Honesty is the best policy

Justice Minister M.U.M. Ali Sabry became the first Cabinet Minister to keep it real, by making the admission in Parliament that the President was compelled to invoke Emergency regulations under the Public Security Ordinance to prevent a devastating shortage of food stocks and other essential commodities.

The explanation provided by the Justice Minister during the Parliamentary debate on Emergency regulations on the provision of essential food items was that while the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Act No. 9 of 2003 as amended only allowed the Government to set price controls on certain goods and take legal action against traders selling over the controlled prices, Emergency regulations allowed the Government to raid and seize food stocks being hoarded by traders unwilling to provide goods at controlled prices.

There are several legal and constitutional arguments for why the Government should not have resorted to Emergency regulations to ensure food security for its citizens. Sri Lanka has a dark history with these extreme measures. They have provided successive governments with the licence and cover by which to crackdown on citizens and suspend their fundamental rights in the name of national security. 

Using Emergency laws to ensure the steady supply of food stocks to the citizens during an extended lockdown period might seem innocuous but the Opposition and legal experts are correct to issue warnings about the potential for crackdowns on dissent and freedoms in the guise of ensuring food security. The current Government’s penchant for cracking down on dissent and executing high handed witch-hunts against its opponents make the threat both live and plausible.

But Minister Sabry is to be lauded for calling the spade a spade. His remarks in Parliament came in the wake of stoic denials by other Government officials and ministers regarding the essential food stocks. Speaking on Al Jazeera less than a week ago, State Minister of Money and Capital Markets and former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal insisted that there was no food shortage in Sri Lanka. The dogged denials from the government minister on an international broadcasting network flew in the face of reality for most Sri Lankans over the past few months. 

The citizenry is grappling with shortages of LP gas, sugar, milk powder and even salt. Social media commentators mocked Minister Cabraal’s remarks mercilessly, insisting that the administration was completely out of touch with reality. The former Central Bank Governor is building a reputation for outrageous statements completely unfounded in both fact and economics. Last month, he insisted that printing money would not increase inflation.

Be that as it may, it is past time for the Government to learn to take the people into its confidence, instead of constantly playing its citizens for fools. Any Sri Lankan who bothers to shop for essentials is painfully aware of the shortages and how it is affecting the market. Sri Lankans know the pandemic has taken a massive economic toll on the State coffers, and that this strain has been exacerbated by rampant Government mismanagement of its finances. 

It becomes increasingly difficult to fool the people into believing that all is well and pandemic management has gone swimmingly when their bellies are bare, and their pockets are empty. It would be a far better strategy for the Government to take the people into confidence, deal squarely with the grim truth facing the nation and pledge to make sacrifices and policy to lift the country out of the abyss.

Emergency may not be the answer to ensure the people are not faced with food shortage in the middle of the pandemic. Certainly, a government less inclined to take a sledgehammer to a nail might have found legislative ways out of the crisis. But the Justice Minister is to be commended for squaring with the people, that food shortages were indeed in the future and the Government did what it thought was best in that situation to stave off hunger.