AG vs crooks

Friday 20th November 2020

Attorney General Dappula de Livera has got tough with the police in a bid to jolt them into launching a probe to ascertain what actually led to the emergence of the Minuwangoda garment factory cluster of COVID-19, which triggered the second wave of infections in the country, and who is responsible for endangering the lives of people. The police are doing their darnedest, obviously at the behest of the powers that be, to delay the probe; the government would have the public believe that the Minuwangoda cluster is now over and there is no need for an investigation. It cannot dupe the discerning people.

The AG has taken up the cudgels for the people who are undergoing tremendous suffering due to the second wave of COVID-19. The country is fortunate to have some intrepid public officials, and the AG deserves not only plaudits but also unstinted backing from the public as well as professional and civil organisations. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka ought to join forces with him to have the explosive start of the second wave of the pandemic probed properly.

Military drones are being used to round up people who play cricket in areas under lockdown and prosecute them. Ordinary citizens are arrested and their vehicles taken into custody for violating quarantine curfews. Even a person who walks on a public road without wearing a face mask runs the risk of being nabbed. But those whose commissions or omissions caused the second wave of infections, endangered the lives of all Sri Lankans and further debilitated the economy have apparently gone scot free thanks to their political connections.

The police, who have a ‘proud’ history of having hauled up before courts two small girls for stealing a few coconuts and snitching a five-rupee coin, should be ashamed of baulking at launching the probe ordered by the AG.

Strangely, an otherwise cantankerous Opposition has chosen to remain silent on the unforgivable delay in probing the Minuwangoda COVID-19 cluster. Is it that the holier-than-thou SJB politicians have also benefited from the largesse of the culprits?

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the AG to prosecute SJB MP and former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, on the basis of a recent Appeal Court judgment, which has deemed the clearing of a section of the Kallaru forest reserve for a housing scheme illegal and ordered Bathiudeen to bear the total cost of reforesting of the area. Both the government and the Opposition are in a spot. The current leaders are responsible for having created Bathiudeen, the politician, and allowed him to embark on his deforestation mission which began during a previous Rajapaksa government.

The Opposition politicians cannot be expected to call for legal action against Bathiudeen because he is now their man. They never miss an opportunity to take moral high ground and condemn government politicians for breaking the law, but they are pretending that the Kallaru forest reserve does not exist. Let these worthies be told that the rape of forests is as grievous as murder.

Maithripala Sirisena has been receiving praise for a gazette notification he signed in 2019, when he was the President, to expand the extent of the Sinharaja rainforest, by annexing an adjacent forest thereto. He did not care to prevent the destruction of the Wilpattu forest, illegal sand mining, illicit felling, etc., as the Minister of Environment, but his action to protect the Sinharaja rainforest is to be highly appreciated. Strangely, it took about one year for the gazette notification at issue to be published. It is hoped that the government will stop promoting the construction of roads that pose threats to forests, especially Sinharaja, and reverse its decision to allow the so-called ‘other forests’ to be utilised for agricultural purposes. These ecologically important wooded areas must never be exploited. Enough land is available elsewhere for cultivation, and if post-harvest losses and the colossal waste of agricultural produce due to lack of storage and distribution facilities are minimised, the national food production will increase significantly, and there will be no need for opening up forest lands for cultivation.

The ruling family has a deep batting line-up, as it were, and spares no pains to fortify the future of its younger members, who are being groomed for leadership. But they as well as the children of ordinary citizens will inherit a 65,610 sq. km desert unless the present dispensation cares to protect the fast receding forest cover. Budget 2021 has a special section on forest conservation, spelling out how the government intends to increase the forest cover. But many a pair of shoes is said to be worn out between saying and doing. If the government is so keen on forest conservation, it must have Bathiudeen prosecuted for the destruction of a vast extent of forest land. That is the least it can do to make amends.