‘Interval in hell’

Tuesday 19th July, 2022

A couple of ships have arrived, carrying much-needed fuel, and the distribution of cooking gas has also resumed, after a lapse of several weeks, much to the relief of the public. Fuel prices have also been reduced! It looks as if the fuel tankers had been waiting for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation to reach Colombo.

Why has the government become so concerned about the public, all of a sudden, and is going hell for leather to supply fuel at lower prices? It is trying to pacify the resentful public in view of tomorrow’s vote in Parliament to elect the next President while the Aragalaya activists and trade unions are lurching towards a showdown with the Rajapaksa clan and its proxies who are defending the crumbling regime and testing the people’s patience. It is hoped that the government, which is claiming that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is still incurring colossal losses and therefore does not have funds to buy dollars for fuel purchases, is not printing money for politically-motivated relief measures such as fuel price reductions.

All economic problems the country is beset with boil down to one thing — the prevailing forex crisis — and they cannot be solved, once and for all, without a substantial increase in the inflow of dollars. There has been no significant rise in remittances or export earnings. Nor has there been a substantial foreign loan. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the government will be able to sustain a continuous fuel supply. At this rate, things are very likely to be back to square one soon.

The unexpected slight improvement in the people’s lot could be termed an interval in hell, in the Sri Lankan political lingo. It will be torments again for the public after tomorrow’s vote in Parliament, whoever becomes the President; people will continue to wait and die in queues, and pumps will run dry at filling stations sooner than expected. A huge electricity tariff increase is on the cards, and it will send the general price level further up. The Central Bank has warned that inflation could rise to 70%.

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has come out of hiding to announce the arrival of fuel ships, but when the CPC runs out of its fuel stocks, he will ask the people not to queue up at filling stations, and then go off the radar! He has introduced what he calls a technological solution to the problem of fuel hoarding. One could only hope that it will yield the intended results. The proof of the pudding, however, is said to be in the eating. We will see how it works when it is implemented. What matters most, however, is the government’s ability to replenish fuel supplies continuously.

Meanwhile, the government is apparently ready to unleash hell on protesters to retain its hold on power, which its leaders cannot let go of lest they should be brought to justice for the theft of public funds, and corrupt deals. A state of Emergency has been declared, again, and the armed forces have been permitted to use lethal force, if necessary. Such measures may work where terrorist or subversive groups are concerned. In fact, mobs must not be allowed to take over Parliament or other such nerve centres. But force, lethal or otherwise, will not be effective vis-à-vis unarmed civilians pouring out onto the streets, demanding the resignation of the President and the Prime Minister. No government has ever found an effective antidote to People Power. There is very little the police and the military can do to protect a bungling regime when a popular uprising is coupled with a general strike.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has rightly called for the revocation of Emergency regulations. It has pointed out that the right to protest and the right to dissent are important aspects of the fundamental rights of the people including the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly. It has stressed that the Emergency regulations must not be used to crush peaceful protests, suppress dissent and make arbitrary arrests and detentions. The government had better heed the BASL’s call.

It is high time the Rajapaksa clan and its cronies realised the futility as well as the danger of trying to cling on to power amidst the rising wave of public anger, and bowed out before being ousted. They must not dupe themselves into thinking that they could compass their sinister ends by manipulating Parliament and engineering crossovers. What matters more than anything is the will of the people, who are exercising their sovereignty in the streets.