A cry for competence

Tuesday, 1 June 2021 01:24 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In just the last three months alone, over 1,000 Sri Lankans have died from COVID-19. The officially reported numbers indicate that at least 40 are being killed by the virus daily, while independent models from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) support the assertion that, in reality, the death toll is at least 80 per day.

Given the abysmal state of our testing infrastructure, with a positive rate well in excess of 10%, it is not difficult to believe that so many patients or cases may be going undetected. By these same models, if the current trend continues, we could be losing 140 lives a day to COVID-19 in just a matter of weeks.

With the nation in fear, the economy at a virtual standstill and a scramble to mend hastily razed fences abroad to secure enough supplies to fully vaccinate our population and put an end to the scourge, Sri Lanka is also facing a political climate unlike any it has faced before. We have had unpopular governments frequently since independence; but never before have we lived in a time when ordinary people were so frustrated at the failings and impotence of both a government and the opposition simultaneously.

What is most frustrating to the public in such a time of crisis is to see key figures in both the Government and opposition keener on building and fostering cults of personality and buttressing their own political fortunes than on addressing the issues that matter at one of our country’s darkest hours. For its part, it is high time that the Government put a stop to public events like inaugurations, celebrations, ribbon cuttings, blessings and similar pageantry, frequently featuring ministers and high-ranking officials often sans masks or social distancing discipline. The tone-deafness of such politically craven publicity stunts does not go unnoticed.

Similarly transparent is the jostling by prominent leaders in the opposition, not to unite to address the failings of the Government with one voice, but to compete amongst themselves for attention and credit for having jumped on the right talking point at the right time. In the opposition, politicians cannot earn the respect of the people by using a crisis to build their personal brand without coming together to address the issues essential to the people.

Any healthy democracy depends on its political opposition to hold a government’s feet to the fire and reign in excess. When key political figures shirk this duty and instead compete for who can spin more time on the television news or squeeze out more column inches of praise for themselves in newspapers, it is the people who ultimately suffer.

It is past time for the Government to take the present crisis seriously and for politicians to make way for professionals and public health experts to get us through this crisis, and it is high time for responsible leaders in the opposition to realise that it behoves them to stop jostling for personal prominence, and to instead unite the opposition to address this crisis with one strong voice, and by doing so, deliver to the people the robust democracy we need in this time of crisis.