5,741 test positive for COVID-19 over the weekend

• 2,859 patients detected yesterday, total rises to 183,452
• 36 succumb to virus, total deaths increase to 1,441
• New Year cluster exceeds Peliyagoda cluster, becoming largest COVID-19 cluster in country
• 32,186 persons under medical care, recoveries rise to 149,825

Monday, 31 May 2021

A total of 5,741 persons tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, including 2,859 persons yesterday, bringing the country’s total COVID-19 detections to 183,452.

The Divulapitiya, Peliyagoda, Prisons and New Year clusters have expanded to 176,889, with health authorities stating that 2,849 of the COVID-19 patients detected yesterday are linked to the New Year cluster.

Health authorities confirmed 36 COVID related deaths yesterday, which increased the total number of deaths in the island to 1,441. 

With yesterday’s detections, the New Year cluster has exceeded that Peliyagoda cluster, becoming the largest COVID-19 cluster in the country.

On Saturday, 2,882 persons tested positive for COVID-19, of which 2,728 were linked to the New Year cluster, 99 were linked to the Prisons cluster, and 55 were Sri Lankan returnees from abroad.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 4,321 Sri Lankan returnees from abroad and 318 foreigners have tested positive for COVID-19 to date.

Not taking into account the COVID-19 patients detected yesterday, the country’s total patient count includes 82,785 patients linked to the Peliyagoda cluster, 82,314 patients linked to the New Year cluster, 5,882 patients linked to the Prisons cluster, and 3,059 patients linked to the Divulapitiya cluster.

The Epidemiology Unit states that of the 47,554 patients detected from Colombo District, 15,257 were from the third wave and that 13,320 patients were detected from Gampaha during the third wave, bringing the district total to 31,854.

With 11,604 detections during the third wave, the patients detected from Kalutara District have risen to 18,662. The Epidemiology Unit adds that 9,807 patients from Kandy, 8,960 patients from Kurunegala, and 7,542 patients from Galle have been detected to date.

The district distribution of patients includes 541 persons from Gampaha, 442 persons from Colombo, 241 persons from Kalutara, 205 persons from Nuwara Eliya, and 195 persons from Kurunegala who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.

At present, 32,186 persons are under medical care, including 466 persons at the Punani Treatment Centre, 459 persons at the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital, and 455 persons at the Bingiriya Treatment Centre. Hospitals are also observing 1,474 persons suspected of having COVID-19.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 1,434 persons were discharged from hospitals yesterday having recovered from the virus. This includes 78 persons from the Bingiriya Treatment Centre, 68 persons from the Panideniya Treatment Centre, and 60 persons from the Kopai Treatment Centre. A total of 149,825 persons have recovered from COVID-19 to date.

According to the Health Promotion Bureau, 22,785 PCR tests were performed yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Police stated that 914 persons were arrested for violating quarantine regulations during the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. yesterday.

“Quarantine regulations were introduced on 18 March 2020 and the highest number of arrests made in a day since then was during the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. on 30 May,” Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said.

 

Patent-Free BCG Vaccine Fighting Covid-19 In The Global South? Amidst Creation Of A Lucrative Flu Vaccine Culture

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake –MAY 28, 2021

Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The patent-free and inexpensive BCG Vaccine is widely used in the developing world. As a battle for patent waivers on Covid-19 vaccines developed at “Warped Speed” unfolds with India and South Africa calling for rich countries and pharmaceutical corporations that have been raking in profits in the billions during the ‘pandemic’ to enable transfer of technology to manufacture affordable vaccines in the developing world, a recent study by members of the University of Colombo Medical Faculty heralds good news for health policy makers in tropical countries that practice universal BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin), vaccination. Led by Dr. Dakshitha Wickramasinghe the study echoes the findings of other international researchers that have linked the hundred year old BCG vaccine with fewer Coronavirus infections, lower disease severity and fatalities[1].

Originally developed against Tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial infection, the hundred-year-old BCG vaccine offers broad protection and sharply reduces the incidence of respiratory infections, while also preventing infant deaths from a variety of causes. BCG vaccine studies show a lower risk of developing respiratory tract infections such as influenza A virus, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Herpese Simplex (HSV2)[2].

Has the patent-free BCG vaccine been fighting Covid-19 all along in South and Southeast Asian region and other parts of the Global South that have universal BCG vaccination policies?

With the exception of India, these countries have recorded remarkably low Covid-19 Infection Fatality Rates (IFR). Is Covid-19 milder in tropical countries like Vietnam, a country of 95 million people which has recorded a mere 37 Covid-19 fatalities?  So too, its neighbours Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries have very low Covid-19 fatality rates.

