No faith and no sense

Thursday 17th June, 2021

The SJB is apparently trying to justify its existence. It is planning to move a motion of no confidence against Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila over the recent fuel price hikes which have made the public scream. It is eager to see the back of Gammanpila. Interestingly, it has taken the same position as SLPP General Secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam, who accuses Gammanpila of having aggravated the economic woes of the public and made the government unpopular by jacking up fuel prices, and called for the latter’s resignation. The SJB politicians and Kariyawasam are sworn enemies, but it just so happens that they are singing from the same hymn sheet, so to speak, as regards the allegations against Gammanpila.

The SJB’s move to oust Gammanpila from the Cabinet will lead to an interesting situation; the government will defeat the no-faith motion in question for its own sake rather than Gammanpila’s, but in so doing it will give the lie to Kariyawasam’s claim that Gammanpila alone should be held responsible for the fuel price hikes. Thus, the SLPP’s vote against the no-faith motion will become an indictment of its own General Secretary! Whether MP Kariyawasam, who is out for Gammanpila’s scalp, will eat his words and vote against the SBJ’s motion remains to be seen.

The SJB knows that its vote of no confidence will flop and give the government an opportunity to score another win in Parliament. Why is it tabling the motion, then? It is apparently trying to put the government on the defensive at least temporarily, and divert the attention of Parliament as well as the public away from the problems it is expected to face after the swearing-in of UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is said to be eyeing the post of the Opposition Leader; the SJB is apparently trying to get all anti-government political parties to vote for the no-faith motion against Gammanpila, who is immensely disliked by the JVP and the TNA as well, in a bid to claim that its leader Sajith Premadasa commands the support of the entire Opposition. Maybe, the SJB is also trying to prevent the anti-government forces that are disappointed with its poor performance as the main Opposition party, from rallying around Wickremesinghe.

The SJB is barking up the wrong tree. The government has stood by Gammanpila and taken responsibility for the fuel price hikes, and therefore the no-faith motion at issue should be moved against the government instead of Gammanpila.

Fuel price hikes presage only the beginning of trouble for the public; the worst is yet to come. Speculation is rife that the prices of several other commodities including wheat flour and cooking gas will increase soon. The government is desperate for funds and does not care where they come from; it is like a bull in a pandemic treatment centre, goring hapless Covid patients.

There is no gainsaying that the government has to boost the state revenue, which has dropped due to lockdowns, etc., but it would have been able to do so without hurting the public so much if it had acted prudently in April, when the country should have been closed to prevent an explosive spread of Covid-19. A stitch in April, as we have pointed out in a previous comment, would have saved nine each in May and June. The government played politics with pandemic control in a bid to shore up its crumbling image by allowing the public to revel and forget their worries during the avurudu season. Some television channels keep calling the massive cluster of infections that formed in April ‘avurudu pokura—New Year cluster. Instead, it should be called the pohottu pokura—(lotus) bud cluster—because the government created conditions for its formation.

It is surprising that the Opposition has not moved a no-faith motion against the government for ignoring health experts’ repeated calls for lockdowns in April to prevent the rapid transmission of the virus, exposing the public to danger, mismanaging the vaccination campaign, causing economic hardships to the pandemic-hit people, and trying to import luxury vehicles for the MPs amidst the current crises.

The Opposition does not seem to be with it.