Editorial
Gathering momentum in anti-Covid drive
The vaccination program against Covid-19 in this country has begun gathering momentum and, predictably, many questions and controversies have also began surfacing. Several opposition MPs from the Samagi Jana Balavegaya and the JVP proclaimed that they will not jump the queue and avail themselves of the special vaccination privilege granted to MPs. They have received some left handed compliments for this gesture with some commentators lauding what they have done in this regard but adding that they are not averse to enjoying the many other privileges lavished on our legislators. These are too many to recount and in any case well known to the electors who sent them to parliament. Vaccinating 225 parliamentarians will obviously not disrupt a roll out involving the administering of millions of doses to a sizable proportion of our population. But a wrong signal has gone out that some are more equal than others in this country.
We’ve been treated to telecasts of some MPs driving to the Army Hospital to get their jabs. Others have gone on the airwaves to say why they will not utilize the privilege. The JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the other day that the Danish premier has said he was on the bottom of the priority list in his country. A handful of our MPs, including the health minister – who incidentally took the Dammika peniya – got infected with the virus and all, thankfully, have recovered. But former Speaker WJM Loku Bandara died on Covid, reportedly having declined to be put on a ventilator. MPs have not decided on party lines whether they will or will not get themselves vaccinated on a priority basis. There was even one report of reluctance of some Tamil MPs to get vaccinated at the Army Hospital. This earned them a well deserved rap on the knuckles from the army commander.
We run in this issue of our newspaper some articles discussing the vaccination program. One contributor has confessed delight at the aggressive questioning of the deputy health minister of Viyathmaga fame on a national television program. This worthy, trying to justify preferential treatment for MPs , looked like a “deer caught in the headlights” and did not even seem to himself believe what he was saying, this writer has said. The Island reported yesterday that Venerable Athureliya Ratana, who fought his way to a national list seat in the legislature was taking an Indian jab to go to China. The venerable priest who’s had many avatars in his political career, entered parliament this time round with the Ape Janabala Party livery. He’d previously been elected on the tickets of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, United People’s Freedom Alliance and the UNP. Having been vocal on the quality of the Indian vaccine and virtues of ayurvedic protection against the virus, he said he took the jab to avoid long quarantine in China he would shortly visit. He clearly did not wish to scuttle his trip to live up to previously stated positions.
We are also running an informative update on the Covid-19 vaccine written by a senior consultant paediatrician who is president of the Vaccine and Serum Forum of Sri Lanka. He has given a great deal of useful information and said that “the majority of the vaccines used so far may not provide the expected picture-perfect immunity and the world may continue to have Covid-19 infection.” But based on evidence, there has been speculation claiming that the vaccination could provide almost 100% protection from death which “is what we all want.”
The government has planned to buy many million doses of the Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, and the State Pharmaceutical Corporation is reported to have placed an order for 18 million doses already. There is no word yet of when this supply is expected to arrive. But vaccination is proceeding according to plan and hopefully the inoculation of front line workers fighting the pandemic can be soon completed. The half a million doses gifted by India was landed at Katunayake at the end of last month and vaccinations commenced the very next day. Despite all the negative recent commentary about India in the local media, Sri Lankans must be grateful for India’s contribution to fight the virus. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who received the first consignment at the Bandaranaike International Airport thanked the people of India for their generosity.
In addition to the Indian vaccine, 300,000 doses donated by China is also due in the short term. The World Health Organization (WHO) will provide 20 percent of our requirements as a grant. As two doses are needed for each person inoculated, half as many people as the number of doses purchased or obtained as gifts/grants will get the needed cover. But it has been stressed that total immunity is not possible and various success rates for the different vaccines have been published. Funds for the procurement have been accorded the highest priority; yet we must guard against the delays too often encountered in government purchases. While nobody must be allowed to make a fast buck on procuring the vaccine – let us not forget the recent ruckus over PCR testing machines – there has to be a consciousness that too much red tape can work against us in a buyers’ market.
