Shortages, half-truths and mistruths

Tuesday 7th September, 2021

The Opposition makes mountains out of molehills. It is given to blowing any issue out of proportion to gain political mileage. The government does exactly the reverse; it tries to make molehills out of mountains, so to speak, and seeks to downplay even serious issues albeit without success. The truth, in our book, is always equidistant from the two extreme positions the government and the Opposition take on any issue. As for essential goods, there are shortages of some of them despite the government’s claims to the contrary, but these scarcities are not as bad as they are made out to be in some quarters.

Increases in the prices of imported commodities are to be expected when the Sri Lankan rupee depreciates rapidly against the US dollar, but some importers are also making the most of the situation by hoarding sugar, etc., to keep the prices thereof high. The Opposition claimed in Parliament yesterday that the price of a kilo of sugar in the world market was still below Rs. 100. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) says its raids which yielded massive hauls of hoarded sugar have helped slash sugar prices.

The prices of commodities in short supply usually rise, and in such situations, the government has to find out the causes of the shortages and take action to obviate them, whether or not they are artificial. The very fact that the government has resorted to raids to seize hoarded paddy, rice, sugar, etc., indicates that the prices of those commodities are soaring due to scarcities. Thus, the government’s action against hoarders belies its claim that there are no shortages.

The government’s argument that it has declared a state of emergency to safeguard the interests of consumers by taking action against hoarders and pandemic profiteers also runs counter to its claim that the Opposition is spreading false rumours about shortages. If there are no shortages, will the government explain what made it resort to the invocation of emergency powers? Or, does it think that enough stocks of food items and other essential commodities have been imported or locally produced, though not released to the market in sufficient quantities, and therefore technically there are no shortages in the country as a whole? The government spokespersons never make themselves clear in their statements, which leave the public none the wiser. Yesterday, Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage went ballistic in Parliament. He obviously had facts and figures, but did not know what to do with them, and therefore could not convey his message effectively. Unnecessary digressions, and pot shots at the Opposition affected the thrust of his main argument. He said some millers were making huge profits to the tune of billions of rupees per cultivation season at the expense of the farmer and the consumer. He was only preaching to the choir. That some conscienceless millers do so is public knowledge. What people want to know is why the government, whose leaders take pride in having defeated the LTTE, has not been able to tame the rice Mafia.

The only way the government could allay doubts in the minds of the people about the shortages of essential commodities, especially imports, is to reveal the stocks currently available in the country, and steps taken, if any, to replenish them. The CAA has already named the hoarders of sugar and revealed the amounts seized from their warehouses. Similarly, it should make public the amounts of paddy and rice in the silos of pro-government millers, whether they are releasing enough stocks to the market to meet the demand, and, if not, what action has been taken against them. The public should be kept informed of the availability of fuel as well if panic buying is to be prevented. The current lockdown must have solved the government’s petroleum woes to some extent, but they are bound to worsen when the country reopens. Having been confined to their homes, people are sure to make up for lost time when travel restrictions are lifted.

The government, we repeat, ought to respect the people’s right to information anent the availability of essential commodities by way of reassuring them. Rhetoric, half-truths and mistruths will not do.