Taking care of the mosquito menace

By Victor Ivan

Who is more dangerous? The terrorist or the mosquito? Residents in a country devastated by terrorism and state terrorism would reply: 'terrorism'. That is why we do not spend a few hundred thousand rupees to combat the mosquito menace but spend billions of rupees to fight terrorism. That is why we employ modern rocket launchers against terrorism but do not use even malatheon against mosquitoes.

However, the reality is that, while terrorism may be dangerous, the mosquito menace may be more dangerous. The number of those who died as consequence of the insurrection launched by the JVP in the south in 1989-90 might be about 60,000. The number of deaths in the north eastern war has not so far exceeded a hundred thousand. However, the number of those who died in the Malaria epidemic of the years 1934-35 is believed to be a hundred thousand.

One of every two persons in the population was infected with malaria and one in every ten persons in the population died. In the year 1935 the number of Malaria deaths in the Kurunegala district alone was 27,735 and in the Kegalle district the number of deaths was 12,955. The Sama Samaja movement which might have been confined to the coastal areas alone was taken to Sabaragamuwa by the mosquito. Thanks to the mosquito Dr. N. M. Perera who was a complete outsider to Ruwanwella was able to beat Lady Adeline Molamure who was the feudal queen of the area and to get elected to the State Council in 1936. It was also due to the mosquito menace that N. M. met a girl named Selina. At that time the Sama Samaja movement had in Sabaragamuwa an advanced relief programme which even the British did not have against the Malaria menace. It was the Sama Samaja movement which fed the people who were suffering from Malaria with Bovril and dhal. Thus it was the Sama Samaja movement which took to the villages Bovril which had been confined to the affluent in the city. Thus the reason why the people of Ruwanwella gave Dr. N. M. Perera the nickname "Mr. Parippu".

Reflecting on the devastation caused by the Malaria epidemic in 1934-35 D. W. Farmer concludes that in addition to foreign missions the Malaria mosquito also might have contributed to the collapse of the Sinhala civilization in the dry zone.

Farmer's observation has been that malaria might have contributed to turning the dry zone into an uninhabited area and to the creation of a semi-inhabited area between the areas where these two communities lived.

It was the mosquito which frustrated a massive attempt made by the British during the second world war to send large firms to the dry zone and to introduce a large scale system of agriculture and to get those firms to produce rice required by the estates. Due to the effort made to eradicate the mosquito menace and to the organised programme implemented without interruption, it was possible to score a total victory against the challenge posed by malaria. In 1935 the death ratio was 35 per thousand. In 1946 it declined to 20.3 and in 1970's it further declined

This sharp decline in the death ratio has entered the demographic chronicle as an extremely revolutionary process.

Malaria which had affected more than half the population in 1940's had by 1960's declined to a negligible level as shown below.

Instead of continuing the programme to counter attack the mosquito menace which had been conducted by the state. the urgent task of facing the mosquito menace has been made the responsibility of the people or of firms producing mosquito coils and as a result the challenge of the mosquito menace which was once suppressed is now raising its head fast.

Various areas are affected with mosquitos, which are increasing fast, and there is an upsurge in the number of deaths caused by those diseases too. It is very difficult to get the data of those who had contracted various diseases connected with mosquitos and also the number of deaths. The institutions in charge of counter attacking diseases, as well as the Department of Health appear to dislike information relating to the actual situation in this country reaching the people. However, even the following data relating to the increase in malaria patients show that the mosquito menace, which had been suppressed, is rising again.

The writer is the editor of Ravaya

Statistics about malaria patients are as follows:-

1995                     142294
1996                     184319
1997                     218550
1998                     211691
1999                     264744
(Data relating to the north are not included)

Year    The number Number of
            of deaths     malaria
            by malaria   patients

1940       9169      3413618
1941       7132      3120360
1942       5143      3225471
1943       6765      2141329
1944       5609      1672478
1945       8521      2539949
1946       12578    2768385
1947       4557      1350521
1948       3349      775276
1949       2403      681624
1950       1903      610484
1951       1599      448100
1952       1049      269029
1953       722        106350
1954       447        37464
1955       268        19929
1956       144        43158
1957       177        38086
1958       105        61711
1959       82          1736
1960       61          460

When women cannot inherit the earth

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya

Women farmers in state colonies work hard to raise crops, side by side with men, but do not have the right to inherit land. On state agricultural lands when a woman's husband dies, unless his property has been explicitly willed to her she only gets life interest to it, and the oldest son inherits the land.

