Editorial

Amid a continuing saga of the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings and Parliamentary Select Committee hearings, two stories particularly struck the people’s psyche this week.

One was the revelation in Parliament that more than Rs 6.7mn was squandered last year to felicitate Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne on his “unanimous election” as Vice Chairman of the World Health Organisation. The second was news that in Tissamaharama, a 11-month-old infant had died of malnutrition. The contrast was harsh. And the irony wasn’t lost.

There are multiple issues at play here. One is the distasteful Sri Lankan habit of venerating politicians for no particular reason; and, if that was not unsavoury enough, lavishing money on massaging their egos. For, as a previous editorial has pointed it, it was not Senaratne that was elected to the position of WHO Vice Chairman. It was Sri Lanka, his country. The position goes by rotation and there is usually no contest.

The Health Ministry’s 2018 annual report, also presented in Parliament this week, has a section on major achievements that year. First on the list is the award of the ‘Suwapathi Kirula’ title to the Minister for service rendered to the people of this country. This honour, it merits recording, is not a national one and was probably created for bootlicking purposes.

The entry in the annual report also says that its conferment upon the Minister is in recognition of services rendered such as reducing the prices of essential drugs, providing free lenses to cataract patients, free stents to heart patients, facilitating blood tests to be done free of charge and lifting the ceiling of Rs 1.5mn for each cancer patient entitled to treatment.

Why any of this deserves an excessive national ceremony is a truly Sri Lankan dilemma. Particularly as local politicians have been leeching off the public, especially before elections, for decades. None of the above steps is a favour. The State pays for the resources. And the State, in turn, is funded via public taxes.

Taxes rose significantly under this Government.  Expansion of the tax base and rates augmented the revenue from income tax alone by 13.1 percent in 2018. The revenue collected from VAT, on gross basis, increased by 4.0 percent over the previous year. Income from all nature of duties also went up. Passing on some benefits to the public–particularly the social classes that largely benefit from free healthcare–is a national and political obligation, not an indulgence.

This applies across the board, not just to the health sector.  In the past few years, a peculiar phenomenon has emerged whereby any service facilitated by politicians to the public–using the citizenry’s own money–is greeted with over-the-top adulation and sycophancy, so much so that it is now the rule rather than the exception.

Every time something breeds distaste of the Sri Lankan political classes, there is a loose pledge to reduce the prominence given to elected representatives and to hold them more accountable. It does not happen. If anything, it keeps going the other way.

Among those who had spent on the Health Minister’s party were the WHO, the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol, the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation, the State Pharmaceutical Corporation, Laugfs Life Science and trade unions. Also pitching in was Thriposha Ltd, whose vision is “To create a non malnutritious [sic], prosperous, proud and healthy nation out of Sri Lankan general public”.

Granted all these institutions could have put the money to better use than they did. But the distinct inappropriateness of an institution whose main task is to ensure the nation is fed nutritious food stepping into ingratiate it with political masters is particularly distasteful–especially when children are still dying in this country from not having enough to eat.

Malik Mihiranga Rajapaksa was one of four children. He died on May 14 and doctors at the Hambantota hospital said he had perished from malnutrition. His parents did not have enough money to feed the children and it had been a while since they had even bought milk powder for them.

Food insecurity and malnutrition in Sri Lanka remains a major challenge. There is still poor access to affordable and nutritious food, and rates of wasting or “thinness” in Sri Lanka are among the highest in the world. What’s more, they are unchanged over the last decade.

Hunger levels have stagnated at 25.5 percent in 2017 and 2016. Over the five-year period 2012–2016, the prevalence of wasting in Sri Lankan children below five years of age increased to 21.4 percent, as against only 13.3 percent in 2006–2010. Malnutrition among adults and children has not adequately improved, with 16.8 percent of babies delivered with a low birth-weight.

These should concern the health sector, where most other indicators are excellent due to decades of diligence by dedicated professionals. In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money spent on the Health Minister’s extravaganza wasn’t large. But it is the message, the significance, not the number.

It is time for the people to take back the undue place given to politicians in this country; to shine the spotlight again on the citizenry’s demands and requirements. Roads and houses have to be built, health and education must be invested on, and corruption must be reduced so that less goes towards meeting its cost and more towards sectors that benefit people.

And once that is achieved, there is no necessity to usher a politician onto a stage and beat a drum about how fabulous he or she is for having done the job of work he or she was elected to do. If this cycle isn’t broken at some point in time, future generations will pay dearly for this unpalatable fawning.