Winners as losers

Friday 23rd October, 2020

The government is cock-a-hoop, having secured the passage of the 20th Amendment (20A) to the Constitution and thereby got rid of the 19th Amendment (19A). It has no doubt scored an impressive win on the political front, but got badly beaten by another ‘19’; it has been bowled over by COVID-19, which is rapidly spreading in the country. A quarantine curfew had to be imposed in some parts of Colombo, yesterday. Fear is being expressed that similar measures will have to be adopted to prevent the spread of the virus in other parts of the city as well—absit omen!

The government’s obsession with battling the elusive virus during the first half of this year prior to the last general election paid off. The pandemic was effectively curbed, but the declaration of early victory was an unwise move. Those who were tasked with fighting the virus chose to rest on their oars and laurels, and, in their wisdom, shifted their focus to the pollical front. They kept themselves busy fighting a political war until the eruption of the current wave of COVID-19. It took ten months for them to give legal effect to the health guidelines—something they should have done early this year. They are now running around like headless chickens. Government politicians, exuding arrogance from every pore, took on the Opposition MPs who raised sensible questions about the national health emergency, in Parliament the other day. Let them be told that shouting down the Opposition will not help beat the virus.

A garment factory has been blamed for being the epicentre of latest wave of COVID-19. Allegations against it must be probed thoroughly and legal action taken if it has been at fault. But there are other possibilities. The virus may have continued to spread during the election time, when people gathered in their thousands at political rallies, throwing caution to the wind, and manifested itself in an explosive transmission later on. That the vast majority of infections have been detected from the Gampaha District does not mean that the other areas are safe; only aggressive testing will help figure out how bad the situation outside the Gampaha District is. They may be lucky that they are not as populous as Gampaha and do not have big factories with thousands of workers.

Unfortunately, Parliament was busy debating 20-A instead of discussing how to tackle the latest wave of COVI-19, which is ripping through the country. This alone is proof that the priorities of the rulers are different from those of the concerned citizens. The prevailing national health emergency must take precedence over everything else. The government should not dupe itself into believing that the situation is not so bad simply because there has been only a single death so far due to the ongoing COVID-19 wave. The healthcare system shows signs of being overwhelmed, and the country must be braced for the worst-case scenario. Panic buying has already commenced; shop shelves are being stripped bare. It is hoped that there are enough buffer stocks of essentials.

Those who are currently at the levers of power once succeeded in beating LTTE terrorism decisively because of their single-mined pursuit of victory. They also managed to curb the first wave of COVID-19 because they were manically focused on beating the virus. They opened several fronts and attacked the virus as they had neutralised terrorism; they were even accused of overdoing things. Now, having let the grass grow under their feet, they are battling coronavirus the way governments used to fight terrorism before 2006; they are only conducting limited operations against the elusive enemy. They cannot wage an all-out war against the virus, given the parlous economic situation. The economy cannot withstand any more countrywide lockdowns and curfews; it is already on a heart-lung machine, so to speak. One can only hope that the government will succeed in its endeavour and the country will be able to prevail over the virus without having to face an economic disaster.