The private sector has been granted some space to help fight the pandemic and PCR testing is available in some private hospitals. It may be worth exploring whether they should also be permitted to procure the vaccine and offer inoculation to those who can afford to pay. In one of the articles we run today, the writer has said that countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are moving in the direction of permitting retail sale of the vaccine. He has expressed the opinion that this is a sensible move that will help take some pressure off state facilities. This has already happened in the case of ordinary healthcare and also in education. Private hospitals have already begun providing Covid treatment in spaces obtained in hotels without guests. So allowing them to also offer vaccination should be considered.
Saturday 8th June, 2024
It was with shock and dismay that we received the news about death threats to COPF (Committee on Public Finance) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva over the ongoing parliamentary probe into the on-arrival visa scam. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament, that he was facing death threats and intimidation, and it was incumbent upon Parliament to ensure his safety. He stopped short of naming names, but revealed that some ruling party MPs were among those who had ganged up against him. The Speaker only said there had been no complaint, and he would look into the matter.
The SLPP-UNP government has been doing everything in its power to have all parliamentary committees under its thumb. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), which once helped restore public faith in the legislature by exposing state sector corruption, has now become a mere appendage of the incumbent regime, thanks to the appointment of SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as its Chairman. The SLPP-UNP combine also tried to oust COPF Chairman Dr. de Silva, but in vain. However, it knows more than one way to shoe a horse.
The COPF, under Dr. de Silva’s chairmanship, has been a thorn in the side of the government, which is struggling to cover up numerous corrupt deals. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Parliament that he found it extremely difficult to function as the COPF head due to severe resource constraints his committee was facing; he himself had to pay the salaries of some of his staff members besides burning the midnight oil.
The sheer workload he had to cope with as the COPF chief had taken its toll on his health, he said, informing the Speaker that he was at the end of his tether, and at times thought of resigning from the COPF. This is exactly what the government wants him to do; resource squeezes and threats are aimed at making him quit.
On 26 May, Dr. de Silva revealed, in an ‘X’ post, that the COPF had uncovered some vital information about the visa scam and it would reveal everything after its final meeting on the issue; the COPF was committed to exposing the truth behind the controversial tender, he added. In an editorial comment on 27 May, we warned him.
While thanking him for his bold stand, we pointed out that by making such a statement, he had thrown caution to the wind, and become a marked target, with the government making an all-out effort to delay the COPF investigation lest the truth should come out much to the detriment of its interests in this election year. Unfortunately, what was feared has come about; Dr. de Silva is complaining of death threats and government moves to strangulate the COPF financially to derail its investigations.
Dr. de Silva’s predicament exemplifies the fate that befalls the few good men and women in Parliament. It is hoped that all those who seek an end to the state sector corruption will rally behind Dr. de Silva, and bring pressure to bear on the government to ensure his safety. Let Dr. de Silva be urged to reveal the names of those who have issued threats, veiled or otherwise, to him and are trying to scuttle the COPF probes.
Friday 7th June, 2024
The SLPP-UNP government is going hell for leather to make bad laws as if there were no tomorrow. It is abusing its parliamentary majority, which has been retained with the help of some crossovers, for that purpose. The Opposition, the media and trade unions are up in arms, and understandably so. The incumbent regime is a dead man walking; it is so desperate that it is capable of anything. Hence the need for it to be restrained.
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill (EAB) plunged Parliament into turmoil yesterday, but the government secured its passage. The Supreme Court (SC) determined the entire EAB inconsistent with the Constitution and recommended changes thereto. After unveiling the Bill, sometime ago, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera hailed it as an excellent piece of legislation aimed at straightening up the power sector to serve the public interest better.
The SC determination left him with egg on his face. He reminded us of the proverbial curate who, while eating a stale egg, assured his host, a Bishop, that parts of it were excellent. Wijesekera’s egg, as it were, made Parliament stink yesterday, but he sought to please his masters by praising it as a silver bullet.
EAB should have been discarded and a new one drafted in consultation with all stakeholders. But the government is apparently driven by an ulterior motive; its aim is not to serve Sri Lanka’s interests but to look after those of some moneybags.
It is not uncommon for Bills to contain some flaws, which are rectified either before or during the committee stage. But there is something terribly wrong with draft Bills that are full of sections inconsistent with the Constitution. The drafters of EAB have demonstrated their sheer ignorance of the supreme law, and that they are not equal to the task of drafting Bills. If they had read the Constitution at least perfunctorily, they would not have drafted such a bad law.
