Columns

As I write this the World Health Organisation has just declared the Coronavirus a global emergency. That was 18 minutes ago. What the WHO and others monitoring the situation would say next is hard to say.

The WHO itself has admitted that it had made a mistake in an earlier assessment when it called the global risk “moderate”. Given the spread of the virus and the fact that it has already been detected in 18 countries outside China, one can only speculate whether the weekend will be the harbinger of more bad- or even worse- news.

Minister Bandual Gunewardena adrressing the media conference flanked by GMOA's Dr. Samantha Ananda and others

Meanwhile here in London face masks are running out in the pharmacies and shops. On Wednesday I was able to pick up some throw-away face masks from a nearby pharmacy that sold its last dozen to me after I heard that retailers in Colombo and in some other cities had run dry after a rush to buy what little stocks they had on the shelves.

Meanwhile Government spokesman Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Higher Education, Research and Innovations ( I wonder how he manages to get all that into his business card) told a news conference the other day that the government had not instructed anybody including students to wear face masks.

The minister claimed some persons are trying to capitalize on public concerns-and even fear- to sell the masks at hand in their shops at prices several times more than the usual selling price and so make a huge profit.

Some reports said that N95-type face mask ( whatever that is) was selling at Rs 150 compelling the Health Ministry to impose price controls which is a good thing. It is typical of our retailers and other businesses to exploit public fears to make a fast buck.

Some media cited the authorities as saying that due to the sudden “imbalance between supply and demand” the prices had been pushed-up by sellers. It would have been much simpler if they just said that stocks were running out or retailers were holding them back to sell at higher prices instead of breaking into economic lingo about supply and demand as though they had just left Bandula Gunawardena’s tuition classes in days gone by.

 Such use of basic economic terms would have warmed the cockles of Minister Gunawardena’s heart throwing his mind back to the days when hordes of would- be economists streamed out of his tuition classes near Nugegoda.

It might well be that it was one of his former students who had landed in the Health Ministry but still recalled the unforgettable experience of lessons learnt in those classes and perhaps under Mr Gunawardena’s watchful eye, that such economic principles came to mind as he (or she) sat down to draft this treatise.

Having doubtless calculated the unconscionable profits retailers of face masks were making, economist Mr Gunawardena excoriated them for exploiting public fears while the Health Ministry was grappling with the possibility of letting loose the law on these profiteers.

It was not mentioned whether the ministry is consulting Attorney-General Dappula de Livera on how to nab the exploiters and deposit them in the Delft or some far off island as the Australians do to unwelcome asylum seekers.

But then AG Livera must surely be otherwise busy batting (or is it battling?) on many fronts with several breathing down his neck. So it is better for the ministry to turn to the AG’s spokesperson for some legal advice.

Surprise, surprise. At the same news briefing was a doctor named Samantha Ananda, representing the GMOA. What he was doing there doling out medical advice which had little to do with coronavirus one cannot quite fathom, unless of course he was not given enough coverage to justify his presence.

If this coronavirus scare occurred around this time last year, the GMOA would have been demonstrating outside the Chinese Embassy demanding that all Chinese nationals be sent home. Why, they might even have been calling for Chinese restaurants to be shut down and noodles banned even at home.

Those were the days when the drop of a diphthong was sufficient cause for the GMOA to take to the streets. They might not have been barefoot doctors having educated themselves in medical colleges at state expense, but  they were often on their feet, demanding places in the best schools for their children or duty free cars which would be used to travel from their state jobs to private hospitals round the corner, as it were.

If a rattle was sufficient cause for Twiddledee and Twiddledum to prepare for ‘battle’, the GMOA did not even need that to go on strike or stay away from work while patients, especially the rural poor, suffered for lack of medical treatment.

So what has happened to Dr Padeniya and his merry docs who have suddenly gone silent? Where are those vociferous stethoscope-wielders who would intervene even if the subject at issue had nothing to do with their profession?

Maybe they are covering themselves with face masks because the public are still irate over the despicable conduct of GMOA members who would discard their Hippocratic oath to engage in political tub-thumping.

Minister Gunawardena told the media that the government had not issued instructions on the wearing of face masks and if the need arises the authorities would inform the public.

But one can be certain that there are many who would wish the government had instructed so. No, not because of the fear of the Chinese virus spreading along its much- discussed Belt and Road initiative.

There are many politicians and their ‘catchers’ as they are called, who would rather cover their faces than expose them to public view. Many of them have robbed the state and the tax payers through corrupt deeds including bribery and other forms of graft.

They are known to the public for their lifestyles have noticeably altered. The promised crackdown announced by loquacious politicians from platforms on these robbers of the public purse has never materialized. They have escaped justice.

Some of them can hardly put their faces outside their luxury residences. That is why they wish wearing masks be made permanent. At least then they could move around in public without being recognized for the crooks they are.

There is a good reason for making face-covering masks compulsory. It not only covers the face especially of those should not be seen in public. It will hopefully stop politicians and their hangers-on from uttering so much nonsense and make promises they never intend to keep.