Does the government learn the hard way?

Never in the Sri Lankan history had a government faced such a plethora of hot issues, at once, at its beginning, as faced by the current national People’s Power (NPP) government. Similarly, never in the history had a government really wanted a “system change” including the change in the thinking pattern of politicians, officialdom, and the ordinary people.

The government’s process of system change too has created many issues in almost all sections of the state machinery as expected.

Within a week after NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumed office as the President, his government had to encounter a huge shortage of rice which was followed by shortages of several other essential items including eggs and coconuts. In parallel, a shortage of passports became a hot topic and a prolonged bottleneck in clearance of containers in the Colombo harbour and a row over releasing of over 300 containers without physical checks followed suit. Besides, the US government announced travel restrictions on its citizens traveling in Sri Lanka over threats against Israeli tourists in the east which was later lifted.  

Ironically, while it was clear that all these issues were a result of the actions and inaction of the past governments, especially the one led by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leaders of those very same governments pressed the government for quick fixes. They, by doing so, were somewhat successful in instilling in the minds of the people an impression that these problems were the upshots of inexperience on the part of the new government. 

Nonetheless, those issues are being rarely talked about now. Local rice is freely available in the country with the commencement of the Maha season’s harvest. Coconut prices are stagnant but higher compared to those of the early months of the NPP government. Egg producers are complaining about prices which have been brought down by the market conditions. Passport and container issues seem to have almost been resolved. 

Yet, were these problems really addressed by the government or were they resolved for the time being just to resurface in a few months? For instance, the rice shortage was resolved with the commencement of the paddy harvest of the Maha season. Can the government give an assurance to the people that there wouldn’t be another shortage at the end of the year? 

The government’s solution for the rice issue, including taming the rice mafia was to revive and strengthen the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB). Sri Lanka gets its paddy harvest through two cultivation seasons, namely Maha and Yala which are synonymous with two monsoons. Maha Season falls during “North-east monsoon” from September to March in the following year. Yala season is effective during the period from May to end of August.

Maha season produces 65 to 70 percent of the total paddy harvest and the rest by the Yala season. This trend always tends to lead to shortage of rice at the end of Yala which coincides with the end of the year. Hoarding by the large-scale millers is also blamed for the shortage. 

However, many reports indicate that the rice consumption in the country has been around 2.4 million metric tons whereas the production amounts to 3 million tons. Although NPP leaders claim that no relevant state institution has credible data on the rice production in the country - a claim that was not contested by any individual or institution - above figures seems to be somewhat reliable as the rice shortage has not been a regular annual phenomenon.  

The success of the paddy purchase by the PMB seems to be at the mercy of the farmers who are said to be reluctant to sell their produce to the state, despite the latter providing them with fertilizer subsidy, compensation for crop damages while maintaining the irrigation system with the tax payers’ money. The government, as claimed, has not commenced collecting data on the rice production to plan and prevent another shortage. 

Similarly, nothing is heard about any steps to monitor the coconut exports which was blamed for the recent local shortage. In short, many issues that were encountered initially by the NPP government have become or are becoming non-issues. What is pertinent is an assurance of non-occurrence by the authorities.