Leading by example

The country is abuzz with reports that a rationing system is on the cards for essential items as the Government struggles to manage soaring food prices amidst a worsening COVID-19 situation and a foreign exchange crisis and severe economic contraction.

Trade minister Bandula Gunewardane is expected to propose a rationing system for sugar and other essential items sold through the State-owned cooperative Lanka Sathosa, in a bid to relieve low-income families who are grappling with hunger as market prices have risen sharply over the course of the past year. 

Waves of COVID-19 outbreaks have strangled the Sri Lankan economy, highly dependent on tourism and apparel exports, stripping the country of vital foreign currency revenue. As the country shuts down with each coronavirus outbreak, travel is restricted between districts and provinces and regions are placed in isolation, lakhs of people have faced livelihood losses, especially in the informal and daily wage sectors. To put it mildly, millions of citizens are facing starvation as food prices soar and incomes contract.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena is expected to submit the proposal for rationing at next week’s Cabinet meeting. There is no denying that the objective is noble. The Government will provide low-income families with vital commodities using the Sathosa network. The commodities will be rationed, meaning that limits will be set by the Government on how much of each commodity one household will be entitled to purchase for consumption.

Unfortunately, Sri Lankans have had an all-too-recent brush with food rationing systems introduced by the SLFP-led Government in the 1970s. The outcome of rationing eventually allow for politically affiliated cronies to make money while the public literally starved. That terrifying experience ought to have taught policymakers that the State has historically done a terrible job of attempting to manipulate and determine the price of commodities, which lead eventually to scarcity, a thriving black market and racketeering. These failed economic policies, presented in a people-friendly manner, will not resolve the crisis at hand.

Recent scandals have shown that many essential commodities are sold at exorbitant prices, not merely because of soaring import costs as the rupee depreciates sharply against the dollar and other global currencies. The sugar scandal still lives on in public memory, and the examples are rife of similar racketeers minting profits thanks to their associations with powerful sections of the ruling regime. While the people of Sri Lanka suffer untold hardships, powerful politicos and their cronies continue to profit off this misery, whether it is in the pharmaceutical sector during a raging pandemic or essential food stocks.

There is nary a gesture from Government members to demonstrate that they remain willing to share the people’s burdens, even as the President predicted that the people would have to make more sacrifices if lockdowns had to continue to stop the spread of the virus that is claiming over 200 Sri Lankan lives per day. 

The Government has made no effort to reduce its own running costs – instead the Cabinet will proceed with a multi-million-dollar vehicle purchase based on a proposal made by the Finance Minister. Tone-deaf to the people’s plight, Government ministers are cribbing about being asked to donate their salaries to the COVID-19 fund, heaping insult upon injury on the public who have repeatedly been asked to tighten their belts and prepare for tough austerity measures. Minister S.B. Dissanayake famously announced that he would not be able to donate his salary because he had to repay a loan of Rs. 30 million, a callous declaration when his constituency is facing hunger and destitution.

And herein lies the fundamental problem with the Viyathmaga Administration of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Even food rationing might have been acceptable in these troubled times if the Government showed the slightest inclination that it would make sacrifices too, in order to lift the country out of the abyss. President Rajapaksa’s ‘technocrats’ were supposed to lead by example. Instead, they show themselves incapable of empathy with the plight of their people, unwilling to sacrifice the perks and privileges of holding public office, always siding with those who would fleece the people dry. In so doing, while urging austerity from the citizens, the Government breeds public discontent and wrath and risks unprecedented unpopularity less than two years into its term.