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Cost of living relief and social chaos

The appreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee against the US Dollar is further evidence of a local economy on the mend and needs to be warmly welcomed, particularly for its cost of living implications. Our hope is that these gains would translate into concrete relief from the nagging cost of living burden which has been weighing very heavily on the people.

This is an area of concern in the economy where an interventionist role by the State could be considered to be relevant. While State institutions, such as the CWE and its outlets, should prove attractive shopping options for all categories of consumers - poor or rich - price control mechanisms should be in place and prove effective to ensure that the resultant relief from the Rupee appreciation is passed on to the consumer. Meanwhile, although export earnings could decline somewhat as a result of the appreciation, this loss could be offset - as Finance Minister K.N. Choksy has explained - by a reduction in the cost of imports. All in all, the balance of payments position is unlikely to be affected gravely.

While vigorous pro-people policies need to be pursued by the State to ensure that the people would be beneficiaries of these positive economic trends, the need to establish and sustain societal stability shouldn't go unnoticed. We underscore this need in view of the continuing trade union unrest in some areas of the State sector and the continuing upward climb of crime and violence.

If a factual but succinct portrayal of the "state of the nation" is needed, one needs to only have a look at our Letters Page yesterday which carried an empathic but honest account of our country by a Western tourist. The writer says that she has no words to express her horror and grief on seeing "the appalling state of indiscipline and chaos" now dominant in Sri Lanka.

While the steady progress registered on the economic front needs to be welcomed, such gains could be summarily nullified by the lingering social and political discord in the country.

In this connection, we note with regret continuing trade union unrest in important institutions of the State, such as our major public hospitals, and call on the initiators of this wave of unrest to consider the grave hardships such chaos causes the people.

Another cause for deep regret is the violence and unrest in some of our prominent public schools, one of which was apparently hit by thuggery and the unleashing of violence on schoolchildren. While the law and order machinery needs to be doubly effective in these circumstances, we are quite aware of the fact that some forms of current violence could be politically - motivated. This is particularly so in the case of the current wave of trade union unrest in the State sector which has obvious economic and political implications.

To those hidden hands manipulating the current unrest we say: desist from a course which would ultimately prove suicidal. For, besides the people suffering grave hardships as a result of such actions, Lankan society would be further violently polarized on political lines.

In such a situation, no one would stand to gain. However, given its coercive capability, the State is unlikely to crumble under such pressure.

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