Holy smokes! The Rajapakse government in a seizure of morality — against booze, tobacco and sex — last week announced measures to ‘wipe out the menace of alcohol and tobacco,’ pornography on TV, screening of ‘adults only films’ throughout the country, subjected all commercial telecasts on local TV to be approved by government before telecasting, as well as advertisements on radio and newspapers to be approved by the Public Performances Board. Government will also prohibit printing of lewd publications and newspapers. The Public Performances Board Act is to be given more powers.

Uneducated move

In addition to all these measures, the Education Department made an extremely uneducated move — banning mobile phones in schools after a girl who was found with a mobile phone, committed suicide in school. On Monday it was reported that a 15-year-old schoolboy of Imaduwa who had been punished by his father for smoking a cigarette in a toilet too had committed suicide. The road to hell it appears is paved with good intentions of moral guardians.

Former President of the Rationalist Society, Prof. Carlo Fonseka having donned the garb of moral crusader, as Chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol at a press conference on Tuesday declared that consumption of tobacco had been considerably reduced according to a Global Youth Tobacco Survey.

Tobacco  consumption among school children had declined ‘from 5 per cent in 1997 to 0.9 per cent while consumption among adults had dropped from 13 per cent in 1997 to 5 per cent at present.’ From now on serious steps would be taken to reduce tobacco and alcohol  consumption focused on preventing violation of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Act, Fonseka declared.

Great is the Chinthanaya

Like all appointees of the Rajapakse government Fonseka paid lavish tributes to President Rajapakse who he said was the first national leader to include anti-alcohol, anti-tobacco and anti-drug policies as a high national priority. Pity, he forgot to mention names of pioneers of the Temperance Movement such as Anagarika Dharmapala who campaigned vigorously for temperance at the height of British imperialism when revenue from taverns was considered vital to British interests.

True enough they did not hold ‘national office’ at that time but it was manifold more difficult a task than issuing presidential declarations.

This reduction in the amount of smoking by schoolboys claimed would be much more convincing had the learned professor told us of the methodology deployed in the survey and the size of the sample studied. Quite often such surveys are like opinion surveys conducted by ruling parties before polls. To determine the smoking habits of little rascals puffing away in closed toilets is no easy task.

As for the tom-tom beating of the success of Mathata Thitha (full-stop to intoxication) in all corners of Lanka, the Professor faces the impossible task of contradicting the statistics cited by the Minister of State Revenue and Finance, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya in Parliament. Production of liquor, the Minister said, had gone up by 16.9 percent in 2006 from the previous year (when the MT programme commenced); by 30.2 percent in 2007; 19.4 per cent in 2008.

Production of local arrack which stood at 38.4 million litres in 2005 rose to 44.9 m litres in 2006; 50.88 m litres in 2007 and 45.9 million litres in 2008. Foreign liquor sales had shown similar trends. Little wonder wags at the city’s bars say that Mathata Titha resulted in Tithata Matha (Full-stop was drunk) and now it is Mathata Hitha (Longing to drink). Arrack sales it should be noted is only a fraction of kasippu or moonshine sales — the poor man’s drink.

Sexless Lankans

All Sri Lankan governments have been increasingly opposed to sex. The accepted principle is: We Sri Lankans don’t have sex. We simply multiply like amoeba by simply splitting up into two or more amoeba. So no one will raise an eyebrow over the ban on ‘adults only’ films or pornography on TV. It will be well accepted by the pious with acclaim even though they will be longing to see such sex films.

Morality or politics

The danger however is about all commercial telecasts as well as radio and TV advertisements being subject to scrutiny of the Public Performances Board (PPB). Is this move made on behalf of safeguarding ‘the morals of the nation’ or using morality as a fig leaf to safeguard the interests of the government? Does it mean that political advertisements such as those appearing in newspapers prior to elections too will be subject to rulings of the PPB?  Is this preparation for elections?

Maniacs and nymphomaniacs

And what of the ban on cellular phones in schools by the Education Department, the museum of the fossilised relics of the nation like school principals? To them, cellular phones in the hands of girls or boys are dangerous weapons which could turn the girls into nymphomaniacs and boys into sex maniacs. They don’t see the utility value such as calling parents at home or their vehicles parked far away from school gates.

Perhaps time has dimmed their memories of such popular ditties half a century ago such as:

Telephone cumbi digge aalay karanne,

Meet me at the Savoy, kiya,

OK my boy kiya,

Denne anney…

Those were the days of land phones — one phone to about a thousand people but still the mating calls went through. With millions of cellular phones around — as much as ball point pens — what can the fossils in this so called Education Department do against youthful desires?          

History has shown us that good governance is only possible  through conviction and persuasion; not by rules, regulations and legislative enactments. Nanny governments, however well intentioned, have never been successful..