By Anura Kumara Dissanayake –

Anura Kumara Dissanayake- The JVP leader

“The entire vaccination programme is in a chaotic state! In towns like Panadura there are queues consisting of thousands of people! They have not been able to even distribute the few vaccines received in a fair and equitable manner. In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine about 9 lakhs have been given the first round but only 3 lakhs have been reserved for the second follow up round. About six lakh of people have been deprived of the second dose and the whole programme has been rendered useless due to lack of planning and foresight. In the short period of the breathing space achieved what happened? Instead of preparing for a follow up onslaught when the virus was spreading throughout the world the government and the officials relaxed their guard. What did they do? Like selecting the New Year prince they ventured to crown the Covid prevention prince with great fanfare and pomp!”

“The Covid-19 prevention task force has not met for months! We repeat that the present situation is not one that evolved naturally. It is entirely because of the lackadaisical and negligent approach and attitude of the politicians and officials under them in the government. We have to mention the unholy connections between certain organizations in the country that rushed in to make a quick buck on the back of the pandemic! They had every opportunity to prevent their ring of racketeers from wading in to this pandemic prevention and management programme. Instead of that the crooks were allowed to wade in like they were allowed into the coconut oil business and the commission racket ring in the highways programme! They allowed their pet racketeers to endanger the health of the lives of the public to help their cronies make a quick buck! On account of this shameful conduct the pandemic has got to an unmanageable catastrophy.”

“The import of PCR kits, designating quarantine hotels and the allocation of rooms in those hotels etc has been dished out to their pet gangster cronies! They allowed the incoming citizens of our country from foreign lands to be fleeced to the tune of 14,000 to 16,000 rupees per day in these hotels! They allowed these lowdown crooks to turn the lives of these hardworking Lankans who are returning to the motherland after years of toil to unfortunate circumstances! At a time of world crisis they shamelessly allowed the misfortune of fellow citizens to be made into a filthy but lucrative business! Udayanga Weeratunga, their cousin, who does not possess registered tourist businesses in the tourist trade to bring in tourist from the Ukraine! We accept that the tourist industry has to be given a hand to increase its turnover but at a moment as now allowing a person who is not licensed to bring in tourists as and when he wished stinks with rank dishonesty! Not only that these tourists were allowed the freedom of the wild ass to roam all over the country even when alarm bells had been sounded that the British strain of Indian visitors, the criminal cronies of our government were allowed to bring them in to recuperate here at the rate of $690 per fortnight!”

“The Indian virus has now been converted to a cash cow by the government’s mafia friends and that is a national calamity of shame! This has been done with the patronage of the government! Private hospitals have arranged for hotels to house Covid -19 patients! Most people go to private hospitals not because they are rich but because they have no alternative as government hospitals are full. We have here a receipt for Rs 213,000/= paid by a patient for such a room. The government hospitals are full, the staff exhausted and even basic facilities to treat pandemic patients are lacking and hence this is state of affairs! We agree that the general public has been reckless and careless to some degree. When the political leadership rots to this extent and the machinery breaks down this is to be expected. It is not a surprise given the circumstances. If the political machinery, the media attitude and the public institutions were focused on a common goal this situation, this breakdown of public discipline could have been avoided to a large extent.”

“The human lives going to the graves, the fear of the general public and the tears of the citizens of this country are all due to the selfish, foolish acts of the president who has allowed his cronies to go berserk! At this point of time we are aware that two pregnant mothers are dead. How tragic is it to allow two mothers with infants who have not seen the light of day to be allowed to go like that! These are crimes to say the least. The doctors tell us that the Mother from Minuwangoda could have been saved if there had been a bed in that hospital! A three month old baby was also reported as lost for similar causes. We saw how the late president was elated when he saw his grandchild. That is how every grandparent in this country feels! Imagine their grief if their grandchild is gone before he or she sees the light of day due to neglect of the politicians elected by us. Do these politicians who govern us see the pain and tragedy behind these unfortunate incidents? No! To them these are only statistics! That is why some members in the government were quoted as saying “we do not have many deaths as seen in India “.How irresponsible can they get?”

“Do these rulers see these problems from a humane angle? To compare figures in this way, is stooping to the lowest depths! What is the duty and responsibility of the ruler of a country? He must be accountable for the life of every citizen!”

