Staging Satyagraha During The Pandemic; The Opposition’s “No” To Prioritizing Politicos In Vaccination To Prevent The Covid-19

By Athulasiri Samarakoon –MAY 27, 2021

Dr. Athulasiri Samarakoon

When I heard the news of the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, and his wife Jalani Premadasa getting infected with the Covid-19, the first thought that came to my mind was that it was impulsive not to take the vaccine despite the prioritized opportunity available. Few (4-5%), including myself, already had the benefit of receiving the vaccine (say at least the first dose), but it will take a long time to vaccinate the target of 60% of the people in this country. During that long period to come, many more will become infected, and some will die tragically by losing immunity.

Today, the ratio of the Covid affected deaths in Sri Lanka may be higher than or is at a very similar rate like in India, in terms of the immense gap in the size of the two populations of the two countries. Thus, we will have to hugely regret the increase in Covid mortality due to the delay in importing the vaccine to Sri Lanka. However, the fact that there is at least a minority of political activists, who think that working for the common good instead of their health is a moral political activity, makes it imperative for us to rethink the relationship that should exist between politics and morality, which often seems to be in a state of ‘existent-non-existent’.

Priority for politicians

Nevertheless, the example of the Covid infection suffered by the leader of the opposition, Sajith Premadasa, one who was not vaccinated, proves that those who are vaccinated are more guaranteed a lower risk than those who are not. Most of the parliamentarians received the vaccine as another kind of privilege they enjoy when the leader of the opposition and some others refused to have it on ethical grounds, as the people were dying without vaccines. We can understand the need for vaccination, especially among politicians, public servants, medical and health workers, sanitation workers, and those in the police and education sectors who are in constant contact with the people.

Nonetheless, we think that that many in the opposition did not agree to give priority to politicians because they believed that it was inappropriate to protect themselves alone when the entire population was in danger. Here we need to appreciate those few politicians who have displayed some moral sense in this way when the entire state is in distress. Particularly, when the opposition can join the ruling party and form a ‘common class’ alliance to save the lives of its members, the practice of anti-vaccination politics until the vaccination reaches all the people is to be appreciated and promoted as an ethical-political act on a broader scale.

Nonviolent politics

At the outset, leader of the opposition had stated that he would not accept the vaccination for him until the last citizen would be vaccinated in the country. This is an idealist stance for sure because to vaccinate the last man would take more than one year or so, depending on the efficiency and ability of the government to secure a sufficient amount of vaccines from the competitive global market amidst unthinkable demand and insufficient supply. Also, in an age where political hypocrisy and the use of rhetoric by politicians is almost the norm, realistically the public may not be so naïve to accept such statements by politicians as well.

However, a few days ago when the leader of the opposition stated via his Twitter account that he and his wife were tested Covid positive the public perception drastically turned the other side – the country was convinced that the leader of the opposition had never got the vaccination and not lied to them. Naturally, the people, disregard of their political allegiances and party-politics, began to openly show sympathetic and sensitive attitudes towards the leader of the opposition, widely on social media.

This is an interesting phenomenon because the same kind of response was never seen from the people when the Minister of Health had been tested Covid positive some time ago; there was no vaccine available at that time, but the so-called local medicine such as Dhammika Paniya, etc. Why stress this fact about the people’s too different reactions to two politicians who got infection here? One reason may be the ever-growing apathy among people towards the government for its dangerous mismanagement of the entire process of providing the Covid vaccine to the people of Sri Lanka. The protest of the leader of the opposition, then, was respected by everyone mainly as an ethical act by a practicing politician who willingly put his life in danger on behalf of the others.

However, it is debatable whether this sudden change in public perception can be used politically by the opposition to win elections or not. Yet, it provides an avenue for the opposition to rethink their political strategy and realize immediately that there are still a large majority of people in this country who respect ethical and moral praxis of politics, and, accordingly, the importance of substituting to such exemplary principles for the future political process.

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