Hot and humid Southeast Asian countries with good public health infrastructure and monitoring where BCG vaccine is universally used have shown a higher resilience to Covid-19 relative to so-called First World countries with advanced health systems. Countries like Italy where the BCG vaccine was never used in national vaccination programs had high Covid-19 mortality rates. Other temperate countries that did not have universal policies of BCG vaccination, such as the Netherlands, England, and the United States were more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies,” noted Gonzalo Otazu, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology.

Experts note that the BCG vaccine seems to “train” the immune system to recognize and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and parasites. According to Prof. Luke O’Neill, of Trinity College Dublin, a combination of reduced morbidity and mortality renders BCG vaccination a game-changer in the fight against coronavirus. For while there is no specific cure for Covid-19, the BCG clearly has provided a flak-jacket against the Coronavirus to many tropical countries.

Similarly, the authors of the Sri Lanka study on the “Correlation between immunity from BCG and the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19” note that: Significant inverse correlations were observed between cases and deaths of COVID-19 and BCG related parameters highlights immunity from BCG as a likely explanation for the variation in COVID-19 across countries.”

A comparison of data, caseloads and deaths relative to a population’s size, and the Infection Fatality Rate (IFR), of Southeast Asian countries and Euro-American countries indicate that BCG helps flatten the disease curve of Covid-19. Another recent study titled, “Reconcile the protective effects of BCG Vaccine against Covid 19” states: We observe a notable protective effect of the BCG vaccine during the early stage of the pandemic[3].

Distribution of COVID-19 cases as of April 1, 2020. Credit: WHO

The bad news is that the World Health Organization (WHO) which is funded by big States and big pharmaceutical companies that are reaping vast profits from new Covid-19 vaccines claims on its website that:

“there is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus. Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19[4].

It is anyone’s guess as to what became of all the clinical trials undertaken to study the potential of BCG vaccine or booster against Covid-19?! The WHO Scientific Brief on BCG Vaccine and Covid-19 goes on to note that: “There is experimental evidence from both animal and human studies that the BCG vaccine has non-specific effects on the immune system. These effects have not been well characterized and their clinical relevance is unknown.”

And heaven forbid that the hundred-year, patent free and inexpensive BCG vaccine, rather than expensive mRNA Covid-19 vaccines developed at “warped speed” and authorized only for emergency use may be the solution in front of us all!

A State of Permanent Emergency and culture of bio-insecurity

Despite clear quantitative and qualitative data that there is no significant health emergency as Covid-19 is relatively mild in countries in the Global South where BCG vaccination is universally used along with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI), this information is not in the public domain at this time[5]. 

Rather a more or less permanent Covid-19 Global Emergency narrative alongside promotion of Covid-19 vaccines developed at “warped speed” and authorized only for “Emergency Use” appears to have been created through contradictory messaging, PCR tests that deliver high rates of false positives, and unscientific and paternalistic claims by the Head of World Health Organization, Tedros Adhnom that, “No one is safe until everyone is safely vaccinated”.

Studies of the biological basis of BCG cross-protection from severe COVID-19 have however found “a strong correlation between the BCG index and reduction in COVID-19 mortality”. Sadly, this information vital for informed policy is not in the public domain or available to health policy-makers and appears to have been suppressed at this time in the interest of creating a seasonal flu vaccine culture in countries in the Global South.

Thus a Covid-19 flu fear psychosis with calls for curfews and lock downs that are socially, democratically and economically ruinous have been promoted in global, national and local media based on PCR tests that deliver high rates of false positives.  Lockdowns which expand inequalities between and within countries, resulting in livelihood losses for the poor and spreading hunger, malnutrition and disease vulnerabilities (the “Hunger Virus” as Oxfam calls it), have become the norm – in the name of protecting health systems and doctors in Sri Lanka. So too, environmentally destruction plastic personal protection (PPE) and disinfection routines have become the norm.

However, as a group of international lawyers and doctors who are pursuing a case against the Covid-19 project has noted;

“The danger and spread of Corona are being exaggerated. What most people don’t understand is that the flu also kills people each year, and there is a difference in ”dying with the corona virus” and “dying of corona virus”, just as there is a difference between “dying in a car accident with the flu” and dying of the flu” conclusively. Sadly, this differentiation does not seem to be made by politicians and media. if you look at detailed corona death reports in your country, it should name other possible causes of death and diseases the person had – you will find that most of the people who died with corona, had other serious health problems, and that most deaths are in the ages of 70 and up. This is comparable to what normal flu does each year. The pictures of Bergamo (Italy) and New York (USA) are misleading, these pictures were deliberately used to cause panic.”

