| December 24, 2008 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 25, 1429 |
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The downside to paradise
There have been long lines at the fuel pumps across Sri Lanka these last few days. Not because of a shortage or a transport strike, but because of a Supreme Court decision. When oil prices plunged around the world, they did not come down as quickly for drivers. This resistance to adjust pump prices is a universal phenomenon as governments profit more from taxes when prices are high. There is a tendency to gouge more from citizens, and so bureaucrats are reluctant to pass on the benefits of low prices to their citizens. Over thirty years ago, the Shah of Iran famously observed that the exchequers of countries importing petroleum made more money from the commodity than OPEC members did.
In Sri Lanka, the ongoing civil war has imposed huge costs on an economy already hard hit by falling demand for tea, the chief export earner, as well as falling numbers of tourists. So although oil has dropped to $37 a barrel after having climbed to nearly $150 a few months ago, the government had pegged the price per litre of petrol at Rs122. When a citizen appealed to the Supreme Court that this price was too high, the Chief Justice agreed, and directed the government to reduce it to Rs100 per litre. The cabinet refused to accept this ruling, arguing that it was the government’s right to fix taxation levels as it had certain costs to meet, and the judiciary had no right to interfere.This stand-off has precipitated the current crisis as pump owners are reluctant to buy stocks at the higher price, fearing that the government may fall in line with the judicial decision, leaving them with higher-priced products. To compound the problem, one distribution group has implemented the court’s decision, with the result that some pumps are selling petrol at Rs100 per litre, and are witnessing long queues, while others have run out of stocks.
This crisis reflects the pro-active style of the present chief justice who has been hearing a string of civic issues, and handing down some decisions that have stung Mahinda Rajapakse’s government. However, this is not to suggest that there is any confrontation of the kind Pakistan witnessed last year. Pro-government figures have accused the opposition of being behind this crisis, thus hampering the war against the Tamil Tigers that is now reaching its climax in the north of the country. One coalition partner, the left-wing nationalist JVP, insists that the government should help the people in a period of rampant inflation by adhering to the Supreme Court verdict.
This tension between judicial activism and executive authority has accompanied the evolution of democracy. In Sri Lanka, one effect of the war has been the gradual erosion of human rights. This is a touchy subject with the government, and it has reacted to criticism by restricting access of the media and NGOs to the war zone. In fact, visas to volunteers and employees of international human rights organizations have been routinely refused. Local journalists have been roughed up, allegedly by pro-government thugs as well as members of security agencies.
The result of this virtual absence of neutral observers has been to black out hard news from the front. Only the official version is available, and the LTTE uses the Internet to put out its version. Its most popular website, www.taminet.com, has been blocked locally. As a result, no unbiased report of the war is currently available, although some local reporters with good contacts in the army do report accurately. Whatever the source, the unanimous view is that the LTTE has been squeezed by a relentless army push that has followed a strategy of attrition and positional warfare.
But these issues seem very distant from where I am. In my remote bit of paradise, I only get the newspapers occasionally when somebody is going to shop in the local town. And while our satellite TV does give us international news, reports from the north of the country are harder to come by. For a news junkie like me, the slow and erratic Internet connection is hard to get used to. Normally, I scan newspapers from several countries on my laptop wherever I am. But the radio signal we receive in our beach house is too weak for a decent connection to the Internet, and the amount of time I waste to download email and newspaper pages is a source of constant frustration. However, this is just about the only downside to the paradise I find myself in. In fact, given my dissolute lifestyle, this is the only kind of heaven I am likely to know, in this life or the next.
The house is currently full of children and friends, and everybody is delighted at being here. Given our remote location, the beach is virtually empty apart from the local fishermen who often walk in to sell us their catch of the day. Yesterday, I bought nearly 15 kilos of fish to cater for the entertainment we will be doing over the holiday season.
Visitors have brought me papers and magazines from Pakistan and England over the last couple of days. Their pages have been full of political and economic gloom and doom. But somehow, I must confess that I have been unable to get very worked up over news of distant disasters. As I swim slowly on my back in the evening, I can see the clouds and trees overhead. But mostly, I look at the procession of birds that fly overhead. Sri Lanka is a birdwatcher’s heaven, and we have a huge variety frequenting our garden and our beach. Swallows dart quickly around, and stately white ibises flap their wings gracefully as they return to their nests. The occasional kingfisher makes a spectacular entrance with its brilliant blue feathers, and small bats begin their nocturnal hunt for insects. The last to appear are huge fruit bats that travel to distant forests to eat.
But before you start envying me this sojourn in paradise, let me add that the biggest downside is the presence of sand flies that inflict painful bites at certain times of the day. However, given what’s happening around the world and in Pakistan especially, I’ll take the sand flies any day.
