Saturday 18th January, 2025

The JVP-led NPP asked for a working majority in Parliament to carry out what it called a clean-up campaign on the cards. Believing in its rhetoric, the people gave it a two-thirds majority instead. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake asked for mops and brooms for the grand clean-up, but the people gave him a bulldozer, so to speak. They did so because they wanted to strengthen his hands to overcome challenges and obstacles, upend the existing systems and serve their interests, but the government has not even been able to tame the millers’ cartel and private bus operators who have become a law unto themselves. It has even failed to make public officials fall in line.

Following a recent meeting between President Dissanayake and the Customs bigwigs, at the Presidential Secretariat, to discuss inordinate delays in container clearance, the government declared that the situation would be remedied in four days and the Customs would work 24/7. But that claim too has become a broken promise. Long lines of container trucks are still seen on the roads leading to the Orugodawatta terminal of the Customs.

Truckers have been struggling to gain access to food, water and sanitary facilities for days. They blamed the Customs for their suffering. One of them was heard saying on television yesterday that the people who had given President Dissanayake a huge mandate, expecting him to deal with errant state officials with a firm hand, felt badly let down. His view no doubt resonates with all others who backed the NPP overwhelmingly, hoping for a radical change.

Large-scale rice millers and private bus operators are running parallel governments to all intents and purposes; they scuttle the incumbent regime’s half-hearted attempts to control them. Even President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former battle-hardened frontline combat officer, dared not take on the wealthy rice millers, who are known to throw money around and have governments on a string. Today, the situation has become so bad that even state officials are defying presidential directives with impunity.

Customs clearance delays cause huge losses to importers, who pass them on to customers. It is the public who bears the cost of delays caused by the Customs. A spokesman for importers has said there has been no increase in the import volume of late, and therefore the Customs clearance delays are unpardonable. He has said delays cannot persist if the Customs are working 24/7 in keeping with their promise to President Dissanayake. Curiously, the government has not cared to find out whether the Customs have streamlined their clearance operations.

Shouldn’t the government be considerate enough to take action to provide the truckers who have been waiting in their vehicles for days, with mobile toilets, food and water until the Customs grandees eliminate delays?

Of what use is a government that cannot ever so much as make public officials carry out their duties and functions efficiently? Where are the cantankerous NPP ministers?