Along with questionable data and epidemiology models generated by think tanks, many funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which has profited enormously from investments in Big Pharma vaccine producers and the WHO, a push to vaccinate populations least affected by Covid-19 is apparent at this time.

Has Monsoon Season Flu disappeared?

Remarkably since Covid-19 appeared, annual monsoon flu seems to have disappeared, although historically, the arrival of monsoon rains in the tropics is associated with a spike in mortality and morbidity as nature takes its inexorable course and culls the elderly, vulnerable and those with weak immune systems with flu related comorbidities like diabetes, kidney disease, heart ailments, etc.

Arguably, the current much hyped “third wave” of Covid-19 in Sri Lanka is primarily due to the arrival of monsoonal rains which has triggered “flu season”. In an average year between 4,500 and 7,000 persons succumb to ‘upper respiratory infections”. Also, of those suffering from influenza with co-morbidities such as diabetes, kidney disease, heart issues or cancer, another 2,000-3,000 die of lower respiratory tract infections including pneumonia.

There is ample evidence that the Sri Lanka health system is strong and resilient and able to handle a rise in seasonal monsoon flu and Covid-19 cases at this time without lockdowns and vaccine rollouts. No doctors, nurses, hospital, Public Health Inspectors (PHI), have succumbed to Covid-19, and it is increasingly clear that years on investment in the country’s public health infrastructure has ensured the resilience of the healthcare system in Sri Lanka

However, a global and local media narrative impervious to historical, environmental, culture differences, and sans comparative country context, has emerged propelled by networks of doctors’ organizations such as the GMOA and SLMA on the pretext of protecting the Sri Lanka health system. This, predicated on the fact that there have been few deaths of doctors, nurses, Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) in the year and a half of the WHO’s Covid-19 pandemic.

The same doctors’ organizations have been monopolizing vaccines for their families and promoting Covid-19 vaccines as a mantra, without full disclosure of the side effects and long-term impacts of these vaccines or adverse reporting mechanisms.

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Saluting Sri Lanka’s courageous public officials amidst political antics

Sunday, May 30, 2021

It is said that, whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. Well, Sri Lanka exemplifies the madness of a State, perpetuated by a regime unwisely elevated to power through an enormous electoral majority, which now makes use of that vote to do whatever it wishes.

A tragi-comedic vaccination process

A few days ago, the unspeakable Mayor of Moratuwa who outrageously confronted his district’s medical officer of health by barging into an orderly vaccination process and demanding priority treatment for his supporters, was arrested. It is to the high credit of that medical officer that she refused, with commendable dignity and composure, to give way to his blustering demands. But what is the point of this arrest? Akin to what has happened in regard to similar instances, he will probably be released when the ‘heat’ dies down and the case will be quietly dropped thereafter.

The people of Moratuwa should be ashamed of themselves for electing such caricatures into authority but undoubtedly, the same may be said of many more such examples elsewhere. The bigger question therefore is as to how can this strutting local potentate be blamed when Sri Lanka’s tragi-comedic vaccination drive is riven by politicisation through and through? Reportedly, the Mayor was following in the distasteful footsteps of a ‘thug’ Minister in Kurunegala who had imposed his will on vaccination priority lists. Earlier, another Minister overrode district health officials by lifting the isolation status of Kesbewa-Piliyandala, leading to a super spreader virus event in the Western Province.

No punishments ensued in each of these instances. Instead, the police went around clapping people without masks into jail and in one ludicrous instance, arrested a maskless Muslim man pictured loading a wheelbarrow with groceries when the Government prohibited people from using vehicles to buy goods on May 25^th as pandemic restrictions were relaxed for one day. Whose bright idea was it to impose such a patently idiotic prohibition in the first place? Predictably it was flouted with vehicles aplenty on the road on that day. The whole point of the law is that it should not be absurd in the first instance.

To be obeyed, a decree must be reasonable

For example, if the State decrees that all citizens shave their heads, that is not a decree that can be or for that matter, should be obeyed. Similarly when the Government and the police impose restrictions, they must do so on the basis of simple commonsense. But that is precisely the factor that is missing in the chaos that passes for governance. So the carefully choreographed wordplay of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa criticising the antics of the Moratuwa Mayor with his nephew, the Prime Minister’s son and an eager aspirant to the Rajapaksa throne, apologizing in that regard must be taken with a pinch of salt.

