Crisis communications key

Early this week, a man was arrested in Kalutara for allegedly not wearing a mask outside a supermarket. For many people who had watched and read about this individual in the news and social media a few hours before his arrest, the reasons for the action were eminently clear. By having himself filmed pushing a wheelbarrow full of groceries, he had mocked the Government decree that vehicles would not be permitted on the roads when travel restrictions were lifted briefly on Tuesday (25). The video of the man and his wheelbarrow went viral. He was arrested for violating public health guidelines, by failing to wear a face mask during his misadventure.

The authorities – with skin that grows thinner everyday – were naturally irked by the man mocking public health guidance during the travel restrictions. For some reason, it escapes their notice that the ridicule is a direct result of the regulations being arbitrary, impractical and completely without rationale basis to begin with. How were members of the public supposed to walk to the nearest market and bring back groceries to feed a household for another week without access to a vehicle, a three-wheeler or public transport?

There is no denying that the only way to stop the spread of this deadly coronavirus variant sweeping through society is to keep travel restrictions in place and social interactions to a minimum. Staying home will keep people safe from harm and the Government finally took the correct decision in this regard by imposing the two-week lockdown.

But especially in times of grave crisis, effective communications are key to ensuring public compliance and order. Punitive measures, including the arrest of persons who fail to wear proper face-coverings or violate isolation orders to meet basic food and shelter needs, criminalises vast swathes of society, taxes law enforcement and packs already overcrowded prison facilities.  From the outset, the Government has approached this epidemiological problem with a military mindset. Public health crises demand a different set of rules, truthfulness about the risks and challenges the virus poses and effective public communications that will convince the masses to comply with orders from health officials. Instead, the Government has marched the Army Special Forces and Commandos on to the streets, sent Sri Lanka Air Force drones into the sky to monitor lockdown violators, or launched groups of storm-trooping Policemen to carry unmasked people away to prison.

The Government’s first priority, as it grapples with the third wave, is to act on medical advice when devices policies and guidelines to manage the disease and curb its spread. Sri Lanka’s public health service is one of the most effective in the developing world, with midwives and divisional clinics that have the capacity to deliver excellent consultation, care and medical services in every corner of the island.

Secondly, when medically sound policies and guidelines are made they need to be effectively communicated to the general public. Sri Lankans are an educated people that can comprehend the gravity of the current situation. For example, rather than requesting the general public to minimise movement, the Police Spokesman announced a blanket ban on travelling in vehicles when venturing out to buy provisions when the restrictions were eased – even though the country’s written law makes no provision for this order. On whose authority then, does the Police Spokesman decide that a person cannot drive his own vehicle to the grocery store? Has there been a gazette to this effect? Thirdly, when laws, rules and guidelines are enacted, they must be made applicable to all citizens, instead of only the powerless and unconnected. In a country of laws, a man carrying his groceries in a wheelbarrow cannot be arrested, while the daughter of a VIP picnicking across provincial boundaries gets off scot free. Applying the regulations fairly and indiscriminately will stave off resentment against the authorities from the general public and ensure compliance with public health orders that could save lives.

Finally, it must be emphasised that the freedom to criticise and ridicule the Government of the day is the citizen’s most sacred right in a functioning democracy. The man with his wheelbarrow was exercising his constitutional rights to freedom of thought and expression; the fact that he faced retribution for that sacred act of citizenship speaks volumes, and a harbinger of a frightening future.