Ranil Returns, Says: Economy in tatters and Covid crisis worsening

United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe made news on June 23, when he was sworn in by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene as an ordinary member of the ninth Parliament some 10 months after the UNP, which he had led since 1994, was soundly defeated at the August 2020 general election, leaving the party in disarray. For the first time in its electoral history, the once formidable UNP failed to win even a single seat other than the solitary slot allocated to the party on the national list.

The 72-year-old well-seasoned politician, who had on several occasions served as Cabinet Minister, Opposition Leader and Prime Minister, made the news again when in his maiden speech, after taking his seat in the front row of the Opposition benches, he said in no uncertain terms that the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of the COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) headed by Army Commander Shavendra Silva had failed miserably in its efforts to contain, curb or control the raging pandemic.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said the responsibility of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic should be vested in the Cabinet, which in turn would be answerable to Parliament. “Sri Lanka is facing various problems. The country’s foreign reserves have dwindled to US$4 billion from the previous US$7 billion and the government should have other alternatives to face this crisis if it did not wish to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to increase the country’s foreign currency reserves and fulfil its debt servicing commitments,” he said and accused the government of giving tax relief to the rich and powerful while starving the poor and helpless.

Speaking a day after the Government tabled a supplementary estimate of Rs.200 billion for government expenditure, he said in the long term swap agreements would not be sufficient to resuscitate the economy and that the Parliament should exercise its financial authority to rescue the country from the crisis it was currently facing. Mr. Wickremesinghe pointed out that the transfer of powers vested in Parliament to the military, which is increasingly involving itself in civilian affairs and the seeming semi-militarization of the country were unacceptable and deplorable.

In his concluding remarks, he said instead of harping on past mistakes, the members of the government and the Opposition should make a joint effort to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic morass, from which Sri Lanka is struggling to escape.

The Daily Mirror too in some of its previous editorials pointed out that eradicating the Covid-19 pandemic was a health-related matter, a fight against an unseen virus and by no means similar to fighting terrorists or terrorism. As such, the fight against the viral infection should be led by experienced medical specialists and the health authorities. We have also on several occasions highlighted the need to obtain the help, support and cooperation of the private sector hospitals for the purpose of administering the vaccines and thus reducing the workload on the government health sector. Such a move would also help better coordinate and manage the countrywide vaccination programme.

Meanwhile, weekend media reports said the Sri Lankan government was planning to buy 13 million doses of Sinovac vaccines amid growing concerns emerging in some other countries about its effectiveness against the more virulent Indian variant known as ‘Delta’.Worries over Sinovac – granted emergency-use listing by the World Health Organization (WHO) this month – came as Indonesia reported more than 350 doctors and medical workers with dozens being hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 despite receiving this particular vaccine. 

Be that as it may, medical specialists are questioning Sri Lanka’s moves to enter into an agreement with a local company called Kelun Lifesciences (Pvt) Ltd to secure the Sinovac vaccines, which are to be manufactured, dispensed, filled, packed and tested at its site in Pallekele.

Posing further challenges to the health authorities is the news that the highly contagious Delta or Indian variant is now known to be spreading in Sri Lanka with infected patients being detected initially at Dematagoda, then at Madiwela and two days ago at Kahathuduwa.

Empty rhetoric or pompous boasts by the powers that be, on how best the government controlled the first and second waves of the viral infection is of no practical use to the people considering the ongoing health crisis in the country. What matters is how best the government is controlling or containing the current wave of the pandemic and whether the government is managing its vaccination programme in an efficient manner so that not a single Sri Lankans would have to miss out on the two mandatory doses of the vaccines.