If this Government was true to the principle of good administration, televised dramatics or the show arrest of one asinine local official will not suffice. And blaming the media for focusing on such incidents does not work either. Rather, it must radically reform its handling of the global pandemic including putting a stop to politicians and military men dictating health policy rather than competent public health experts. It is all the more important therefore that we salute courageous public officers who stand up to rude politicians as was seen in Moratuwa by its medical officer of health and previously by determined forest officers in resisting the pillage of Sri Lanka’s wondrous natural environment by political greed. For there is considerable risk in doing so, we must not forget.

Just recently, the Kotmale Assistant Land Commissioner and a former Divisional Secretary was summarily arrested, reportedly for criticising the deforestation of Sinharaja on his Facebook page and causing public unrest in violation of Section 120 of the Penal Code. This archaic provision prohibits the causing of ‘discontent or disaffection’ among the people. However, this prohibition has been subjected to extensively authoritative judicial interpretation in the light of constitutional principles to make sure that reasonable and legitimate criticism is not discouraged thereby.

Public officers have the right to protest

Public officials, as much as the general citizenry, have the right to the freedoms of expression and opinion, as repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court. In fact, restrictions imposed by the Establishments Code on public servants have been held to yield to constitutional freedoms, provided that the rights are exercised with responsibility. The (Sinhala) Facebook post by this public official was neither inflammatory or incendiary. Instead, it reflected his genuine concern and sadness regarding the relentless deforestation of the rainforest, one of Sri Lanka’s globally acclaimed protection sites.

Earlier, a brave teenager who similarly challenged the authorities on the rape of Sinharaja was iintimidated. The arrest of this state official points to a deeply worrying trend that must be resisted at all costs. Meanwhile, as public servants are arrested for voicing protests, favourite business cronies of this regime earn far more than a quick buck off the misery of thousands and a sadly lopsided vaccination process privileges the politically favoured. And several thousand Sri Lankan citizens who got the first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine on the priority list are deprived of the second shot as the priority list was discarded and vaccines distributed to all and sundry.

Even on that crisis, profits were sought to be made. Government frontmen lobbied for private companies to act as the middleman in getting the needed vaccines only to be rudely rebuffed by the global pharmaceutical giant. In all of this, it is Sri Lanka’s name that suffers just as much as there was widespread humiliation when the World Health Organisation (WHO) refuted a bizarre claim by the President’s newly appointed spokesman that the President had been instrumental in getting WHO to approve the Sinopharm vaccine for global emergency use.

Where is the vaccine to help return decency to Sri Lanka?

Do these former television anchors think that issuing statements on behalf of the Office of the President is akin to spewing propaganda for gullible local audiences? Then, at least they disgraced only themselves and their politically biased television channels. Now they put Sri Lanka and its unfortunate citizenry to global shame. Meanwhile the antics of  Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) trade unionists masquerading as medical men as they unabashedly support the ruling Pohottuwa political party is yet another example. Indeed, we proceed from comedy to farce as the GMOA claimed with astonishing brazenness that the vaccination of relatives of its members over and above other health sector professionals was a ‘gesture of goodwill.’

This is a quaint rendering of that term, on all accounts. For whom was this ‘goodwill,’ we need to ask? Certainly not to frontline workers such as nurses and allied medical sector professionals who immediately threatened to stop work given the privileging of the GMOA. Not content with this, the GMOA spokesmen lambasted the media for asking inconvenient questions. The Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) put the matter very well when it roundly condemned the ‘certain high handed actions of powerful health sector trade unions in relation to the administration of the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.’

Warning that this is the ‘final rescue mission’ to put a scientifically handled vaccination process back on course, the AMS urged the authorities to introduce a clear and strict vaccine roll out plan. Whether this warning will be heeded remains to be seen.  What is obvious however is that we are a sick country, afflicted by far more than the covid-19 virus. The sickness is in ourselves, reflected very well in the crudities of the representatives whom we vote to power, at local, provincial and national level.

At some point, the global pandemic may perchance be tamed but where is the vaccine to restore democratic health, nay, simple decency and civility to the way that Sri Lankan society functions?

 

Pandemonium in pandemic prevention

What makes the situation worse is the continuing prejudices and power play that are preventing experts in handling the vaccine roll-out professionally and methodically – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

Monday, 31 May 2021 

Sri Lanka is facing challenges on multiple fronts. To elaborate this further is to repeat the obvious. The MV X-Press Pearl disaster is the latest of its woes. However, the most important issue at the moment that occupies national attention is the battle against the pandemic. Irrespective of one’s political and ideological differences there is no room for disagreement or compromise in the fight against this plague. 