"Women in fact work harder. But under the colony system, in the Swarnabhoomi and Jayabhoomi schemes, it's the men who inherit land," says Rani Kumari, a Polonnaruwa woman farm leader. "It's a bad situation. The woman has no right to divide property among her children or anything."

The law that applies to state agricultural lands in Sri Lanka is discriminatory, and not in line with the general law that is egalitarian in matters relating to inheritance. "The Land Development Ordinance of 1935, which applies in these cases, is based on an antiquated British model of inheritance which gives preference to male heirs" says Savitri Goonesekera, professor of law and researcher on land rights. In the matter of land allocation she says although there is no legal barrier the outdated law influences policy and officials are affected by it.

NGOs and women's rights groups such as the Centre for Women's Research (CENWOR) and the National Committee on Women have been engaged in dialogue with the Ministry of Lands to have the discriminatory schedule (Third Schedule, Rule 1) removed from the Ordinance, and bring it in line with the general law, but nothing has come of it so far, professor Goonesekera says. The Secretary, Ministry of Women's Affairs was not available for comment.

Although they suffer various forms of discrimination, women farmers in the paddy districts of Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Moneragala and surrounding areas joined forces with their male counterparts in a massive protest demonstration in August to draw attention to a crisis in paddy farming that affects them all. Two women also went on a fast-unto-death alongside six male farmers and three Buddhist monks, in support of 29 demands.

The land problems faced by women in the colonies are the result of state policy and not a gender divide. "There was great solidarity between men and women farmers in the protest action," says Rani Kumari. "We had no differences."

She cites the case of Vimalin Nona, a 62 year old widow who was among the group that fasted during the recent demo. Though she became the land owner after her husband died, she faces difficulties because she's a woman and she's old. She has worked out an arrangement with her sons, who work as tenant farmers on her land and give her one third of the harvest.

Women carry out several tasks involved in paddy cultivation. While some of the tasks are considered "men's work" (ploughing, preparing the soil) and others "women's work" (planting, weeding), there are still others where women work side by side with men in the fields, such as harvesting.

Women farmers are not as well represented or organized as they would like to be. Rani Kumari for instance does not speak on behalf of a specific women's group. She belongs to a farm organisation called "Gemi Sarana," which happens to have a majority of women members – 35, as against 10 men.

Sri Lanka became party to the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 1981. Ending discrimination against women in the matter of land grants and inheritances is one of the 29 demands placed before the government by farmer organisations. The demands also include an immediate stop to imports of domestic produce such as rice, potatoes, onions and chillies, the introduction of policies that would allow farmers to set the selling prices of their produce and the prevention of taxes for irrigation facilities.

Top-heavy cabinet and getting down to work

"How many ministers does it take to change a light bulb at President's House," goes one of the now-familiar 'Cabinet' jokes. The answer of course is 44- one to actually to do it and 43 others to fight with him, asking President Chandrika Kumaratunga for the same job.

The top-heavy Cabinet of President Kumaratunga's second administration, we understand is causing some concern for the President. On the one hand, she has to accommodate all kinds of ministers, MPs and mavericks to string together a viable government. On the other hand, such blatant political pandering provokes the ire of the people at the onset of the government's term of office itself.

So we have the President's "directive" to her coterie of 44 ministers and 35 deputies to get down to work and not provide her with excuses. That makes good reading in the next day's newspapers but in reality it is easier said than done and no one knows that better than President Kumaratunga herself.

Already, some chaos has set in. Some ministers are refusing to move out of their offices until they find new and comfortable- office space. Others are fighting with their colleagues for departments under their purview. Subject clerks are still busy assigning files to the truncated ministries. At least one minister noted for his hard-nosed, 'Shylock' style bargaining skills visited an institution not under him and gave its employees a pep talk simply because the institution was under his predecessor who held the same portfolio! And already, the people's attitude towards the devalued Cabinet Minister is "mung hitiyath ekai, nethath ekai' that they will not make a difference even if they cease to exist.

