Sunday 19 February 2012 
A gitation against fuel price hikes, the falling rupee against the dollar, and the threat of a resolution at the Geneva UN Human Rights Commission at the end of the month – all seemed to be much more than any government could weather easily in a week. Obviously then, it was one of the toughest weeks since the Mahinda Rajapaksa UPFA administration came to power in the November of 2005.The question largely unasked so far but badly needs an answer, is whether the government would have to cave in on more than one front to the ubiquitous ‘foreign forces?’ In Geneva, it is beyond doubt that the state will give one hell of a fight to whatever challenges are aimed at it – but on a less visible front, did the government have to cave into the diktat of the IMF, to carry out those by now well known fuel price increases that almost represent a kidney punch aimed at ordinary people in terms of a cost-of-living rise?
Spiralling out of control
Whether the IMF prevailed upon it or not, the decision by government was to pass on the costs of fuel to the people, because, it appeared that it did not want to bankrupt the state by granting continuous subsidies to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation CPC), and the Electricity Board which bought fuel from 
the CPC.
Whatever prompted the government to take this decision, things seemed to spiral out of control almost from the very minute these price hikes were announced.
Bus owners went on strike, and the fishermen in Chilaw went on a march — but the bus owners had previously agreed to accept a government subsidy on fuel, and so had the fishermen, except those in Chilaw.
The government finally caved into the demand by private bus owners to increase ticket fares by 20%.
This was strike one against the government due to the fuel hike.
More was to come. Strike two was when the Chilaw fishermen took to the streets, saying that a subsidy will not do, and fuel prices should be what they were before.
Undoubtedly there seemed to be others fishing in troubled waters; whether there was justification for this or not being an entirely different matter.
The Chilaw protests were the work of the JVP, working on the same lines as in the FTZ worker protests of last year, against the so-called private sector pension scheme.
It seemed the JVP came up with the same result as in those protests, with the armed forces, this time (STF some say), shooting at protesting fishermen with live bullets, resulting in the death of one young fisherman (please see page 3 for the full story on the incident.)
Reaction muted
On all of this however, the reaction of the government seemed to be muted, perhaps because those at the apex level of power had their minds concentrated on something of more crucial importance – the upcoming UNHRC sessions in Geneva where the US has threatened to back a resolution against the Sri Lankan government for non-implementation of the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) report.
The president was in Pakistan and Singapore, and no doubt among other aspects, there would have been moves through these governments to lobby UNHRC member states to vote in Sri Lanka’s favour at the Geneva deliberations.
The two high-ranking US officials here last week, Assistant Secretary Robert O. Blake and Under Secretary of State Maria Otero virtually told the government that there will be a resolution based on the ‘non-implementation of the LLRC report.’
The government’s retort was that this was totally unfair; all post war demands regarding detainees, refugees, and finally a reconciliation report had been acceded to, and given time, justice will be done on the LLRC report, the president said.
But Blake and his colleague seemed to be stubborn, and so it is going to be showdown time in Geneva, alas.
the CPC.Whatever prompted the government to take this decision, things seemed to spiral out of control almost from the very minute these price hikes were announced.
Bus owners went on strike, and the fishermen in Chilaw went on a march — but the bus owners had previously agreed to accept a government subsidy on fuel, and so had the fishermen, except those in Chilaw.
The government finally caved into the demand by private bus owners to increase ticket fares by 20%.
This was strike one against the government due to the fuel hike.
More was to come. Strike two was when the Chilaw fishermen took to the streets, saying that a subsidy will not do, and fuel prices should be what they were before.
Undoubtedly there seemed to be others fishing in troubled waters; whether there was justification for this or not being an entirely different matter.
The Chilaw protests were the work of the JVP, working on the same lines as in the FTZ worker protests of last year, against the so-called private sector pension scheme.
It seemed the JVP came up with the same result as in those protests, with the armed forces, this time (STF some say), shooting at protesting fishermen with live bullets, resulting in the death of one young fisherman (please see page 3 for the full story on the incident.)
Reaction muted
On all of this however, the reaction of the government seemed to be muted, perhaps because those at the apex level of power had their minds concentrated on something of more crucial importance – the upcoming UNHRC sessions in Geneva where the US has threatened to back a resolution against the Sri Lankan government for non-implementation of the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) report.
The president was in Pakistan and Singapore, and no doubt among other aspects, there would have been moves through these governments to lobby UNHRC member states to vote in Sri Lanka’s favour at the Geneva deliberations.
The two high-ranking US officials here last week, Assistant Secretary Robert O. Blake and Under Secretary of State Maria Otero virtually told the government that there will be a resolution based on the ‘non-implementation of the LLRC report.’
The government’s retort was that this was totally unfair; all post war demands regarding detainees, refugees, and finally a reconciliation report had been acceded to, and given time, justice will be done on the LLRC report, the president said.
But Blake and his colleague seemed to be stubborn, and so it is going to be showdown time in Geneva, alas.