Unfortunately, and criminally, the early successes achieved in this fight were wasted by the Government when it recklessly loosened the controls it imposed and monitored originally, all in the interest of winning an election. For instance, rules were relaxed to canvass votes among Hill Country Tamils, by allowing public funeral procession for the Late Arumugam Thondaman. Similarly, just to please voters, large gatherings were allowed during New Year celebrations and even for private tamashas. 

No wonder then, the enemy struck with a vengeance and its new wave of attack is proving dangerously lethal. Official figures, which are not accurate, show that there is on average one death every hour due to COVID. 

True, the country is ill-equipped to handle this national calamity, because of long-time neglect of public healthcare by successive governments. This neglect is part of the price the nation is paying now for its honeymoon with neo-liberal economic strategies. Privatisation of parastatals in favour of private enterprise and profit motive, and in the name of enhancing efficiency and productivity went hand in hand with reduction in budgetary allocations for public hospitals and healthcare. This grand neglect left the nation totally unprepared to confront a pandemic like the present one. 

Will there be at least a partial reversal of this policy now and will the Government invest in improving the facilities and increasing medical personnel in public hospitals? The World Bank’s willingness to assist in this regard is encouraging. 

Be that as it may, what makes the situation worse is the continuing prejudices and power play that are preventing experts in handling the vaccine roll-out professionally and methodically. The Association of Medical Specialists has criticised the pandemonium prevailing in the roll out plan, caused by interference of powerful politicians and trade unionists. This is symptomatic of the way in which the country is governed now. 

Already the country is disunited and rulers see political benefits in keeping the nation like that. They are governing deliberately to the benefit of their chosen ones. Even in the fight against COVID they seem to view the life of some more precious than that of others. 

From the time this regime came to power, there had been a noticeable aversion towards independent expert and scientific advice on issues confronting the nation. Nowhere was that aversion demonstrated more stubbornly than in handling the pandemic. How then could one explain the shocking presence in the cabinet of a Minister of Health, who advocated holy water as panacea for COVID and got infected by the virus as a result? How does one explain the Government’s indirect promotion through its silence, the sale of Dhammika Bandara’s magic potion? How else could one understand the regime’s more than a year-long refusal to permit Muslims to bury their COVID-dead bodies and forced cremation, when renowned epidemiologists from all over the world and from WHO were insisting that there was no danger of the virus spreading from burials. 

President GR’s reliance on the advice of his handpicked Viyathmaga experts, trade union leaders and other in-house specialists is obviously politically motivated mixed with his power cartel’s selfish agenda. How can a nation develop with such distrust and disrespect to scientific expertise and professionalism? There is information leaking that certain groups are profiteering from the import of the Sinopharm vaccine. 

The same aversion towards non-partisan expertise was demonstrated in the President’s decision to ban outright the import of chemical fertilisers. There are now complaints not only from paddy cultivators but also from producers of commercial crops. The objective behind the ban is no doubt noble, but the operatory mechanism is horribly faulty. Why did the Government avoid listening to independent expert agronomists? 

This dislike towards consultation with scientific expertise is a reflection of the sickness in Sri Lankan society that has been historically groomed to equate knowledge and wisdom with social status and political power. Just because a country is advanced in terms of literacy rate and is overflowing with university degree holders does not mean that its society has become rational in outlook and thinking. Where monks, mullahs, palmists and swamis are able to hold sway over thoughts and actions of rulers and politicians, science, rationalism and critical thinking obviously have to take back seats. 

More than 70 years of independence and development has failed to eradicate this fundamental sickness. The pandemonium prevailing in fighting against the pandemic is just one of its symptoms. 

Sarath De Alwis, in concluding his ‘riposte to Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka …’ (Daily Financial Times, 29 May 2021), has the following to say: “If a better economic model is to be created, we should first bring about profound existential and moral changes in our society”. Not only for economic models even for other paradigms to succeed those changes are indispensable. Yet, how can those changes occur when people are trained and indoctrinated to trust purveyors of false truths?” 

(The writer is attached to the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Western Australia.)