Ignorant and incompetent, they do not deserve to be paid with public funds and must be sent back to law school. They must be summoned before Parliament and questioned on their serious lapses, which have caused public faith in the national legislature to diminish.
Curiously, the MPs who demand that judges, doctors, Central Bankers, and other public officials be summoned before Parliament have taken badly drafted Bills for granted. The power sector trade unions yesterday alleged that EAB was of Indian origin and geared towards furthering the interests of Adani Group at the expense of Sri Lanka.
Most critics of EAB are agreeable in principle to the need for power sector reforms; the Ceylon Electricity Board should be given a radical shake-up, and transformed into a modern organisation capable of providing a better service at a lower cost. They only asked the government to tread cautiously, consulting all stakeholders and taking action to ensure that the country’s interests prevailed over everything else. But the government was in a mighty hurry to steamroller the Bill through Parliament, making the Opposition ask whether it was doing so at the behest of some external forces involved in controversial power generation deals here.
What is passed by the current Parliament can be either amended or abolished by a future parliament in a constitutionally prescribed manner. But that does not mean that a government is free to pass bad laws, making the country enter into long-term agreements with powerful nations and their investors. It looks as if the SLPP-UNP regime did not care two hoots about the consequences of its actions.
Thursday 6th June, 2024
The outcome of India’s parliamentary election (2024) has led to a ‘perspective ambiguity’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in declaring victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance, which secured 293 seats in the 543-member Parliament, but he must be a worried man. The BJP is short of 32 seats to form a government under its own steam; it has lost 63 seats or about 20% of its parliamentary strength. It had 303 seats in the previous Parliament, and that number has dropped to 240.
Modi has become the second Indian Prime Minister to win a third term. The first PM to do so was Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru won an outright majority in Parliament in 1962; Modi has had to depend on smaller parties in his alliance to retain his hold on power. Modi must be reeling from a sharp drop in his victory margin in his own constituency, Varanasi; it has decreased to 152,000 from 480,000 in 2019 whereas Modi’s bete noire, Rahul Gandhi, won Raebareli by a staggering 390,000 votes.
Modi, who reigned supreme with 303 seats in the previous Parliament, is now dependent on parties such as Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to form a government. He has had to lead an alliance of strange bedfellows. Both Kumar and Naidu were bitter critics of Modi. Kumar helped form the oppositional alliance, the INDIA bloc, before switching his allegiance to PM Modi. Naidu also closed ranks with the BJP in the run-up to the election. These politicians have been described as extremely ambitious and highly unpredictable, and whether Modi will be able to manage them and consolidate his grip on the NDA alliance remains to be seen. They will demand plum ministerial posts in return for their support. The TDP is said to be eyeing Transport and Health portfolios! That is the name of the game in coalition politics, where it is not uncommon for the tail to wag the dog, so to speak. These two political leaders are however not the only problem Modi will have to contend with. The next five years will feel like an eternity for PM Modi.
Nothing would have been more shocking for the BJP than its defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir has been built. Modi may have thought he would be able to win the Lok Sabha election hands down after the consecration of that temple, which became a centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign. The BJP lost that seat to the Samajwadi Party! Modi must be disappointed that the Ram Mandir hype failed to trigger a massive wave of support for his party. This particular defeat signifies a massive setback for the BJP’s ethno-religious agenda.
Modi’s divisive election campaign failed to yield the desired result. The BJP’s failure to secure an outright majority could be attributed to a host of factors, some of them being the suppression of the Opposition, the arrogance of power, chronic unemployment, and the rising cost of living. The BJP also did not care to reimage itself in a positive light to attract the youth.
Modi will hereafter see the Congress-led INDIA bloc with 223 seats, in his rearview mirror. The Congress (99 seats) and its allies have eaten into the BJP support base considerably, but they have a long way to go before being able to capture power.
The bumpy ride ahead for the BJP-led coalition government to be formed may improve the INDIA bloc’s chances of bettering their electoral performance and turning the tables on the BJP and its allies in time to come. Modi will have a lot to worry about in his third term.
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