which was thought to have beaten coronavirus decisively, has recorded the first community transmission of COVID-19 in 102 days; four cases have been detected in a single family in Auckland, and a lockdown has been imposed to curb the spread of the disease. This shows how elusive the virus can be. The possibility of a similar situation arising here cannot be ruled out. The need for aggressive testing, especially among those in the high risk groups such as children, cannot be overemphasised. It is imperative that PCR tests are conducted in schools regularly.
Editorial
Councils soaked in acrimony

Glorious uncertainties define both cricket and power politics—where nothing is more certain than the unexpected. Explosive starts therein do not necessarily guarantee smooth sailing or easy victories; unforeseen trouble comes from unexpected quarters. Whoever would have thought that the people would ever rise against the SLPP government elected by them with a two-thirds majority in 2020, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former military officer, would head for the hills a little over two years into office? So, it is only natural that the NPP government is experiencing difficulties on all fronts.
The NPP may have expected the 06 May local government (LG) polls to be a walk in the park for it, but their outcome has left 178 out of 339 local councils hung. It has since been trying to seize control of the councils where it obtained more seats than the runners-up, but could not secure absolute majorities. It has also had to bite the bullet and resort to horse-trading, just like other parties, to enlist the support of its rivals to muster working majorities in the councils where it has obtained pluralities.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake warned, before the 06 May LG polls, that if the NPP’s rivals won any LG bodies, those councils would find it extremely difficult to receive state funds, and that it was therefore prudent for the public to vote for the NPP so that their interests would be served better; the government politicians have been repeating this warning since the conclusion of the polls as well in a bid to prevent its opponents from gaining control of the hung councils. But the Opposition parties, especially the SJB, the SLPP, the UNP and the UPFA, have already closed ranks and seized control of several hung councils, including the Kadugannawa Urban Council, the Kuliyapitiya PS, and the Udubeddera PS. The SLPP, which could not win a single council in last month’s election, has had its members appointed Chairpersons in a couple of LG bodies, with the help of other parties!
Whether the NPP government will shoot itself in the foot by carrying out its threat to stop allocating funds to the local councils which the Opposition has gained control of remains to be seen. Such a drastic course of action will lead to battles on both legal and political fronts and cause public opinion to turn against the government, which has promised to adopt democratic best practices and lead by example.
Some of the Opposition parties have formed a common front, and their coming together bodes ill for the NPP, for that will make the ongoing anti-government campaign better focused and more aggressive. This must be a disquieting proposition for the NPP, which has benefited from its rivals’ disunity. The SJB, the UNP, the SLPP and the UPFA have made a public pledge to work together and jointly administer the local councils under their control. It is popularly believed that Opposition alliances formed in a hurry for expediency usually do not last long, but there have been instances where they worked, the 2015 regime change being a case in point.
Going by the outcomes of the general elections during the past several decades, Sri Lanka has shown signs of returning to alternate power shifts, which characterised electoral politics prior to 1977. This trend has become more manifest since 2015. Gone are the days when political parties had solid vote bases. Floating voters now hold greater sway than in the past and have determined the outcomes of elections, especially in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024 and 2025.
The NPP has won elections by attracting the swing voters who previously backed the UNF and the SLPP in 2015 and 2019/20, respectively. But there is no guarantee that the NPP will be able to retain their support in future elections. A significant drop in its national vote share in last month’s LG polls indicates that the NPP has alienated a considerable number of floating voters owing to unfulfilled promises, anti-incumbency sentiments, and serious allegations against some of its leaders.
Signs are that the deepening acrimony between the NPP government and the Opposition in Parliament will percolate down to the local councils, further complicating their administration. Ordinary people will be the losers.
Editorial
Sugar Scam: Get at bitter truth

