A tale of two bashes

Thursday 3rd June, 2021

Most Sri Lankans seem to think the quarantine laws have been made to be broken like the pie crust. They use various ruses to travel about and even have shindigs on the sly. Two birthday bashes held in violation of the current health regulations have hit the headlines recently. The police swooped on Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, the other day, while a birthday party was in full swing there, and arrested several persons including an actress and a makeup artiste. Some cops have faced disciplinary action for throwing a party to celebrate the Kurunegala Mayor’s birthday. This may explain why Mayor Thushara Vitharana was able to abscond for days on end despite an arrest warrant following the demolition of a historical monument in the Kurunegala town.

The police swing into action when an ordinary person happens to be in a public place without wearing a mask and hauls him or her up before courts in double-quick time. We have seen on television the police stop people from carrying meals to their parents, who are living alone. The police cannot be faulted for strictly enforcing quarantine regulations for the safety of the public, but unfortunately this kind of high-octane performance is absent on their part when they have to deal with the rich and the powerful. The police must explain why they did not arrest the Kurunegala Mayor and the police officers who organised his birthday party. Punishment transfers won’t do. Legal action must be taken against these bootlickers in uniform. The incumbent government boasts of having restored the rule of law, doesn’t it? If so, the quarantine laws must apply to everyone equally.

The police would have the public believe that they have got tough with Shangri-La Hotel for allowing the aforesaid bash to be held there. They seem to have taken the masses for asses. The public is not so stupid as to buy into their claim. Shangri-La and the government feel a special affinity for each other; it was the former that hosted the Viyathmaga events while the SLPP was struggling to topple the yahapalana government. How those who are currently at the levers of power went out of their way, during the previous Rajapaksa government, to shift the Army headquarters and make its land available for Shangri-La is public knowledge. Given these close bonds between the government and the hotel, one bets one’s bottom dollar, or yuan, that the police will never take any action against Shangri-La.

The police should stop trying to fool the public.

The Salt Rush

People have been hoarding salt, of all things, during the past several days. They are even defying the current movement restrictions to go out in search of salt. What triggered this salt rush, as it were, was a social media post that salt would be in short supply owing to marine pollution caused by the ill-fated X-Press Pearl ship; it claimed that seaborne contaminants spreading over the ocean around the country would lead the suspension of the local salt production for a long time, and salt to be produced in the months to come would be contaminated.

Now, thanks to the ongoing panic buying, there will be a shortage of salt, and perhaps its price may go up. We have seen this happen to other commodities such as rice even in normal times. Social media activists ought to act responsibly, especially during a national crisis when people do not want any more problems to contend with. Nothing is more worrisome for the depressed public during a lockdown than the disturbing stories of food scarcities. The current lockdown has been extended until 14 June, we are told, and people will be hard put to buy food items.

It behoves the government to allay the fears of the public when troublemakers try to incite panic buying. Not all the people who use social media think or act rationally; they fall for false news and act like Henny Penny and circulate fake news around the country.

All it takes to plunge the country into utter chaos is a person with a sick mind wielding a smartphone, which could be as dangerous as a cut-throat razor held by a monkey. It is not so difficult to trace those who disseminate fake news on social media to cause panic; stringent action must be taken against them.