Cat among the pigeons

Editorial-September 28, 2013

Health Minister Mathripala Sirisena, an aspirant for the prime ministry, set the cat among the pigeons when he alleged at a recent meeting in Polonnaruwa that the tobacco industry had offered him a huge bribe – enough for 14 generations to live in a first world country, he is reported to have said - to go slow on his campaign to further shackle cigarette manufacturers from marketing their deadly product. We have now gone far beyond the compulsory `Smoking is Dangerous’ warning on cigarette packs. The health warnings are now much more visible than they used to in the early days. But Sirisena and government agencies like the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol, headed by the redoubtable Prof. Carlo Fonseka, are ready to use a sledgehammer that will compel those who market what has been dubbed as ``cancer sticks’’ to have most of the face of a cigarette pack covered with a gruesomely graphic warning of what lighting that cigarette would do to your innards. That issue is now in court and a determination is expected in the short term.

Despite all the information widely disseminated by the World Health Organization and anti-smoking activists at home and abroad, there are still stupids who burn money and irreparably damage their health by smoking. Many of them shorten their lives. There are also governments, including our own, who piously profess their commitment to the wellbeing of their electors, who rake huge revenues from penal taxes imposed on tobacco. The Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, which holds a virtual monopoly on the manufacture of cigarettes in this country – it is in fact the only legal manufacturer – was quick to deny that it had in any way attempted to bribe Sirisena to go slow, or slower, on his anti-tobacco campaign. CTC, one of the highest dividend paying companies quoted on the Colombo Stock Exchange, has in recent years seen sales dropping. But, paradoxically, its profits have been rising. The government has been using the price stick as a double-edged weapon to draw revenue to its cash-strapped coffers and also deter people from smoking. Nevertheless the CTC share which used to bear a par value of 10 rupees (shares no longer have par values, replaced now by stated capital of companies) on Friday topped Rs. 1,000 much to the delight of the Lankans who own them. But there aren’t many such fortunates with over 90 percent of the company owned by British American Tobacco which continues to do very nicely in Sri Lanka, thank you.

When Sirisena told his Polonnaruwa audience that he has spurned the bribe, he also offered some details on how the offer was made although he stopped short of naming names. He revealed that ``some person’’ had been sent to him for a discussion and others wanted to meet him either at home or in Parliament. Many in the tobacco industry wanted him to stop his anti-smoking campaign but he did not want money offered by multi-national tobacco companies. All credit to Sirisena for his determination to continue doing the right thing to stamp out or at least significantly reduce smoking in this country. There is no doubt that the tobacco industry worldwide has thrown a lot of money around to dilute measures taken against it by many countries in the interest of their people. If the local industry is trying to buy out a high profile politician, it must be exposed. It is now the minister’s duty to lodge a complaint with the Bribery Commission and say exactly what happened. It is not impossible that a lobbyist, seeing some money for himself, spoke to the minister on the possibility of going slow. If the minister bit, his next port of call would have been CTC. But this company which says it has operated lawfully in this country for over 100 years, and is one of the best governed here, has issued an unequivocal denial. The big question now is will the minister make the complaint. If he does not, he would have damaged his own credibility.

There was a previous instance where many years ago, then President Chandrika Kumaratunga alleged over national television that a foreign company had attempted to bribe her. She did not reveal the identity of this company at that time although many years later she went public and said who it was - a Singapore based entity that has been here for a long time. We do not know whether the former president, even belatedly, lodged a formal complaint with the Bribery Commission. That seems unlikely because if she did and a proper investigation resulted, there would have been some public disclosure. Since there was no further reference to this matter in the public domain, we would assume that the matter stopped with then president’s first allegation and thereafter her belatedly naming the ``culprit.’’ If Minister Sirisena wishes to go no further than he already has and will say no more about the subject, it is up to public opinion and the opposition to push him. But whether any of that will happen remains an open question. There is an unfortunate tendency in this country for uncomfortable issues to be swept under the carpet.