Aiyo … what a stink!
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Many moons ago, my Kussi Amma once exclaimed “Aiyo Mahattaya … mehema nevai…” She was referring to my sorry attempt to make a cup of tea which ended up with too much milk, too little tea dust and I forget the sugar. It was neither tea nor milk. “Mahattaya – mevata kremayak thiyanawa,” she said and after that I followed her ‘kremaya’ and never went wrong. Not following the ‘kremaya’ (loosely translated – proper system) is what we see today. A sense of apathy, helplessness and resigning to one’s fate is emerging in Sri Lanka. Consider last week’s commentary on ‘fake awards’; there were quite a few pats-on-the back calls from readers and some CEO’s who had been approached to subscribe to these cash-for-recognition awards. No calls of anger or fury from those who were bestowed with these often dubious honours. Silence was golden from those woods but the awards’ circus continues. Shame is nobody’s game anymore.
That’s why the merry-go-round and carnival continue merrily, the weekly Cabinet briefing being a good example where ministers and now deputy ministers have learnt the fine art of conning: Don’t answer the question, instead ask the reporter a question. And if reporters don’t do their homework they (reporters) are stumped. Apart from my opening line today, I was intrigued by the fact that ‘Aiyo’ used widely in Sri Lanka and South India has been included in the Oxford Dictionary. Mentioning this to a colleague, his response was amusing: “Machan ‘Pattapal boru’ should be the next word that should be submitted for inclusion given its consistent usage today.” Maybe not. ‘Pattapal boru’ will then become a legitimate reason for politicians to pull wool over the eyes of the nation!
Back to today’s musings on ‘kremaya’, the whole public service seems to be at breaking point with corrupt elements of the past resorting to a devil-may-care attitude with the authorities. Even before cases have been filed, some are talking of defamation suits, such is their arrogance and belief that by the time they are prosecuted, the government’s time will be up. There are no proper systems in place. Take the garbage issue. Residents of Ekala and Ja-Ela are furious over a move to shift one community’s problem (Meethotamulla garbage ‘mountain’) to their backyard and going by the powerful protests backed by Buddhist monks and Catholic priests, the authorities may have to defer such a move. That then doesn’t solve the dilemma of the Meethotamulla residents.
Further away from Colombo, the garbage dump at Badulla was set on fire by unknown persons and for days residents were confronted with toxic fumes and many fell ill. Schools were closed and even four days after the blaze, the authorities were unable to douse it. While the town was filled with smoke, politicians and officials offered their own explanation of what happened. While residents were furious, politicians accused each other in a blame-game instead of trying to work together. It was more a case of dousing political temperament than the blaze itself! Why do we have so many problems with garbage disposal? Many proposals have been submitted over the past two to three decades to different governments on ways of managing garbage and in fact transforming it into money.
These proposals took the usual route – desk to desk in local government or ministries – and were rejected, often because there was no ‘santhosam’ on offer. Or not enough. In today’s world of ‘waste not, want not’, garbage is big business all over the world. There are dozens of ways of transforming garbage to productive use. Trawl through the Internet and there are ideas aplenty. You don’t need rocket science to manage garbage. On the other hand, Sri Lanka has visions of becoming an Asian financial powerhouse when we can’t even clean our own backyard of the big stink! Municipal garbage truck workers are smarter; many collect all kinds of items separately which are then sold to shops or the bothal-karaya. At least someone is making money out of garbage.
The opposition accuses Sri Lankan leaders of excessive overseas travel. So what! More than 20 world leaders and top ranking officials visited Sri Lanka last year – surely there should be reciprocal visits. Thus, there is nothing wrong in a situation where when the President returns from an overseas trip, the PM departs and vice versa. Reminds one of the sojourns of Foreign Minister, the late Shaul Hameed. The joke at that time was that if you wanted to meet him, you had to make a beeline to the airport and catch him in the VIP transit lounge while he prepared for another trip. In the meantime everyone is waiting with bated breath as to what the Central Bank (CB) Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy and the Monetary Board (MB) would do about an internal probe on bond trader Perpetual Treasuries Ltd whose profits – made at the expense of others and the government – are bigger than some of the smaller banks in the market.
The report was strongly critical of the bond trader and its operations and recommended, among other matters, a larger probe on the institution which is owned by the son-in-law of former CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran. The MB meeting was two days ago (Friday) to decide on a course of action or would the report be swept under the carpet? Coincidentally Perpetual’s annual accounts ending March 2016 were in the public domain just a week before the CB’s internal probe leaked to the media. The leak infuriated many government leaders. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake called it a fake report (see story on Page 1) but the CB confessed it was an authentic one and asked the police to probe how the leak occurred. Catch the messenger first, that’s the way to go!
Today’s commentary would appear to be cluttered with bits of information here… bits of information there and no proper sequence as seen in a conventional commentary. This ‘koheda yanne malle pol’ approach is deliberate and meant to reflect life today in Sri Lanka where political parties are at sixes and sevens, the economy is troubled by slow export growth and the private sector is waiting for things to clear before pumping in money. In this gloomy outlook, here is a silver lining: Departing ILO Country Director Donglin Li (see page 12) told me in an interview that he loves Sri Lanka and that it’s one of the best countries in the world. I smiled in response, not wanting to spoil the party!