Road tragedies: Govt. must act decisively

FSUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2016

or a Government that acted at the speed of greased lightning, and with a heavy hand (pun intended) by the Navy to rescue two foreign ships held hostage by striking workers at the Hambantota Port, its weak-kneed approach to the striking private bus operators and to buckle under their pressure stands in sharp contrast.

As irony has it, the Government moved in swiftly in the Hambantota harbour matter with the public not so much with the port workers demands and the questionable exercise of their trade union rights. Yet, they were concerned about the Agreement signed with a Chinese company.

On the other hand, the Government seemed to apply the brakes on the private bus operators demanding a halt to the imposition of higher fines for traffic misdemeanours even though in this case, the public seemed overwhelmingly on the Government’s side.

Nobody still knows for sure what the Government’s ultimate decision is on the traffic fines. The fines themselves seemed somewhat unrealistic and hastily introduced. Once, the Supreme Court had to knock down speeding fines because there were no markings to indicate speed limits. The markings are there now, but out-of-date with better road surfaces meant to reduce travel journeys.

There is a vicious circle, however, that needs to be broken – the nexus between the Police and the errant bus driver is a public secret, and a shame on the Police. Something still has to be done to curb reckless driving. There is a fine for drunken-driving, but no mechanism to detect intoxication by other means, like soft drugs and even chewing betel. Still, the Government, especially the President, is unable to fix this problem having put the heavy fines issue on hold when the public is clamouring for action and understandably so – with a shocking eight (8) deaths on the highways every day in 2015 and 2016, leave alone serious injuries. It just shows a lack of ability to take decisive action.

Decisive action is what the Government requires -- if it can ask the Navy to show its colours on World Human Rights Day to boot. The Commander led from the front -- manhandling a journalist performing his professional duties under the Constitution. That the UN Torture Committee had just passed strictures on Sri Lanka was lost on him.

This also distracts from the issue of the PPP (PublicPrivate Partnership) that the Government has entered into for the Hambantota port – the Sri Lanka Public has 20 per cent and the Chinese Private has 80 percent of the PPP. This is a partnership where the private Chinese company is the virtual precedent-partner. The 15,000 acres in and around the area given to the Chinese have raised the ‘sell out’ cry. The Government is mostly to blame for not convincing the country of the merits, if any, of the Agreement.

On the other hand, secrecy maybe what is called for if the US$ 1.4 billion selling price cannot be justified and is just a mess of pottage for a chunk of Sri Lanka’s limited real estate, as detractors seem to think it is.