 Staging Satyagraha During The Pandemic; The Opposition’s “No” To Prioritizing Politicos In Vaccination To Prevent The Covid-19

By Athulasiri Samarakoon –MAY 27, 2021

Dr. Athulasiri Samarakoon

When I heard the news of the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, and his wife Jalani Premadasa getting infected with the Covid-19, the first thought that came to my mind was that it was impulsive not to take the vaccine despite the prioritized opportunity available. Few (4-5%), including myself, already had the benefit of receiving the vaccine (say at least the first dose), but it will take a long time to vaccinate the target of 60% of the people in this country. During that long period to come, many more will become infected, and some will die tragically by losing immunity.

Today, the ratio of the Covid affected deaths in Sri Lanka may be higher than or is at a very similar rate like in India, in terms of the immense gap in the size of the two populations of the two countries. Thus, we will have to hugely regret the increase in Covid mortality due to the delay in importing the vaccine to Sri Lanka. However, the fact that there is at least a minority of political activists, who think that working for the common good instead of their health is a moral political activity, makes it imperative for us to rethink the relationship that should exist between politics and morality, which often seems to be in a state of ‘existent-non-existent’.

Priority for politicians

Nevertheless, the example of the Covid infection suffered by the leader of the opposition, Sajith Premadasa, one who was not vaccinated, proves that those who are vaccinated are more guaranteed a lower risk than those who are not. Most of the parliamentarians received the vaccine as another kind of privilege they enjoy when the leader of the opposition and some others refused to have it on ethical grounds, as the people were dying without vaccines. We can understand the need for vaccination, especially among politicians, public servants, medical and health workers, sanitation workers, and those in the police and education sectors who are in constant contact with the people.

Nonetheless, we think that that many in the opposition did not agree to give priority to politicians because they believed that it was inappropriate to protect themselves alone when the entire population was in danger. Here we need to appreciate those few politicians who have displayed some moral sense in this way when the entire state is in distress. Particularly, when the opposition can join the ruling party and form a ‘common class’ alliance to save the lives of its members, the practice of anti-vaccination politics until the vaccination reaches all the people is to be appreciated and promoted as an ethical-political act on a broader scale.

Nonviolent politics

At the outset, leader of the opposition had stated that he would not accept the vaccination for him until the last citizen would be vaccinated in the country. This is an idealist stance for sure because to vaccinate the last man would take more than one year or so, depending on the efficiency and ability of the government to secure a sufficient amount of vaccines from the competitive global market amidst unthinkable demand and insufficient supply. Also, in an age where political hypocrisy and the use of rhetoric by politicians is almost the norm, realistically the public may not be so naïve to accept such statements by politicians as well.

However, a few days ago when the leader of the opposition stated via his Twitter account that he and his wife were tested Covid positive the public perception drastically turned the other side – the country was convinced that the leader of the opposition had never got the vaccination and not lied to them. Naturally, the people, disregard of their political allegiances and party-politics, began to openly show sympathetic and sensitive attitudes towards the leader of the opposition, widely on social media.

This is an interesting phenomenon because the same kind of response was never seen from the people when the Minister of Health had been tested Covid positive some time ago; there was no vaccine available at that time, but the so-called local medicine such as Dhammika Paniya, etc. Why stress this fact about the people’s too different reactions to two politicians who got infection here? One reason may be the ever-growing apathy among people towards the government for its dangerous mismanagement of the entire process of providing the Covid vaccine to the people of Sri Lanka. The protest of the leader of the opposition, then, was respected by everyone mainly as an ethical act by a practicing politician who willingly put his life in danger on behalf of the others.

However, it is debatable whether this sudden change in public perception can be used politically by the opposition to win elections or not. Yet, it provides an avenue for the opposition to rethink their political strategy and realize immediately that there are still a large majority of people in this country who respect ethical and moral praxis of politics, and, accordingly, the importance of substituting to such exemplary principles for the future political process.

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New century, old story: War ends as social tragedy, continues as political farce

 2021/05/30 

(This is a slightly modified version of the article published online on May 16.)

by Rajan Philips

Sri Lanka didn’t need a Y2K (shorthand for year 2000) problem at the dawn of the 21st century, indeed, the third millennium. The island of millenniums had enough baggage from the old century to carry over into the new century, if not from the old millennium to the new. Old problems were carried with new mutations and whole new other ones were added. The war that was muddled through the nineties consumed almost the entire first decade of the new century, before ending in 2009. The end of the war did end much of the social tragedy that it created, but it did not end the farcical continuation of war by political means. Mercifully, the killings ended but the agony of the living has persisted with no certainty about the dead and the missing. Not to mention the endless spat over how many died, with nary a thought or hand for the survivors of war and their livelihood struggles.

