Militarisation Of The Dengue Mosquito?

by Gamini Weerakoon

(July 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka’s macho war heroes of the Special Task Force and some units of the army are to be deployed to fight the dengue mosquito, reports last week said. Their objective could be presumed to be ‘humanitarian’, as ‘humanitarian’ the military actions were during the ‘war’. Eradication of mosquitoes by prevention of their breeding and not by killing would perhaps be the stated objective of this ‘humanitarian’ high command.

Deployment of crack troops to ‘kill’ or eradicate mosquitoes seems incongruous and rare in military history. Whether the British deployed their troops in Sri Lanka during World War II to combat malaria is not clear. Perhaps they used civilian Sri Lankan forces.

Turning guns into rice and curry

Lanka’s ‘war’ against terrorism ended 14 months ago but the dream of pacifists of converting ‘guns to butter’ or into rice and curry is far from being realised. The deployment of troops to fight the Aedes egypti mosquito may be stated as a move in this direction. The troops have not been demobilised and the arms are being stockpiled, we are told. The soldiers are in their barracks presumably engaged in ‘spit and polish’ exercises. It is now proposed that they should fight the deadly mosquito. The mosquito is devastating the lives of people in many countries in the Asian, African and South American continents but we have not come across reports of any of the armed forces being used to fight the disease. The impact of the release of military men into civilian neighbourhoods — homes and gardens has to be considered.

Campus frolics

One report last week said that the STF would be deployed in university campuses as well. Those who have been in such campuses are bound to question why our undergraduates who threaten ‘to shed their last drop of blood’ for the country and various other causes — worthy and lost — are not venturing out on their own to protect their own blood for donation to their favourite causes. It should also be noted that however good the intentions of armed forces are, khaki on campuses are like fire and dynamite brought together.

Travails of civilians

Meanwhile, the new Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena along with his colleagues, is appealing to all sections of the populace to help fight the mosquito which seems to be invincible. Public Health Inspectors in their military style uniforms are breathing fire and brimstone on hapless citizens to keep their gardens and homes mosquito free. An aged gentleman living down our road was trying to find a ladder to be used to clear his gutter on the second storey. Even if a ladder was found, he wouldn’t risk climbing it and he was unable to find an odd job man to do the job. “Bloody gutter snipes want Rs 500 for the job; it’s a choice between this gutter snipe and a Rs 25,000 fine by courts”, he muttered.

Government offenders

While homes and gardens have been cleaned up as never before, are the local government authorities performing as well? We are not experts on public health but it does strike us that some local bodies are mosquito breeders. For example there are many streets both in the Dehiwela – Mt. Lavinia Municipality and the Sri Jayewardenapura Municipality with deep open concrete drains that do not appear to have outlets or are blocked midway by dirt which the authorities seem to ignore. These drains built at the tax payers’ expense are likely to be nurseries of the dengue mosquito.

Recently we were unfortunate enough to see a stinking, nauseating drain by the office of the Rajagiriya Western Province Council which issues revenue licences for motor vehicles. It made us almost throw up. This canal extends from the Nawala marshes under the road to parliament and proceeds to Rajagiriya and beyond. Better breeding places for mosquitoes, we venture to say, cannot be found. There are many such canals in Colombo and suburbs.

Provincial government parasites

While summoning martial assistance to fight the dengue mosquito may be the last resort even of the all powerful Rajapaksa government, citizens are entitled to ask what the provincial councils and local bodies under them are doing. We have yet to see at least one of these well endowed gentlemen at state expense going round their electorates getting first hand knowledge from their constituents about the hazards of dengue. What have they been doing since the last dengue epidemic? Awaiting another epidemic to strike?

They have been for the past 14 months appearing at busy junctions, gobbling kiributh and kavun and singing praises of their great leader during the day and making repeat performances on TV at night while the dengue mosquito keeps stinging. It is time the rate payers demanded that these parasites be sacked and their institutions closed. Are they the outcome of the ