Face veil ban and COVID-19

Governments faced with crisis find deflecting attention useful. It would appear that the Sri Lankan Government is returning to a well-thumbed page in the old playbook as it gave Cabinet approval to draft legislation to ban face veils in the backdrop of the country grappling with a rapidly spreading variant of COVID-19. The coinciding of these two developments is worrying.

Throughout the pandemic there has also been a steady demonising of the Muslim minority, clearly seen in the stubborn adherence to a mandatory cremation policy despite numerous appeals from affected and concerned citizens. 

The Government blundered badly and it is pandering to Sinhala nationalists at a time when national unity should have been highlighted and created unnecessary rifts and tensions. It became so bad that the mandatory cremation policy also became part of the United Nations Human Rights (UNHRC) resolution discourse earlier this year and damaged relations with multiple Muslim countries.

The latest Cabinet decision to approve a proposal by Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera that will set in motion a process to draw up legislation to ban face veils appears to be a continuation of these misguided and short-sighted policies. Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella’s excuse was that it was highlighted as a national security concern and therefore allowed to proceed. It is true that the Government has been under pressure to show results on the multiple Easter attack investigations after the lapse of two years but no right-minded person would say that concerns of one minority can be addressed by the alienation of another. In fact many Sri Lankans believe that this is an unfair and unwise move that will only sow more discord and dissatisfaction at a time when Sri Lanka needs to be united against the pandemic.  

When the Cabinet proposal was first presented earlier this year it was set aside as key members, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, were of the view that it would only inflame tensions. The response at the time from Cabinet members was, given its deep impact, any such step would only be taken after multi-stakeholder consultation. 

This was just before the UNHRC vote. However, fast forward a couple of months and the Government appears to have decided that consultation of any sort is unnecessary and the legal draftsman should just proceed. The inconsistency and insensitiveness of this step is mindboggling. There can be little doubt that it is aimed at stemming the tide of criticism the Government is facing at its lacklustre handling of COVID-19. Rambukwella accepted the Government should have imposed stronger restrictions ahead of the New Year but presented the flimsy excuse of having trust in public adherence to social distancing guidelines. Having dropped the ball at a crucial point and with virus numbers increasing daily, the Government needs a distraction. And it appears to have reverted to an old bogey to fill its needs.

Issues of national security require holistic, rule based and sensitive responses. They should be aimed at not just protecting a country but also keeping communities together. The Government through its insistence of using divisive tactics at crisis points is actually doing the opposite. 

The need of the hour is not to inflame communal tensions but to deploy resources and set in place measures to swiftly arrest the spread of the virus and minimise potential fatalities. That is true leadership, which the Government so far has fallen short of achieving.