Are we in lockdown or not? That is the question many are asking after the so-called ‘lockdown’ was extended by another week.
To begin with, the lockdown was hard to get to. The government, its economic advisors and political pundits- not to mention President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who, we presume has to make the ultimate decision to lockdown the country- had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards the lockdown.
Medical experts were calling for a complete lockdown months ago, warning that the daily death toll from Covid-19 could reach 200 per day if the country wasn’t sent in to lockdown at that time. They would have preferred to be proved wrong but unfortunately, they were proved right.
The two major medical organisations in the country, the Association of Medical Specialists and the Sri Lanka Medical Association made repeated public appeals to the government and wrote directly to the President requesting a lockdown. All they got in return was a preposterous reply- that no one had formally requested a lockdown!
The word within the corridors of power was that the President didn’t want a lockdown at whatever cost. His mindset seemed to be similar to what he publicly said at the start of the pandemic in March last year: “when we didn’t lockdown when there was a war, why should we lockdown now?”
Then, ten political parties affiliated with the government wrote to the government and requested a lockdown. Whether that was a genuine request or a farce that was conducted just so the government could save face and impose a lockdown is anybody’s guess.
The crunch however came when the Mahanayake theros of the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters publicly called upon the President to order a lockdown. Hey, presto, the good Buddhist that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is, he quickly declared a lockdown.
That itself was not without its own share of drama. The lockdown was first announced by newly appointed Health Minister KeheliyaRambukwella. Being the former Media Minister, he surely knows how to get his message across. So, he announced the lockdown in a message on the social media platform, Twitter.
The President wanted his share of the limelight. This he arranged through an ‘address to the nation’. Delivered late at night, if anyone had stayed up to listen to what their Head of State had to say, they would have been confused.
President gave precise details of the number of vaccines that had been administered, being in the ‘api thamai hondatama keruwe’ or ‘we did it best’ mode. Then, he went on to give all the reasons why a lockdown should not be imposed. He cited several statistics giving the dollar amounts of losses that would be incurred in the apparel and tourism industries if a lockdown were to be imposed. If one were to give a topic to this address to the nation, it would be ‘why a lockdown should not be declared’.
Then, at the very end, he said, “however, I have decided to impose a lockdown from 10 p.m. today till 4 a.m. on 30th Monday of this month in order to contain the increase of Covid patients”. There was a parting shot too. “I request everyone in the country to be prepared to make more sacrifices, if the country is to be placed under a lockdown for a longer period of time in the future,” Rajapaksa said.
Belated as it was, the lockdown brought a sense of relief to the medical community. Here we go, they thought, we have finally been given a chance to deal with the pandemic in an effective manner. With a vaccination program in full throttle, surely this could be managed despite the disaster that had unfolded thus far.
That was not to be. The so-called lockdown is anything but that. Many institutions are open for business. The government has declared that only essential services should function but there is no clear definition what an ‘essential service’ is. As a result, groceries, banks, hairdressers, bookshops are all open for business. The traffic is less on the roads, but there is still a significant flow of vehicles. Police, usually entrusted with the task of enforcing what should be a curfew like state, are conspicuous by their absence. This being Sri Lanka, word quickly gets around that it is possible to sneak out to the local store and get your groceries without being reprimanded. Then, everyone tries to do so.
The government has now decided that the lockdown would be extended by a further week. While announcing that, Health Minister Rambukwella once again took to Twitter, this time to voice his frustration. “Following an observation that citizens have not taken the curfew to heart, in order for this to be effective, I implore again to refrain from unnecessary travel, work from home and abide by the curfew”, he said.
This begs the question, is the lockdown being imposed just to appease the medical professionals and perhaps the Mahanayaketheros, so that the government could say, ‘you asked for a lockdown, we gave you one, it didn’t work, did it?’
Minister Rambukwella may vent his frustration at the citizenry but, if Pavithra Wanniarachchi’sexperience is anything to go by, we know that decisions about the pandemic are not taken by the Health Minister but from higher positions of power. So, is this a case of pussy-footing on the lockdown, so that it can be dispensed with sooner rather than later?
We know from experience that curfews can, and have, been strictly enforced in this country before. That doesn’t take much imagination, only clear directions from the responsible authorities. Why then, is that not being done?
State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle has said that she believes the lockdown should be extended even further- for another two weeks- but hastened to add that it was her personal opinion which, of course, doesn’t count much even though she is a specialist community physician.
The government owes the public an explanation. A lockdown, if it is not strictly enforced, is meaningless. Why then is the country being plunged into this state of limbo that serves little purpose? Can you please explain, Mr. President?