Saturday 14th June, 2025
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is reported to have said, quoting the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Department that the questionable reduction of the special commodity levy (SCL) on imported sugar in 2020, during the SLPP government, did not amount to a criminal offence. The AG’s Department has reportedly directed the CID to conduct further investigations to find out whether anyone gained undue benefits from the duty reduction. Why the probe dragged on for years is the question. There was ample time for the suspects to cover their tracks.
The CID has belaboured the obvious. The SCL reduction per se was not an offence—criminal or otherwise. The Cabinet of Minister has the authority and discretion to increase or decrease SCLs. What is really at issue is the economic fallout of the SCL decrease in question and the undue benefits that accrued therefrom to a few sugar importers connected to the SLPP government.
One can only hope that the CID and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption will conduct a thorough probe into what has come to be dubbed the sugar scam, which was one of the issues the NPP flogged very hard during its election campaigns.
The CID and the national anti-graft commission have not been free from political pressure. So, it is possible that the present-day rulers do not want a precedent created with the SCL reduction at issue being deemed a punishable offence, for they themselves stand accused of having manipulated import duties for the sake of its cronies among big-time rice millers.
What the critics of the SCL reduction have said is that the SLPP government adopted that measure after ensuring that all sugar importers, except its financiers among them, had replenished their stocks and could not take delivery of any more shipments of sugar. When it slashed the SCL on sugar imports from Rs. 50 to 25 cents a kilo, its cronies had placed orders for sugar and/or some of their shipments were on their way to Colombo. The SCL was a well calculated move that stood the SLPP financiers in good stead at the expense of the state coffers; it is believed that among the beneficiaries of the questionable SLC reduction were those who sponsored the propaganda events held by the SLPP ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
It will not be difficult for the CID to figure out who actually benefited from the SLC reduction. All it will have to do is to ascertain information about the sugar importers who placed orders immediately before the slashing of the SLC and about those whose shipments were reaching the Colombo Port when the SCL decrease was announced.
The SLPP government made the SLC decrease out to be a move intended to bring the sugar prices down for the benefit of the public, but Basil Rajapaksa himself admitted in a television interview that the sugar prices had not come down. The CID should also find out what the sugar prices were before and after the SLC reduction. It has been reported in the newspapers that the sugar prices did not drop despite the decrease in the SCL because most of the sugar importers had purchased sugar prior to the SLC reduction and did not want to adjust prices and suffer losses. The government craftily served the interests of the sugar importers, including its financiers by allowing the sugar prices to be kept at the previous level while its cronies were maximizing profits at the expense of the public and the economy. Such politically-motived moves made a huge contribution to the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, and they must be probed thoroughly and the culprits brought to justice.
Editorial
‘Abaran goes to prison’

Friday 13th June, 2025
Some Opposition politicians who earned notoriety for bribery and corruption while in power are now pretending to be as innocent as lambs—butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths. They are playing the victim card, claiming that they have become targets of a political witch-hunt. They must be troubled by the prospect of having to play board games behind bars with two of their former ministerial colleagues who are already in jail. If they had realised that politics was a game of Snakes and Ladders and conducted themselves properly, while ensconced in power, they would not have been in this predicament.
Some government politicians would have the public believe that the wheels of justice have begun to turn faster since last year’s regime change, and therefore the credit for the incarceration of several Opposition politicians should be given to the current dispensation; the implication of their claim is that unless they had formed a government, the culprits would have got off scot-free. They are often heard predicting that some more Opposition heavyweights will be thrown behind bars soon. Is it that they think they are capable of influencing the judicial process to secure the desired outcome? The NPP politicians’ claims, predictions and warnings are arguably tantamount to an affront to the judiciary and the Attorney General’s Department.
SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam, a lawyer by profession, held a brief for his political masters yesterday. Addressing the media, he lamented that the blame for every corrupt deal was unfairly laid at the feet of the Rajapaksas. He used a popular local saying to drive his point home—”Whoever steals a bunch of bananas in the village, it is Abaran who is sent to jail”. If so, Abaran has only himself to blame! He becomes a suspect because of his bad reputation. This is why they say, “He that has an ill name is half-hanged.” Hence the need for politicians and their family members to be above suspicion so that not even their worst enemies can accuse them of corruption. When the members of the former ruling family, who are enjoying the life of Riley, claim that they are living off Daisy Achchi’s bag of gems, they insult human intelligence and lose public sympathy. Similarly, their self-righteous political rivals’ claim that they are living the good life thanks to the largesse of the likes of ‘Jayashantha Aiya’ is also absurd and reflects a very low opinion of the intelligence of the public.
Legal action being taken against the former rulers, their family members and cronies for corruption and other such serious offences is most welcome for two reasons. They must be made to face legal consequences for their crimes. Besides, a serious effort must be made to recover the losses they have caused to the state coffers. Jail terms and modest fines alone will not do. The other reason why they should be made to pay for their sins is that punitive action against them will set a precedent that future governments will be compelled to follow, and the present-day rulers will be held answerable for the questionable deals under their watch, when they lose power.
It has been reported that former Minister Chamal Rajapaksa will be questioned by the CID over compensation he obtained for property damage during Aragalaya (2022). When the news emerged that the SLPP-UNP government was planning to compensate the politicians whose properties had been destroyed by mobs in retaliatory attacks, we argued that the victims must be made to reveal whether they had declared the damaged assets to the taxman, and could account for the funds used to acquire them. The Opposition including the NPP should have taken up this issue in Parliament and tried to prevent the government from awarding compensation to its members generously at the expense of the public. Equally, all violent elements who carried out systematic arson attacks in 2022 must be brought to justice; deterrent punishment must be meted out to them so that there will be no repetition of such acts of pyro-terrorism.
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