The war added new mutations to the old national question. The emergence of the Tamil diaspora and with it the phenomenon of diasporic nationalism, are developments that no one could have foreseen even as late as 1982. Equally, at both the state and societal levels, Sri Lanka has not fully come to terms with the rise of new strands of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism outside the ambits of mainstream political parties among the Sinhalese. Add to these, the coming of age of Muslim nationalism after having long been in the shadows of Sinhala and Tamil politics. These developments have defined the 21st century course of Sri Lanka’s never ending constitutional odyssey, especially involving the fate or the future of the 13th Amendment, the Provincial Councils, and even the Executive Presidency. A new dimension to the course of politics was provided by the end of the war itself, rather by the debate over how the war ended and whether or not crimes were committed.

The JVP insurrection and the Tamil separatist challenge that arose soon after, have been interpreted as accusations against (or rejections of) the post-colonial establishment (or ‘imaginary’) that had been taking shape in the two decades after independence. The establishment had its own internal contradictions and contestants: Left vs Right, and ethnic conflicts over language, religion, habitats and constitutions. But the JVP and later the LTTE assaults targeted the whole establishment without discrimination. Insofar as both assaults have ended in defeats, if not failure, a practical question would be – what next? It is also a fact that the post-colonial establishment that was evolving after independence now stands more deformed than reformed, though not wholly as a result of the JVP and LTTE assaults. What was once a reasonably working system of parliamentary democracy has degenerated into caricature as an ineffectual presidential system.

Twelve years after the war ended, there are no answers in sight to the questions that led to the war and have survived the war. There are no permanently correct answers in politics, but the task of every generation is to keep the balance on the side of more correct than incorrect answers. As things are in 2021, and thanks to an untoward juncture of a global pandemic and government incompetence, there are mostly only incorrect answers and hardly any correct answers to the many questions that Sri Lankans are facing. The current juncture will pass one way or another, but there is hardly a positive sign that the national question involving Sri Lanka’s ethnic groups that have been bestirred in the aftermath of the war might likely be answered satisfactorily any time soon.

 

A Dysfunctional Family

If Sri Lanka is a family of nationalisms, it has been for the most part a dysfunctional one. This is because Sri Lanka’s nationalisms have grown into being more conflictual and competitive than being complementary. The war and its aftermaths would appear to have exacerbated these tendencies and the unfolding of diasporic and Jathika Chinthanaya phenomena would certainly attest to this. At the same time, their emergence also provide insights into the social and cultural roots of the nationalist stirrings among the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Muslims. Identifying and sharing these insights is needed to get rid of the always simplistic, and very often offensive, stereotypes, which have for far too long informed each community’s understanding of the other.

As stereotypes go, “Mahavamsa mindset” apparently sums up the Tamil understanding of Sinhala nationalism. For the Sinhalese, Tamil nationalistic claims are nothing more than a new ruse for Vellala domination. And Sri Lankan Muslim nationalism is simply dismissed as Sri Lankan manifestation of global Islamic fundamentalism. There is more to each nationalism than these stereotypes, and each involves the lives and mores of people that cannot be summarily dismissed in any approach to accommodating them and making them complementary to one another. There are people in each community who do not subscribe to the narrow nationalistic claims that are made on behalf of their community. And stereotyping smudges them as well out of recognition.

It might not be widely known outside the JC universe that the political roots of the two intellectual prime movers (Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara and Prof. Nalin de Silva) behind JC are traceable more to Marxism and left politics than to any Mahavamsa mindset. In fact, one of them (Prof. de Silva) is known to have been a supporter of the right of self-determination of the Tamil people before 1983. The open economy politics that began in 1977 and its social eruption in 1983 have more to do with the emergence of the Tamil diaspora and the Jathika Chinthanaya soul searching among the Sinhalese intelligentsia, than anything that stereotypical explanations can provide.

The violence of 1983 impacted the Tamils indiscriminately and directly led to the emergence of the Tamil diaspora. On the other hand, the backlash to 1983 from outside Sri Lanka, especially the West and human rights organizations, may have been a factor in the energization of the JC school after 1983. The UNP government of the day wholly owned the 1983 disaster and deserved a great deal more than whatever blame it got and wherever it came from. JC was opposed to the UNP government’s open economy swindle and its cultural sellout, and it resented the government’s cunning approach to the Tamil national question. That was to parley with Tamil politicians in secret, and organize violence against Tamil civilians in the open. When 1983 went out of control, the backlash was not only against the government, but besmirched the entire Sinhalese society, including those who were revolted by the violence and others who were intractably opposed to the government. And there were also backlashes from different fragments in the Sri Lankan social formation.

