Confusion worse confounded

Saturday 23rd October, 2021

Sri Lanka is like a mental hospital under an air raid, with doctors and patients running helter-skelter. Those who came to power, flaunting their medals, epaulettes, brass buttons and accoutrements, and promising to bring order out of chaos are all at sea. They seem to have brought chaos out of order. They signal left and turn right, and make numerous U-turns. The Sports Minister goes overseas to attend events of religious significance; the Trade Minister rushes to the airport to receive consignments of fertiliser while the prices of comestibles and other essentials are skyrocketing; the Agriculture Minister is blaming the Opposition for the current agricultural problems, and the Minister of Power is trying to set up zoos instead of power plants. Everyone at the levers of power seems to have got his wires crossed. Scaremongers are having a field day confounding as they do confusion prevailing in the country; with each passing day, they work people up into a frenzy via social media,

People are running around stocking up on essentials. Fuel pumps have run dry due to panic buying, and refilling stations hoarding stocks in anticipation of price hikes. The government issues official statements denying reports of scarcities, but nobody buys into them.

Farmers are protesting against a crippling fertiliser shortage. The Opposition is squawking in Parliament without revealing how they would handle the fertiliser issue if they were in power. Having caused widespread crop losses, the government now claims its agrochemical ban was based on wrong advice. Government politicians who do not know the periodic table from the dining table are giving chemistry lessons to senior university dons! The use of agrochemicals, no doubt, has to be drastically reduced, and organic farming encouraged, but it must be done gradually to avoid shocks.

The present situation has come about owing to a host of colossal blunders the incumbent dispensation had made on all fronts. Immediately after the last presidential election (2019), the government granted tax relief to the wealthy at the expense of the state coffers, and threw money around by way of cash handouts for the people during the first lockdown so as to muster votes to win the general election. Even those who did not need financial assistance were given it for political reasons. Rackets such as the sugar tax scam caused staggering losses to the state. Corruption remains rampant, and those who were in the political wilderness for five years are now making up for lost time. Money printing, which the current administration considers a panacea, has led to huge price increases, which are not reflected in the official inflation rate as figures are massaged.

The first lockdown imposed last year to curb the spread of the pandemic was unnecessarily extended at a massive economic cost, and the government did not care to enforce the quarantine laws properly in the run-up to the last general election (2020) and afterwards. Infection clusters emerged, necessitating travel restrictions, as a result. Health experts’ call for a lockdown during the traditional New Year season in April went unheeded, and the result was an explosive spread of Covid-19 as well as a sharp rise in fatalities. A stitch in time would have saved nine, and many lives, and helped revive tourism, bringing in the much-needed forex. Finally, there was another protracted lockdown, and the country is now gripped by an unprecedented foreign currency crunch, which has compelled the government to raise dollars at the expense of vital state assets.

Thankfully, the ongoing vaccination drive and the costly lockdown have worked, and the country is open again; tourism is showing signs of recovery, we are told. But public health experts are warning of another wave of infections come December because the public is behaving irresponsibly. Religious places are becoming crowded again, and so are buses; health guidelines are not followed at social gatherings. The situation is expected to take a turn for the worse after schools fully reopen. If what is feared comes to pass—absit omen—there will have to be another lockdown, which must be avoided at any cost.

The government, in its wisdom, is trying to introduce a new Constitution and hold the Provincial Council polls. It must get its priorities right. It has to sort out the fertiliser issue urgently to prevent a drop in the national agricultural output. Health regulations and quarantine laws must be strictly enforced to prevent another wave of Covid-19 while wasteful expenditure is curtailed.