By Charles S.Perera

The opposition in the Sri Lanka Parliament was dissolved by the President on 2nd March 2020. is clamoring with the News First TV at the forefront asking the President to recall the dissolved parliament despite Article 150 of the Constitution, stating that he has no right to continue to take money under the consolidated Fund without the permission of the Parliament.   

This is a false argument, as the President after the dissolution of the Parliament is Constitutionally in full charge of running the country,  with the right to draw necessary finances from the Consolidated Fund until a new Parliament begins its sitting and for three months thereafter. The past obsolete opposition of the dissolved parliament argues that the 20th June 2020 set for the General Elections is not suitable to hold the General election as the country is not out of the  COVID -19 pandemic.

In view of this, it would be interesting for those pessimists of opposition to the government,  to note the situation with regard to France.  France has 142 291 reported Covid 19 cases. There had been 27 625 deaths. 19 432 patients are in hospitals, out of 2132 in reanimation.  The recovered cases reported are 61066.  

Despite this France has successfully eased off from the locked-up situation. 

After 55 days of confinement, France announced easing out of its citizens as from 11th May 2020.  It has been reported that the deconfinement was a success. They have announced that sea beeches will also be opened to the public and parks and gardens will eventually be opened. Schools and Universities have also been listed to be opened soon subject to conditions to be announced later.

The government of France held up the second round of local government election on the 15th March 2020 due to Covid – 19 pandemic. It involves 5000 municipalities representing more than 25 million French people.

The government is expected to decide next week if it is safe to hold the second round of local government elections by the end of June, after consultations with health experts.  Why should not Sri Lanka which is much safer than France under the Covid -19 pandemic find a safe method for holding elections in consultation with the Health Authorities, the Defence Forces, and the Police ?.

Today the 17 May 2020, first time after two months President Emmanuel  Macron attended a public gathering to commemorate the day  Charles de Gaulle still an unknown Colonel led an armored division to fight against the advancing Nazi Forces famously called the battle of Moncornet in which 60000 French soldiers lost their lives.

However complicating the situation in France further, it has been announced that   34 positive cases of Covid-19 affected persons were found among the workers in a slaughterhouse. The same has been reported in slaughterhouses in Germany,  and in America. They argue that it may have come from the workers living in insalubrious quarters close to the slaughterhouses. They still do not say whether the flesh of the slaughtered animals was either contaminated or the virus had been found in the slaughtered animals. 

Sri Lanka should start testing the butcheries, workers in slaughterhouses and also the workers in fish markets who cut and pack fish.

France not taking lessons from China did not start off well with its fight against Covid-19.  When China built two hospitals in two weeks to take care of the persons affected by the Virus, France did not eve open any existing hospital especially for the treatment of Corona Virus affected patients. France indicated a telephone number to be called if anyone suspects having signs of Corona Virus. It recommended self-confinement as it had no special quarantine centers to receive suspected patients.

France lacked masks even for sale for the public, whatever was available were meant for hospital stuff. Unfortunately last week it was said that France had found a stock of 362 million old and unusable masks which were destroyed.

”The stock of surgical masks was burned between January and March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to take hold in Europe. Public Health France has defended the move, as they state the masks were out of date – but they weren’t checked to see if they were still usable prior to being destroyed. It comes as a stock of 362 million out-of-date surgical masks were found in storage, with almost a quarter, 85 million, considered to be fit for use.” https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1281806/face-masks-coronavirus-latest-france-ppe-Emmanuel-Macron-face-mask-shortage-eu-news.

Fighting off the Covid 19 is more political and the Medical experts are consulted but not seen much as they are in Sri Lanka where the government takes no action without consulting the Health Services.