Given the fact that even with twenty-four ministers in 1994, the People's Alliance administration was not the most efficient of governments, these trends must be a worrying factor for the President- especially given the vulnerability of her four-vote majority government.

Therefore, President Kumaratunga is now trying to consolidate herself, not only at President's House where she moved in recently, with furniture, traffic blocks and all but also at the House of Parliament in Kotte where her claim for power is tainted by explicit allegations of rigging.

Indeed, the conduct of the PA in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya which eventually tilted the scales in the ruling party's favour and that of her ally, the EPDP in Kilinochchi and Kayts cast a shadow over the credibility of this government. To say that it is an illegitimate one is not to over-emphasize the fact.

But the silver lining for President Kumaratunga comes from the main opposition UNP which has met this assault on democracy with a wimp-like, faint hearted challenge confined to a handful of election petitions in and around the Kandy district. This is a far cry from its proclamations before the polls that it would take to the streets if the election was not free and fair.

It is a sad day for democracy when a government in power tries to subvert the peoples' will.

But it is a sadder day still when the opposition allows that to go unchecked being content to issue press statements and 'policy programmes' which will do nothing to dent the government's passion for power. It is almost as if Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP do not mind another six-year stint in the opposition!

Surely, even the naïve would now know that President Kumaratunga's promises are meant to be precisely that- promises that remain so. So, if the UNP leadership hopes to run a government in parallel by enforcing its agenda- independent commissions for the police, public services and elections, and sweeping media reforms for instance- that is wishful thinking. Of course, Mr. Wickremesinghe does say that he will strike at the 'right time' but many in his own camp believe the right time is six years hence and even then, some have their doubts.

To be fair by President Kumaratunga, it must be said that her political savvy has made a fine art of breaking pledges and somehow wriggling out of the commitment with a straight face all the while enjoying the confidence of a sizable section of the electorate. If one is in doubt about this political skill one only needs to ask Nihal Galappatthy who withdrew as the JVP candidate from the presidential poll in 1994 on Ms. Kumaratunga's promise to abolish the presidency- a presidency which still stands as the bedrock of power for her. However, despite such political acumen which has stood her in good stead a glaring presidential lapse as of now is the absence of deputy ministers for finance and defence, the most vital ministries in government when a deputy minister has been appointed even for livestock development.

Apparently the President does not want to hand over the Police department especially to former Deputy Defence Minister Anurudhdha Ratwatte given his sons' track record in getting into the wrong side of the law, rather than the General's own dismal record in prosecuting the war for six years.

The President may feel that the war is too serious a matter for Generals alone to decide but then the war- and the Finance Ministry to boot- are too serious matters to be handled by the President alone, especially at a time when there is some arm-twisting of the LTTE by the international community.

The big question then is whether the PA's vulnerability in Parliament will preclude the President from pursuing an agenda for the nation.

There is no doubt that Sri Lanka now is beset with a corrupt and gun-culture-driven political system, an economy that is stagnant at best and a social fabric coming apart at the seams because of the unrelenting war in the North and East to which unrest in the hill country has now become an added dimension.

There is then a case to drag the country back from the abysmal depths to which it has plunged. The question is not who was responsible but to bring the country back to at least a semblance of stability.

Yes, President Kumaratunga does have to contend with Velupillai Prabhakaran and his terrorists in the north and a150,000 strong Armed Services that cannot deliver the goods. That factor will not go away in a hurry even if Eric Solheim brings Kofi Annan with him when he next visits the Wanni.

Therefore, as President of the entire nation, the onus is on her to perform at least in her second term of office, if she wants history to be kind to her in the final reckoning.

There has to be a presidential initiative to implement those things that will be good to the people at least in the South, so they could live their lives more comfortably- and win for Ms. Kumaratunga some brownie points in the eyes of the electorate amidst all the noise and chaos around her

JVP's solution: Unity among all communities

By Shelani de Silva.

