Political developments continue to keep pace with the pandemic in Sri Lanka as the Government pushes ahead with a series of measures to pursue its economic and development agenda, even while the health sector is consumed by the Coronavirus pandemic and its deadly aftermath in the country.
The number of daily deaths appears to have declined slightly in recent days, recording about 30-40 deaths per day, down from the over 50 deaths not so long ago. This appears to be a result of greater public awareness about the illness as well the effects of the vaccination drive finally yielding results.
The Government has clearly shifted its strategy to deal with the pandemic into one which emphasizes vaccination as a priority. Stymied for a while by the lack of adequate vaccines, it has now been able to secure increasing stocks, resulting in a more coordinated and comprehensive vaccination campaign.
For instance, this week, in a bid to streamline the vaccination process, the Ministry of Health introduced a service for residents in the Western Province to schedule their vaccine appointment online. This would assist the public in the districts of Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha.
That the Government was keen to pursue its vaccination strategy was evident when the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) expressed concern regarding the delay in the local experts’ panel approving the Chinese manufactured Sinovac vaccine for use in Sri Lanka.
Vaccination drive
The local experts’ panel is reportedly divided on the issue of approval making it difficult to reach a consensus regarding the vaccine. NMRA Chairman Dr. Rasitha Wijewantha said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed this vaccine reduces infections, severe disease and deaths.
The vaccine is produced by the Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Sinovac. Sri Lanka’s State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) is planning to purchase 2.5 million doses of the vaccine which according to some studies yielded an efficacy of over 80 per cent protection against the Coronavirus.
In another change, the Government approved the use of the vaccine in pregnant mothers. Previously, caution was advised in using the vaccines in pregnant females. This week the Health Ministry said all pregnant women above the age of 18 in their second and third trimesters can be vaccinated.
The Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases has recommended the vaccination of pregnant women with their informed consent, the Director General of Health Services Asela Gunawardena said. There were adequate stocks of vaccines to provide for pregnant females, he said.
In another major boost to the country’s battle against the pandemic, two researchers attached to the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Professor Neelika Malavige and Dr. Chandima Jeewandara have secured a US$ 200,000 grant to evaluate tests for the virus.
The grant is to be used to evaluate the two common tests used in the pandemic, the PCR test and the alternative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). The PCR test being significantly more expensive than the RAT, it would be extremely cost-effective if they could be substituted with RATs, officials said.
Presently Sri Lanka is carrying out about 15,000 PCR tests per day and 5,000 RATS daily. The RAT kits will be arriving in Sri Lanka over nine months. Only about 20,000 testing kits will be needed for the study. The remaining RAT kits will be handed over to the Health Ministry for general use.
Digital vaccination card
The Government is also developing a ‘digital vaccination card’ for those who have been fully vaccinated. This is in keeping with the concept of a ‘vaccine passport’ which most countries are likely to resort to by next year, once a significant percentage of the world’s population is fully vaccinated.
The digital vaccination card is being introduced by the Ministry of Health Ministry and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). Initially, it will assist Sri Lankans migrating to other countries or those travelling for long periods such as for higher studies.
Health Promotion Bureau Director Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawa explained that the card could be printed online with a special QR code by a person who has been vaccinated with both doses after producing the name and the Identity Card number of the person requesting for the card.
Dr. Batuwanthudawa said the Health Ministry hoped to vaccinate between 200,000 and 300,000 people daily over the next three months. Over five million people have been vaccinated so far in the country and over 60 per cent of people in Colombo District have already been vaccinated, he said.
With the health sector preoccupied with the pandemic, the Government also moved decisively to strengthen its political front, inducting Presidential sibling, former minister and key political strategist Basil Rajapaksa into the Cabinet of Ministers after being appointed to Parliament from the National List.
In keeping with the expectations and speculations from many quarters, Rajapaksa was sworn in before Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena last Thursday, this being the third occasion that he entered Parliament. He was elected to Parliament from the National List for the first time in 2007.
Minister Rajapaksa was the Minister for Economic Development from 2007 to 2010 in the Sixth Parliament, under then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. At the 2010 elections, he was elected from the Gampaha District with the highest number of preferential votes in Sri Lanka, a record 425,861 votes.
Minister Rajapaksa again served as Minister of Economic Development from 2010 to 2015 under then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and was widely credited with directing the post-war rehabilitation in the North and the East including the Uthuru Wasanthya and Negenahira Navodaya programmes.
It was however as a political strategist that Minister Rajapaksa has earned the most respect. After the 2010 General Election victory, when the then United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was a few seats short of a two-thirds majority, it was Rajapaksa who ensured that majority for the UPFA.
Following then President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at the 2015 Presidential Election, it was left to Basil Rajapaksa to resurrect the political fortunes by proposing the formation of a new political party to counter the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by then President Maithripala Sirisena.
Basil Rajapaksa did not contest the 2015 General Election as the 19th Amendment, which had been enacted at the time of the poll, debarred dual citizens from being candidates. The 20th Amendment, passed recently enabled Rajapaksa to return to Parliament while holding American citizenship.
Rajapaksa formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) which performed an electoral miracle, ousting the two giants in Sri Lanka’s political landscape, the SLFP and the United National Party (UNP) to win both the Presidential and General Elections in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
New Finance Minister
Basil Rajapaksa has been appointed as Minister of Finance, a portfolio held until then by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Social media was earlier rife with speculation that this would not occur and that the Premier would continue to hold the vital portfolio.
That however was not the case, although there was some confusion in the gazetting of institutions under the new Minister. Three institutions- the Central Cultural Fund, the Buddha Sasana Fund and the Buddhist Renaissance Fund- allocated to the new Finance Minister were returned to the Premier.
On another front, the Government is also gearing up to face the motion of no-confidence move against Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila. Although it is the opposition that is presenting the motion, it was triggered by SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam’s call for Gammanpila’s resignation after the oil price hike.
Several Government politicians including Kariyawasam, Minister Gamini Lokuge and State Minister Nimal Lanza have blamed the recent fuel price hike on Gammanpila but the embattled Minister held a press briefing this week to assert that the decision to raise prices was a collective decision.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has confirmed in writing that the price revision was a collective decision by the Cost of Living Committee chaired by him and Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister Gammanpila said. “If somebody disputes it, they are disputing what the President says,” he said.
It will be interesting to see how not only Government Parliamentarians who have spoken out against the Minister will vote, but also to observe how former Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe who entered Parliament from the UNP votes on a motion principally sponsored by the breakaway Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB).
Wickremesinghe also has challenges of his own. His appointment to Parliament on the UNP’s solitary National List seat almost a year after the last General Election is now being challenged in Court along with that of Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera, appointed from the Apey Jana Bala Pakshaya (AJBP).
The challenge has been launched by civil society activist Nagananda Kodituwakku in the form of a Fundamental Rights (FR) application in the Supreme Court and is based on the two parties not adhering to a Constitutional provision of nominating National List Parliamentarians within a period of one week.
These events will play out in the political theatre in the coming weeks. The Government’s main aim however is to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic through a rapid vaccination plan. That will help restore social life to the country and, in the process, restore productivity and economic activity.
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