The accident at a factory in greater Colombo where five people lost their lives after being exposed to toxic chemicals, highlights the appalling state of Health and Safety in Sri Lanka.
Much of this stems from a basic disrespect of the law and of officialdom. Not many will agree to this but they are the same people who, faced with some sort of problem where the liability is clearly upon them, will rush to see who can – as the saying goes locally – shape it for them.
It is one would have imagined a basic given that a tank containing toxic matter would be fully protected to ensure beyond any possibility that no human being can fall into it.
A second basic requirement would be that the area would be purpose built to ensure adequate ventilation to prevent toxic fumes from causing the mayhem it did.
In both these scenarios more than professionalism it would be common sense. However when this factory came into being, one thing was clear. The factory owners failed in their duty towards its staff and the general public at large. The resulting loss of life of a staggering five people must now be the subject of legal action against the owners of the building and the operating business for negligence and for deserting basic norms.
The trouble of course could be that the affected may well be persons who cannot afford the finances to fund a legal case. They may well have the resolve but whether or not they have the spirit to cope with the laws delays in Sri Lanka is completely another matter. Unfortunately legal aid in Sri Lanka is basic, antiquated and hardly ever promoted to an extent that the public in general become aware that there is such a service available for those not having the financial means.
Sri Lanka is fast becoming a global leader in flippancy on several fronts. At the top of the chain must be the Prime Minister who has displayed admirable staying power. He has of course been in parliament for 41 years and has been the leader of the UNP for approximately 23 years. Prime Minister for the fourth time, a record all on its own. An impressive record which away angle one looks at it.
However, the rules have been seriously bent, at times stylishly broken and always pliable. It depends who is doing the asking and from whom.
Any other prime minister in any other democracy other than in Sri Lanka would have resigned within a month of the bond scandal breaking in February / March 2015.
Any minister in cabinet would have resigned his position and perhaps abandoned politics all together after the media exposed his meetings with contractors bidding for a major road project. Instead with dead flippancy the Minister (we name him as Lakshman Kiriella) maintained that he had ‘around Rs 400 million’ in accounts. It is the height of flippancy that Kiriella a cabinet minister, can so brusquely not address the charges made against him by the national media. His complaint of sorts to the high priests in Kandy that a media network had raised objections and were thus delaying the road project and the pilgrims who would visit the temple of the Tooth, was an exercise of pure hypocrisy and fantasy. That’s putting it mildly. In fact he was lying.
Lies, Lies and damn lies marks the tenure of this government. They undertook to hold the previous regime accountable citing corruption. In three years they have failed to bring to book a single minister in the previous administration on charges of corruption. Instead they have managed to gain a conviction against the hapless Lalith Weeratunga who served Sri Lanka for thirty eight years. Now he has no pension – all because the Boss ordered him to purchase and distribute sil redi using funds from the TRC of which he was fortuitously Chairman.
The Prime Minister was no better. Even and despite the fact that the President had refused to appoint Mahendran as the Governor with his own fresh contract, Prime Minister nevertheless saw to it that Mahendran was accorded some kudos by being made a government adviser. It bears noting that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry reported that Mahendran had acted mala fide in the interests and benefit to, Perpetual Treasuries.
He also flippantly appointed a three member committee to look into the bond saga. He must have known that those three gentlemen knew ‘jack’ about Central Banking and bond issuances. When they gave him the report he handed it to a media man to read and report. Not before he privately described Mahendran as the best – nobody we have has a patch on him. So be it.
As we traverse towards the next inevitable election, huge amounts of monies obtained by – for want of a better word – coercion, have changed hands and will change hands in the next 18 months or so. That would be the prelude to the next set of elections. It is a period that we will describe as the calm before the storm.
In much of this the general consensus is that President Sirisena is above the rest. Yes he is by far but he too faces allegations. Albeit these allegations are against not him but his family and extended family.
There is a belief amongst the UNP that Sirisena has been out maneuvered and that he has met his waterloo through none other than his partner, Ranil.
On past experience and an analysis of Sirisena’s modus operandi, it would be clear that Sirisena is not a spent force. There is plenty more from where he operates from including his vast arsenal of strategies of which he is the only person who knows the details.
As for the people of this nation, tired and tiring of the flippancy and lack of commitment, they have taken to agitating, forming action groups and carry forward the best they can.
For a country known as a miracle of Asia that is a sad indictment.