“A political leader of a country must be sensitive to the fate of the citizens under his custody, especially when subject to the untimely passing away in massive numbers for whatever cause. When an infant dies he must feel the grief like it was his own loss. These people are not the type to have such feelings. The present catastrophy is entirely due to the pride and misplaced superiority complex of a foolish president. For that reason he must be held responsible and culpable for each and every death that results as a consequence of his mismanagement of authority! He is accountable for every tear being shed in the country! For them these avoidable deaths are only statistics! They don’t see this problem in a humane way! You must understand what all this points to. This only indicates the utter cruelty of this social fabric. This is not a humane approach! Everything here is based on statistics. Nothing is looked at from a humane point of view! It is not a method based on feelings! Just a matter of statistics! Nothing more! It is not based on the feelings of sadness or pain of the citizens! It is system based purely on dollars and rupees and such like! Do not expect anything more from this system of social management! This is a system where even a social catastrophe like this is ghoulishly converted to an ugly money making business! We need to morph this ugly system without delay! To rectify that, is something we must recognize as a long drawn out process! But at this moment of utter danger and desperation we need to do something urgently. As a matter of urgency like in every crisis we need political leadership and guidance!”

“That political leadership must be an all inclusive one! Today this task has been hijacked in to the domain of a coterie of cronies of a single political clique! At the very start we suggested that such an approach should be made with the participation of the opposition. Even if they are not inclined to rope in the opposition they could get a more representative team within themselves! Lurking within this government there are two past presidents of this country! There are past office bearers who were vice Chairmen of the World Health Organization amongst them. There is a professor of microbiology amongst their ranks!”

“We plead as a minimal requirement; get together a more representative clique within the government to face this calamity in the short term! Is this too much to ask and too much to do? We plead because this is an urgent requirement at this moment of hopelessness! This Task Force should be modified and strengthened. This is a health problem and the representation of personnel with experience in that field is a must. Just anyone is not an expert but let us not deny that some have become experts over time and they are the ones that must be brought back in to the fold. Amongst them are the likes of Anil Jasinghe, Paba Palihawadana and Jayaruwan Bandara! They should be brought back and the machinery to fight this pandemic fortified! This has to be done urgently and this nonsense of hoisting fake programmes and quack treatments by the rogue clique to make a quick buck must be stopped forthwith!”

“We have witnessed enough clown carnivals staged by joker Ministers and equally insane media outlets! As a responsible government present facts in an orderly manner. We urge you to act responsibly! It has come to a very sorry state of affairs where the public do not believe what you say. All your figures and statistics are known to be fake. Do you think that anyone believes that only 26 persons died yesterday? The public believe that the figure is much higher. It is the same with the number of detected infected cases. It is being said that the number is far in excess of what you publish. It’s also being said that the deaths in the villages are not being accounted for. In this pandemic, it is important that your statistics appear genuine to the public. It is therefore necessary that you sound genuine, in the figures trotted out by the machinery you have in place.”

“The only way out of this predicament is the vaccine! You must not leave room for various quacks to introduce therapy based on quackery or actresses to surface through the mass media to promote panacea at their whim and fancy! In the same way a proper scientific campaign to educate the masses about the vaccines should be undertaken without delay! How these vaccines have been tested and approved the public have a right to know! Because this angle has been ignored many misgivings about the vaccines have arisen. Needless to say a properly organized programme has to be floated for the distribution of the vaccine equitably to all provinces etc. The Health Minister stated a few months ago that 6 lakhs of vaccines were assured. The minister for health touted that by the 22nd of April the booster dose would be administered and the whole exercise would be completed by May. But in the end they amounted to nothing but empty announcements on her part.”

“What needs to be done now is to ensure the speedy delivery of the vaccines by activating the necessary personnel in the Foreign Ministry, Health Ministry and the Research Institutions. We find that when we visit the Divisional Secretary’s office, people have flocked to those venues from the crack of dawn, because an announcement has been made to the public but eventually find out that 3000 people are queued up to receive the 1000 available shots. By the time this exercise is completed it is well past 3 p .m! This haphazard scheme must be organized properly. Get it so organized to deal with the senior citizens and those with pre- existing medical conditions etc dealt with first!”

*From the speech made by Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the media conference on 11/05/2021

Related posts:

Part I – What Is The Cure? Vaccination Or Murder By Default?