Toxic brew, and spirit in Parliament

Tuesday 8th December, 2020

The Parliament of Sri Lanka has become a metaphor for bitter acrimony, which breeds conflict and noncooperation, but there are moments of common purpose and cooperation even when its members do not discuss ways and means of feathering their already cosy, lived-in nests. We have witnessed a few such rare occasions in the House, of late, thanks to the exemplary conduct of an Opposition MP and a Minister.

Sri Lanka is awash with narcotics, as is public knowledge. Thankfully, a national campaign is underway to battle this evil. On Sunday, a haul of narcotics including hell dust with a street value of more than Rs. 2 billion was seized in a joint operation launched by the Excise Department and the Navy. Such offensives against the netherworld of drugs are to be highly commended, and those who risk their lives to launch them deserve praise and rewards. But, unfortunately, a racket which endangers the lives of Sri Lankans has apparently been taken for granted; it is the manufacture of a toxic brew known as artificial toddy.

SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana is at the forefront of a campaign to rid the country of the artificial toddy menace. He has revealed, in Parliament, on several occasions, that some harmful chemicals and even old batteries are used to produce the so-called artificial toddy, from which vinegar and ‘coconut’ arrack are made, and some venal Excise Department officers are in league with the manufacturers of the toxic brew.

This country is troubled by a killer kidney disease of unknown etiology. Artificial toddy containing harmful chemicals is bound to cause far worse public health issues. We do not need another intractable health problem to contend with, do we?

MP Pathirana posed a series of questions to State Minister of Money and Capital Market, State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivarad Cabraal, in Parliament, over the weekend, on revenue losses caused by the artificial toddy racket. The latter, to his credit, fielded the questions gracefully, thanking Pathirana for having taken the trouble of studying the issue properly and raising queries in the public interest, and promised to take action. This is the spirit in which the government should respond to questions from the Opposition. Sadly, other ministers, save a few, take on the MPs who ask questions instead of providing answers; they launch into tirades against the Opposition and, not to put too fine a point on it, make asses of themselves.

It is good for a government’s political health to heed criticism, be it from the Opposition or any other quarters, and make course corrections, where necessary; that is half the battle in preventing a ruling party/coalition from heading for disaster. We have seen governments collapse like houses of cards because they were impervious to public opinion and reason. The best example may be the fall of the Rajapaksa government in 2015 despite having a two-thirds majority in Parliament; it was not responsive to the people.

The voice of the people is heard only through the MPs in political wilderness as politicians do not recover from the power-induced stupor until they receive electoral shocks. The SLPP raised many a question while it was in the Opposition, and the yahapalana government, exuding arrogance, chose to ignore them and dug its political grave in the process. Now, it is up to the SLPP government to learn from its predecessors’ mistakes and mend its ways without turning the Parliament question time into a vocal slugfest, or face the consequences. The Opposition MPs should emulate Pathirana, who does his homework diligently and raise pointed questions. Others, more often than not, fire Maggie’s drawers, so to speak.

The fact that no action has been taken to ban the toxic toddy industry beggars belief. The police are now under Minister Sarath Weerasekera, a former battle-hardened naval officer, who transformed a ragtag outfit of auxiliaries derisively called gambattas into a combat-ready civil defence force, which even stood up to the LTTE. Will Weerasekera ensure that the long arm of the law cracks down on the artificial toddy factories? The Cabinet ought to amend the existing laws and bring in new ones, if necessary, to prevent the corrupt elements in the Excise Department from giving kid glove treatment to the artificial toddy racketeers who endanger the lives of the public. And fast!