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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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Features |  |
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The deluge and after No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine; ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;... - John Donne by Jayatilleke de Silva
We begin the New Year with fresh memories of the deluge last Sunday and the colossal loss of human lives. We haven't still got over the shock and grief. In fact, they will remain with us for quite a long time. There is unanimity that we should speedily assist those affected to start normal life, rebuild the lost infrastructure, and ensure against any recurrence of such colossal damage and destruction. There are certain questions that naturally arise in our minds. First and foremost is whether we could have avoided this calamity or to be specific, could we have avoided the loss of lives even if material losses could not have been averted. Our scientists - the geologists and meteorologists have told us that it was not possible to give advance warnings on such events. They gave various reasons- lack of sufficient earthquake monitoring centres, unreliable computers etc. and even put the blame on the politicians for not providing these facilities or ignoring their requests. While we do not hold a brief for the politicians (or anybody else other than the public) it must be said that bureaucrats and experts are in the habit of making politician scapegoats. The same scientists while correctly advising the people that no repetition of another tsunami deluge was possible last Thursday December 30 assured them that they were constantly monitoring the situation and have the possibility of warning the people at least one and half hours before such an event. My simple question is if they could assure the public of an early warning on December 30, why did they fail on December 26? It could be safely assumed that there was no setting up of new monitoring facilities during these four days. Then, the answer to the above question is obvious. They were NOT monitoring on December 26. Perhaps they were holidaying and no monitors were at their desks. I could remember a responsible officer trying to put the blame on the Government in a television program on the night of December 26 by telling the public that no monitoring centre existed in Sri Lanka. This was, however, countered by the Public Security, Law and Order Ministry Secretary Tilak Ranaviraja who reminded the officer that we have a good centre at Pallekele. It is now well known that the United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued a news bulletin just 15 minutes after the earthquake off Sumatra that such an event had occurred. The quake occurred at 6.58 Sri Lankan time. The bulletin was issued at 7.13. The first tsunami waves struck our coast more than one and half hours later. This was more than enough time to warn all coastal areas. If it was done we could have saved almost all lives. Only property and infrastructure would have been damaged. Even some of them could have been saved. No sophisticated equipment was necessary for it. Anyone browsing the USGS website using an ordinary computer could have found the warning in time. These scientists cannot take the people for a ride. Even if they could mislead politicians whose ignorance makes them depend on the bureaucrats and 'experts', intelligent public could not be misled. This is criminal negligence of duty. It is negligence that had genocidal repercussions. When the death penalty is prescribed for homicide, I am at a loss to comprehend what punishment would suffice for this crime. The negligence cannot be pardoned since there were reported earth tremors in several places about two days prior to the Sumatra earthquake that triggered the monstrous tsunami wave. It seems that the authorities had not awakened even after them. At least part of the damage could have been avoided if the public were informed about the possibilities of such occurrences and educated on what precautionary measures could be taken in the event of such a happening. Politicians have been talking about disaster management for many years now. We have seen media reports of task forces being appointed, reports being handed over, centres being instituted but it is obvious today that we do not have any disaster management strategy. This is in spite of many natural and man-made calamities our people underwent during the recent past. Complacency has been our credo. Apart from the Armed forces and the LTTE there does not seem to be any other force capable of pragmatically managing disaster. Perhaps the reason for their efficiency is due to military discipline. Every thing is not dark as it looks. We have a magnificient people who have already risen to the occasion and have volunteered to help the victims. The media deserve a special word of praise for not only informing the public about the disaster but also for offering various voluntary services and mobilising the people for the relief effort. There are plenty of volunteers but no plan to make rational use of them. There is no coordination of the relief activities resulting in duplication of efforts and wastage of resources. Added to all these is the inefficiency of the public service and inability of managers to take independent decisions. There is also a bit of brand imaging in the relief efforts, which dissipate forces rather than uniting them. As has been underlined by the government, this is a time that all countrymen should unite irrespective of their racial, political, religious or philosophical divisions. What is required is a joint effort. It is not a bipartisan but a multi-partisan approach that is required. The latter should be broad enough to include the LTTE and the TNA. We must make adversity an opportunity to heal the wounds of war and hatred that divide the principal communities inhabiting our island. In this sense it is tragic that certain elements are trying to derive sadistic pleasure from the loss of lives in the north and east. Even the media cannot be absolved from this sin. It would be naive to think that losses in the battlefield could be offset by natural hazards. We also see some isolated individuals singing their old tunes of religious acrimony entirely oblivious to the tragedy we are facing. Still some others are going on a looting spree, looting even the relief supplies. They even fleece the kith and kin of the deceased and are extorting huge sums of money to release dead bodies they had forcibly and illegally taken into their custody. It is a shame and they should be punished severely. The lukewarm attitude to the relief efforts by the UNP and their sectarian efforts to score political mileage compels one to ask whether they are deriving cynical pleasure from the enormity of the challenge before the UPFA government. Another positive sign is the generosity with which the international community is responding to the situation. The magnanimity of our people, their heroic efforts to assist the unfortunate brethren and the generosity of the international community are positive elements of the present scenario that could certainly help us to rise from the debris like the legendary phoenix. The challenge, however daunting could be overcome. We shall overcome. |
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