The country became one big funeral on the eve
of the traditional New Year. Grown up men were crying like
babes. They were beating their hairy chests and pulling their
greying hair. They were weeping at their homes, in their
offices and on the streets. Not even the impressive victory
Mahela and the boys scored in the West Indies against the
Kiwis could cheer them up. What a heart rending spectacle!
Nay, there was no tsunami! Nor was there any tragic road
mishap! Then, what was the cause of their grief?
Liquor outlets had been closed without adequate
notice! Many had failed to secure that elixir of life in
sufficient measure. Those who had the foresight had stocked
enough spirit to avoid the usual last minute rush and attendant
disappointment. Winding queues could be seen near liquor shops
with ‘hives’ of dipsomaniacs clinging to the counters of squalid
liquor shops. Even those macho types who wouldn’t condescend to
oblige a request from their mothers or wives to make a short
trip to fetch a bottle of coconut oil, had no difficulty in
spending hours in queues for liquor!
Adding insult to injury, President Mahinda
Rajapakse, in his New Year message, appealed for a liquor free
national festival. Those who suffered most due to the
drunkenness of men, he said, were their wives and children. How
true! But, we don’t think those frustrated tipplers took kindly
to his appeal. They were gnashing their teeth and the President
was lucky that he appeared on TV. Else, they would have seized
the presidential killjoy by the saataka and made mince meat of
him!
Our intention is not to pontificate to the
drinking public about the virtues of teetotalism. Nor do we
intend to either praise or censure the President for his appeal.
Instead, we attempt a sober reflection on the hypocrisy of the
state as regards its efforts to force moral values on the masses
while engaging in activities that militate against its
objective.
Governments mount the moral high horse from time
to time, as was evident from the Presidential appeal for
abstinence (from liquor), while being the main beneficiaries of
the very vices that they campaign against. It is at the expense
of the lungs and the livers of the public that governments try
to bridge yawning budget deficits through tobacco and liquor
taxes.
What will happen if the people, by any chance,
all of a sudden decide to heed politicians’ advice and stop
smoking and drinking? In such an eventuality the political
humbugs will find themselves on a gum tree with a sharp drop in
the government revenue. Out of sheer desperation, they might
even seriously consider lifting the ban on liquor and tobacco
advertising in a bid to get the public to resume drinking and
smoking! So, when a government takes upon itself a campaign
against smoking and drinking, it is behaving like an arms dealer
advocating a peaceful resolution of a conflict or, to put it
bluntly, a pimp campaigning against prostitution! It is nothing
but plain hypocrisy.
The government’s much-publicized efforts to
reduce alcohol and tobacco addiction could be likened, as
Mahatma Gandhi said, to fueling the flames underneath a boiling
cauldron (cause) while trying to stop the flow of steam (effect)
with a lid. The government may have sought to reduce the demand
for liquor and tobacco through its advertising bans but it is
only wishful thinking that such measures will yield the desired
results. Narcotics, the government big brains behind those bans
should realize, are never advertised. Nor are they openly sold.
But, the demand for them is ever on the increase! Let it be
added immediately that we don’t oppose the bans in question,
lest out comment should be misconstrued.
What needs to be done urgently is to find ways
and means of reducing the demand for intoxicants, without
seeking shortcuts through manipulation of the supply. When the
supply is artificially reduced with the demand remaining high,
the inevitable outcome is the creation of a black market.
Illicit hooch dens must have had roaring business during the
past few days despite all the raids conducted by the Excise
Department. Given the plethora of shebeens and illicit
distilleries throughout the country, the Excise Department and
the police have their work cut out. On the other hand, most
rotgut joints enjoy political patronage. Some of them display
the mugs of their political patrons for everybody to see!
Remember once a minister had the audacity to claim that kasippu
was a cottage industry in the North-western Province and
therefore had to be taken for granted. With powerful politicians
in the pocket of bootleggers, it is not possible to stem the
flow of illicit liquor into the market.
The high incidence of alcoholism is a national
problem which defies piecemeal remedies. It is a sad reflection
on parents, the clergy, teachers, rulers and opinion leaders.
Sadly, even the clergy seem to have palmed off their duty by the
people to politicians, as manifest in their efforts to deal with
alcoholism and tobacco addiction through bans.
The success of a campaign against liquor and
tobacco addiction hinges on our ability to chip away at the
demand for those products. Sadly, the objective of the on-doing
campaign is far from that.