The fragmentation of the social formation and the creation of multiple political spaces was another outcome of the open economy and the political makeover under the UNP government. Thus, there was a new sociopolitical space for the offsprings of the old, westernized Ceylonese middle class. It is not unfair to characterize the NGOs as being among the occupants of this space. And the children of 1956 were not neglected, at least from the economic standpoint. The more mobile among them easily filled up the economic spaces that the open economy created.

 

And for their social reproduction outside the vernacular, with a western accent, President Jayewardene gave them international schools. If that was JRJ’s belated rejoinder to the SLFP’s schools’ takeover of the 1960s, and it certainly was, he was not particularly looking to provide reparation to the Churches who lost control over many of their schools in the takeover. Rather, and worse, JRJ snobbishly abandoned caring about the entire national school system, which he had the absolute power to retool anyway he wanted – to provide international education with a national accent to the children of 1977.

There was another aspect to the open economy that the UNP, and every government thereafter, neither recognized nor addressed. It was the orphaning of the state sector at the altar of the open economy. The salaries and compensation levels in the state sector were instantly and massively devalued by the opening of the economy and the aligning of market prices and private sector remunerations to global rates. I am not sure if this anomaly has been satisfactorily addressed to date. If Singapore is the vaunted model, you cannot have a competitive public sector without matching compensation with the private sector. It is no secret that some of the best and the brightest in a whole generation of Sri Lankans, opted not to join the Central Bank, the universities or government institutions.

Political Limitations

The upshot of these changes was the emergence of two contending formations. One of the two, the NGO-formation (to call it loosely with no disparagement intended), wanted to use 1983 as a platform to recast Sri Lanka’s political society fundamentally different from what had led to the catastrophe of 1983. The new society would be plural and secular, would celebrate its diversity and welcome devolution. Intellectually, ethno-nationalism would be called out for what it is not – not an essential human condition.

The other, the JC-formation (so called, for convenience), has diametrically been opposed to any and all of the above. The JC thinking is also indicative of the unique exceptionalism that Sinhala Buddhist nationalism is uniquely constrained to project by virtue of Sri Lanka being the only natal home of the Sinhalese. In this respect, Tamil nationalism and Muslim nationalism are somewhat different, as they have external cultural validations to fall back on by virtue of language (Tamil in South India) and religion (Islam), respectively. The JC response in effect might be seen as a response to a sense of besiegement, after 1983, of the Sinhalese by forces from within (NGOs) and without (the West).

At the political level, the NGO formation found its spearheads alternatingly in Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe. Their accomplishments fell far below expectations. The JC formation waited patiently for the most authentic Sinhala Buddhist leader in Mahinda Rajapaksa, and had its golden decade from 2005 to 2015. The rest of the Sri Lankan political field, both individuals and organizations and of all ethnic groups, have been scurrying between the two main political polarities at regular intervals. The JVP and the JHU, both beneficiaries of JC affiliations at some point, have been in both political alliances and have also splintered over which side they should be permanently aligned with. The Tamil and the Muslim political parties have had their cracks of affiliations with the two main alliances and have little to show as results for their efforts.

The new forces of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism suffered a setback when Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in his attempt to extend his presidency to a third term. They revived resoundingly within five years with the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the 2019 presidential election. The unfolding of the new Rajapaksa presidency, however, has been anything but prosperous or splendid despite the promised vistas of prosperity and splendour. Rather, the country is living through a dismal record of incompetence and inaction. The ‘young’ SLPP that was seen by some as a permanent incubator of future presidents, is no longer seen as a permanently promising political vehicle.

The alternatives to the regime are less than embryonic. Of the old JC affiliates, the JVP is trying to make a new mark as a sharp opposition party in parliament. And JHU’s Champika Ranawaka, perhaps the only politician with credible presidential ambition but without a political vehicle of his own, is now a member of convenience in Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). The debate over where the UNP ends and the SJB begins seems to be never ending.

Fifty years ago, the JVP launched its first abortive insurrection ostensibly to liberate the rural poor through the agency of its youth. Within 20 years, the JVP staged its second coming and the Tamil militants launched their violent struggle. They have all run their course which came to an end in 2009. Political violence used to be justified as the last resort after all other avenues have been exhausted. The violent struggles in Sri Lanka from 1971 to the Easter bombings in 2019 were not launched after all other avenues were exhausted. The question to ask 50 years after 1971 is – what happens when the ultimatums of political violence have all been tried and exhausted as well? Should politics be reduced to a farce as the continuation of war and violence by other means?