To close or not to close?

Thursday 19th August, 2021

The government finds itself in a dilemma. To close or not to close is the question that troubles it. The pandemic is raging with infections and the death toll rising steadily; public health experts are calling for a lockdown to halt the runaway transmission of the virus, ease strain on the hospital network, which is already faced with a capacity crunch, and isolate the infected while vaccination is ramped up. A lockdown is the most effective way of curbing the spread of the pandemic, albeit temporarily, provided the public fully co-operates with the health authorities unlike on the previous occasions.

A collective of trade unions has called upon the government to close the country immediately. It has said it will organise an unofficial lockdown if the government tries to keep the country open against health experts’ advice. Some traders’ associations have closed their business places voluntarily in view of the pandemic. This is a welcome move.

The government’s concerns need to be appreciated. The economy cannot take any more shocks, and lockdowns entail huge socio-economic costs such as job losses, pay cuts, massive drops in national production and the foreign exchange inflow, etc. These issues are fraught with the danger of giving rise to social upheavals. The task of controlling the pandemic requires funds.

At the rate the pandemic is ripping through the country, if lockdowns are not imposed urgently, workplaces will remain open, but there will be no workers left, and if the country is locked down, workers will be safe, but there will be no workplaces. Many businesses have already gone bankrupt, and thousands of people who led comfortable lives previously are struggling to make ends meet. Daily-wage earners are the worst hit. There is a limit to printing money to grant relief to the public. Factories have to be kept open for foreign exchange to be earned. Debts have to be serviced and commodities imported.

Lockdowns are sure to cause a further drop in government revenue, which is already low, and if this happens, the public sector pay cuts may be inevitable. This situation has already come about in some other countries. How do the state sector trade unions calling for lockdowns propose to solve this problem? Are they willing to get their members to make sacrifices? They have to make their position clear.

The Opposition, which is demanding lockdowns, had no qualms about supporting mass protests during the past few weeks. There were many marches, where the health regulations were blatantly flouted, and they must have led to the formation of many Covid-19 clusters in the areas where the protesters came from. When the government tried to stop the protests by using quarantine laws, the Opposition complained that people’s right to protest was being suppressed. A court also issued an order, preventing the police from using quarantine laws to prevent protests. True, the government was trying to use the health regulations to protect its interests, but the Opposition, which claims to be concerned about the people’s health, should have acted responsibly.

The unofficial lockdown the Opposition is organising looks a hartal. JVP trade union leaders have said they will close the country unless the government does so. They are quite capable of such action. They are the ones who introduced the ‘chit’ system, with which they had shops closed at will in the late 1980s. This time around, their modus operandi will be different because they have taken to democratic politics and are conducting themselves better than other politicians.

Let both the government and the Opposition be urged to refrain from politicising pandemic control measures. They should stop fighting, get together and discuss what should be done to save lives, how to overcome practical difficulties in the pandemic control process, and the sacrifices that will have to be made by everyone in case of the country being locked down again. They must stop lurching towards a showdown at this hour of crisis if they have any concern for the hapless public.