Heroes’ impotence

Friday 25th June, 2021

One of the main reasons for the collapse of the yahapalana government was the impotence of its leaders, who earned notoriety for chickening out, and bungling almost everything they undertook to do. Their rivals, who are in power at present, made fun of them and branded them as a bunch of wimps, and promised to defeat all social evils plaguing the country. But those heroes have now been found to be no better than their lily-livered predecessors, some of whom have become their allies. There have been numerous instances where the swashbuckling heroes too wimped out. Their lack of courage to do what needs to be done to make rice freely available and, thereby, maintain its prices at affordable levels, in these troubled times, is a case in point.

The government is determined to import 100,000 MT of rice, purportedly to meet a shortfall in the supply of the staple. It is being claimed in some quarters that governments usually make such announcements to scare the big-time millers into releasing their stocks. But these stone-hearted, cunning businessmen do not fall for such ruses; they are capable of separating false threats from the real ones, which they neutralise immediately. On the other hand, they know that no government will ever resort to anything that jeopardises their business interests, for they look after almost all influential politicians.

It is obvious that the government will go ahead with rice imports, which will not cause any losses to the rice Mafia or be a solution to the ‘rice shortage’; it will only help the government deflect adverse criticism, and some politicians and bureaucrats will be able to line their pockets, as we have seen all these years.

The country has enough paddy stocks. There is a surplus of about 1.7 million metric tons of paddy. This figure has been confirmed by the All Ceylon Farmers Federation (ACFF). The Ministry of Agriculture says the expected rice production in 2021 is 3,000,000 MT while the annual rice consumption is only 2,340,000, the expected surplus rice production for the current year being 660,000 MT. The ACFF insists that there will be enough rice stocks for not only 2021 but also 2022 even if this year’s Yala harvest is not taken into account. So, the government must find a solution to hoarding, instead of importing rice.

The leaders of the current government boast of having defeated one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups. But the writ of the state still does not run in some parts of the country; they are the places where the sprawling warehouse complexes of the big-time millers stand. Most of the paddy the country produces finds its way into them. The only way to tackle artificially created rice shortages is to take action against hoarders, as we argued yesterday. No rice miller must be allowed to hold the public to ransom, especially during a pandemic. The SLPP knights-errant now have the power to liberate the public from the clutches of evil forces including the rice Mafia. After all, they said the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which enhanced the President’s executive powers, was for the benefit of the public.

The impotence of the current leaders vis-à-vis the rice Mafia became evident last year following the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) raids on the warehouses of some big-time millers in the North Central Province. The CAA officials suffered humiliation at the hands of the millers concerned, and were let down by the government leaders. The owner of Araliya Mills, Dudley Sirisena, a sibling of former President MP Maithripala Sirisena, confronted the CAA officials, and declared that he would not sell rice at the maximum retail prices (MRPs) stipulated by the government. Subsequently, the millers had a meeting with the government leaders, who agreed to an upward revision of the MRPs for rice. The millers had the last laugh. So much for the heroics of the SLPP leaders who came into power, promising to safeguard the interests of the general public! If they cannot take on the rice Mafia, and prevent the latter from hoarding paddy, they must at least stop boasting of their power and pretending to be saviours of the people.

They must not waste public funds on rice imports owing to their impotence. Let that be the bottom line.