Reacting to unfortunate incidents which arise from state officials’ negligence is done with such precision in Sri Lanka, it ought to be classified as a tradition. The Sri Lanka state apparatus, and much of our community, believe in post-incident action. We are not, going by decades of tragedies and mishaps, fond of taking preventive action, or building resilience to reduce the impact of threats and challenges which often loom on the horizon – long enough to notice, but not be taken seriously.

Yesterday began one such operation, with state and city officials scrambling to assess the health of roadside trees – and finally doing their job of trimming the ones which had overgrown – days after one collapsed onto a Deniyaya-bound bus, which had departed from Pettah, near the Liberty Roundabout in Colpetty. The tragedy, which claimed the lives of five commuters and left 11 injured, could have been prevented if periodic assessments of the trees within the city, and near roadside locations, had been surveyed as mandated. However, like many important functions of the State, and of city agencies, those who live in the vicinity of the fallen tree alleged that their concerns about the safety of the tree, fell on deaf ears. In any other democratic nation, where there was good governance, State and city officials responsible would have been suspended, or brought to book through disciplinary action. However, we Sri Lankans are not blessed with such basic accountability practices.

The national leadership, over the years, has become accustomed to throwing money at grieving families in an attempt to wash off the blood on their hands, and show some “accountability” when such tragedies happen. This practice should be beneath that of a democratic society. However, our policymakers and State officials have long known that many amongst us can be “bought off” with such smokescreens. How can one put a price on the life of a person? According to the State, what should be criminal negligence, has now put a postmortem price of Rs. 500,000 on the lives of the commuters who boarded that fateful bus. This could have happened to any one of us. If it happened to you, wouldn’t you want your family to be told why it happened, and why it was not prevented? We should be ashamed of ourselves, that our policymakers treat us this way. 

Following a public outcry about the incident, it was revealed that the Colombo Municipal Council, which had purchased an expensive scanner to check the health of such roadside trees, had not used it due to a lack of expertise. Post incident, now that the information is out, the bureaucratic damage-control measures are now in full swing. The city and State apparatuses that failed those who were killed and injured due to “an unfortunate incident” have now suddenly been mobilised, and seem to have found the expertise, funds, and resources which they had apparently lacked before, to get the job done. But for how long will this charade last? A week? A month? Who knows? We will think about it when the next tragedy occurs.

The public should ask three key questions: Why was the State and city apparatus, which was responsible for preventing and mitigating such risks, non-functional? Why are such roadside trees neglected till they become a risk to the public? And are the vehicles used for public transport in Sri Lanka safe, and up to international standards? We would encourage our readers to utilise the Right to Information Act (RTI) to question bureaucrats and city officials, while also asking such questions from our policymakers.

Public officials, who are paid a wage and empowered by law – equipped and resourced by the sweat on the brow of taxpayers – have been for decades not taken to task, and the fallout from such weak governance has shown consistently over the last few years. Examples include the poor response and management of the MT New Diamond and MV X-Press Pearl disasters, the Easter Sunday bombings, and multiple incidents involving low-quality passenger buses, driven in an unsafe manner by incompetent drivers, not to mention poor road and bridge infrastructure, which have also been neglected. The examples are endless – the energy crisis, power crisis, food security crisis, forex crisis, and the resultant bankruptcy; these are all reminders of how the lack of transparency and accountability – and complacency – create tragedies.  Enough with closing the stable gates after the horse has bolted, State and city officials should get their act together and do their job, or be held accountable for not doing so.