Sunday Times 2
Militarisation and hi-tech undermine health experts
View(s):A spontaneous uproar has erupted over the Government sidelining the health sector and accrediting itself and the military only with successfully controlling the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is no gainsaying that the health sector fully threw itself to the daunting task of controlling the first wave of Covid-19. It was able to win public confidence, give health guidelines and monitor the situation till the first wave was successfully controlled.
True, the police and the military gave unstinted support to health officials, but to now sideline the health experts who played a major role to control the first wave, and accredit only the Government and the military with the success, not even realising that all is not over yet, is, to say the least, cheap, selfish and contemptible.
Worse still is that the military, now playing the lead role, has decided to use hi-tech drones to locate curfew violators in areas under lockdown. A drone squadron has been established under the Army’s Artillery Regiment, purportedly for this purpose.
This overkill is a criminal waste of public funds, whereas the area constable, grama niladhari and area volunteers can be utilised for this purpose at minimum cost. Surely, meeting such curfew violators and discussing their problems on personal level, rather than locating them from aerial view and arresting them, will help to redress their problems. That is if fighting Covid-19 is the real purpose.
Another major aspect in sidelining the medical sector, is the loss to the country, of that further expertise gained by the medical sector who played the major role in tackling the first wave of the pandemic.
It looks though that the military is in search of an enemy. Those at the ground level have not enough meat to catch the eye. Drug paddlers, hired assassins, the underworld and many of their likes, cannot be tracked down by drones. But that is not the game. What is made to appear is more a diversion to a planned agenda than to the real situation. Curfew violators are like for sale just now. Statistics gleefully announced by the spokesman reveal the story.
Miserable curfew violators on two legs, not on wings, who are caught in the net are not of the category of the underworld, where the real problem of law and order is. Yet there is loud proclamation of these numbers that just help to add up to the story. Health officials, the High and the Low, have to wait in the sidelines for some drone recognition!
All this, of course, is old hat, but worn again and again as much as imagination can take it. History, however, bears witness to the repetition with calculated intervals, with a view to avoid inquisitive eyes. But to discerning eyes the cracks are showing.
Strong apprehension has been generated that the hi-tech drones will be utilised to intrude into people’s privacy. May be political or business rivals, their secrecy is endangered. Cybercrime will be committed unabated. A ‘Gestapo’ styled governance is not what the people voted for.
Much concern is also being expressed that the pandemic is being used as a portal for empire building. Militarisation and hi-tech drones then are not an overkill!
(The writer is a Retired Senior Superintendent of Police. He can be contacted at
seneviratnetz@gmail.com ;
phone 077 44 751 44)