The JVP is proposing legislation to give equal status to all communities as an effective way of solving the ethnic crisis.

In an interview JVP spokesman Wimal Weerawansa slammed the Government, the LTTE and Norway - accusing them of promoting the war because it had become big business for them.

Mr. Weerawansa charged that Norway which began as a peace-broker in West Asia was now promoting the interests of Western imperialism while the Government leaders here were making a fortune on the war.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q : The JVP has been carrying out a vehement protest over the Norwegian facilitation in the ethnic issue. Is the party giving an alternative to solve the conflict ?

A : Our agitation is mainly because we feel that the Government and Norway are not trying to solve the issue. Instead both parties are only aggravating the problem. This was proved by the previous so- called peace talks we had. Are we to believe that Eric Solheim is currently wracking his head and trying to work out a peace plan for the country. No; this is only a contract to divide the country. What Norway is doing is encouraging the war with the Government's support.

Q: Does the party identify the issue as a terrorist problem or an ethnic problem ?

A : It is definitely an ethnic issue. This is because the problems faced by the three communities Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim have not been solved. We have failed to maintain unity among the communities. This has become the basis for the on-going war in the country. The problem cannot be solved through Norway's proposal to make this a Federal State. Instead the problem should be addressed in a practical manner by taking into consideration the problems faced by the communities. It is then that even those who are inclined to war will change their stance and accept the true issue.

Q: So doesn't the JVP identify this as a terrorist problem ?

A : Of course we do. This is a terrorist problem. The LTTE has turned this ethnic issue into a war. They have done this by using all the sophisticated military techniques. The Government too has made this a terrorist problem for its benefit. This is seen by the country's justice system and even the electoral system. There is no democracy.

Q : Why is the JVP against Norway becoming a facilitator in the country's ethnic issue?

A : Norway is biased in this issue. We have seen that in West Asia. Norway which began as a facilitator for peace is now acting like an agent of western imperialism.

It is because of this that we are against Norway. They are not here to solve the issue genuinely in an acceptable manner but to aggravate the war. The people will not realise it right now, but in ten years' time they will say that what the JVP said was ten years before was correct and it will be too late for the country.

Q : Does the JVP feel that peace can be achieved only militarily ?

A : The ethnic issue is like some food kept on President Chandrika Kumratunga's plate. While one group says it should be eaten using the spoon there are others who say it should be eaten using the hand. We say that the food is poisonous and it won't make a difference if you eat with the spoon or using the hand. The contents should be changed instead of the poison. A clear policy should be there to achieve peace. Any party can talk about peace talks. But what is the basis for the talks? And if the real issue is not changed the talks will not lead us anywhere.

Q : What is the JVP's policy in the ethnic issue ?

A: We have to accept that all communities should be given equal status. There should not be a minority group. Legislation should be brought to cater to this need. If we tackle this issue there won't be a war.

Q : What are the party's views on the on-going military operations ?

A: The war is fought for the benefit of the Government and the LTTE. Since the war cannot be privatised, it will continue. At a time when the Government is privatising everything under the sky, the war is the only thing that is spared but Government will continue with the war not for the love of the country, but for its benefit.

Without considering the number of youths who have had to sacrifice their lives the Government continues because of the commissions it gets through the war. Unlike when you privatise either the P&O or the AirLanka where the commissions are given just once, in a war there is no limit.

Q : How should the war be fought ?

A : The Government has its own plan. It will not be changed. The current peace talks are also one method to prolong the war. It will be a joke if anyone even thought that the Government was genuine in solving the ethnic issue.

If the Government was genuinely interested in solving the issue, will any sane government appoint a large cabinet knowing full well the large sum of money to be allocated for them. First and foremost a war should be fought by a government which is genuinely interested in peace. The leaders should be willing to sacrifice their lives and even perks for the sake of the country. Instead of being greedy for money and destroying the country just to fill their pockets, they should be genuine.

Q : Is the party hoping to express its view to the Government on how war should be fought ?

A : The JVP will look like a pack of jokers if it tries to tell a herd of cattle which is only interested in filling stomachs and pockets, while letting the country go to the dogs. So why bother?.