{"id":104663,"date":"2020-07-20T16:37:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T23:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104663"},"modified":"2020-07-20T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T23:37:43","slug":"ranil-is-worse-for-sl-than-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/20\/ranil-is-worse-for-sl-than-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil is worse for SL than COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Prof. Tissa Vitarana<\/b> Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The general opinion in the country, including among many UNPers, is that the present SLFPA Government, with the leadership provided by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has effectively controlled the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, and that this would not have been the outcome under a UNP Government, specially if it was headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe. (The occurrence of two or more waves of increased cases is due to people not observing the health rule when the restrictions are relaxed. The magnitude of the wave depends primarily on human error and secondarily on appropriate government action).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because of the miserable performance of the UNP Government that was headed by Ranil in the five years since 2015, among one of the worst in Sri Lanka\u2019s history. Instead of \u2018Yahapalanaya,\u2019 the outcome was a \u2018(dushta) vindictive palanaya,\u2019 widespread corruption topped by the colossal Central Bank fraud, prices of food and other goods soared so that some people had only one meal a day, poverty (40 per cent), the rich\/poor gap and malnutrition increased, patients died due to the lack of medicines in government hospitals and high prices in private pharmacies, national assets were underpriced and sold cheap to foreigners, very little new development, real unemployment rose, household debt and national debt reached highest levels. It was evident from the results of the elections, both Presidential and Local Government, that the people have clearly rejected Ranil and the UNP, and warned to completely eliminate them at this General Election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controlling the disease<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this incompetent, disgraced leader who is now, without any expertise, trying to pontificate on what should be done to prevent the emerging second COVID-19 wave. As if no one knew about it, he states that the WHO had laid down four steps to control the disease, \u2018testing, tracing, isolating and treatment.\u2019 He adds we did not implement any of them,\u201d meaning not himself, but the SLFPA Government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incorrect brash statement may be pardonable in a schoolboy, but not in a former PM. It was because all these WHO directives were properly done under the SLFPA Government that Sri Lanka has only about 2,500 cases and a mere 11 deaths. This is a figure for COVID-19 control that is superior to that of a large majority of both developed and developing countries. When each test costs about Rs 6,000, and the Government has done 125,000 tests (total cost of Rs 750 million), the cost is substantial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that random testing of large statistically -significant samples of the total population is ideal to detect community spread. This is feasible for rich countries, but with our limited resources we need to be selective. I suggested to the President that the best option would be to test all those presenting with COVID-19 like symptoms in the so called safe or unaffected districts, and this was done. The contact tracing and isolation are about the best I have seen anywhere in the world in my 25 years of work as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Virus Diseases to WHO, Geneva. When global figures for death rates is around 5 per cent, Sri Lanka\u2019s figure of 0.5 per cent speaks very well for our treatment. With such a record, I have the fullest confidence that under the leadership of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the present and future PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka can bring under control the second COVID-19 wave before long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, it needs the support of all the people. They must be disciplined and cooperative. Certainly not creating doubts in the minds of people and generating unwarranted fears and panic, as Ranil Wickremesinghe is doing. This will result in the breakdown of the health rules \u2013 that of maintaining at least one, but better 2, metres, between people, wearing face masks properly, and frequent hand washing. In a leaflet, I have explained how these ensure each one\u2019s safety and also help to get rid of the virus from Sri Lanka, as the virus cannot survive or multiply outside our bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It dies on its own within a matter of hours. It is clear that a campaign to postpone the 5 August General Election led by Ranil is underway, and an irresponsible attempt is being made to destroy the people\u2019s confidence in the Government\u2019s ability to control it in the hope that the people will not observe the health rules, thereby helping to spread the virus and aggravate the epidemic, so that the General Election cannot be held. Even if it is held, the voter turnout will be low due to the low key election campaign amidst the many restrictions imposed by the Election Commission, both necessary and unnecessary. This could be used to question the international credibility of the Government, so that pressure can be exerted on it by the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local economic crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil then claims that the continuing epidemic will lead to a local economic crisis and that it will take ten years for the economy to bounce back. The saviour of the country and the people will be none other than Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP, as he claims his Uncle J.R. Jayewardene did in 1977. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But both claims are faulty, because the problems faced by the Centre Left governments then and today are not local ones, but the result of international crises – the massive triple fuel, food and economic crises of 1973 and the global economic, social and health crisis of today. Ranil adds, why wait ten years? Defeat this Government now and let the magician Ranil save Sri Lanka from the COVID-19 epidemic and solve all the economic problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the economic problems arise from the strong action taken to control the spread of COVID-19 including lockdowns and curfews. His implied criticism is that the Government has failed to take strong action when necessary. But he seems to forget that such action is a principal factor in aggravating the economic downturn. At this point of time, DGHS Dr. Jasinghe, who has hitherto led the health interventions successfully, states that the situation is not bad enough yet to call for extreme measures. The political leaders must act on the scientific advice given. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is pressing panic buttons to exaggerate the magnitude of the COVID-19 epidemic, is trying to get an overreaction that will aggravate the virus problem and thereby the economic problems, so that the cacophony for putting off the elections indefinitely led by him will be the final outcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actions of Ranil in Sri Lanka pose a greater problem to the country than COVID-19 itself. The best course of action for the people of Sri Lanka is to ensure that the UNP, led by Ranil, is soundly defeated at the forthcoming election, which must be held on time, so that the Government can get a strong majority, to also defeat the COVID-19 crisis. But the economic and viral crises are of global origin and the ultimate solution is an international one. Sri Lankans must not fall into the American-led trap being laid by Ranil, to make us believe his frog in the well presentation of the problems that face our country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Prof. Tissa Vitarana Courtesy Ceylon Today The general opinion in the country, including among many UNPers, is that the present SLFPA Government, with the leadership provided by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has effectively controlled the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, and that this would not have been the outcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}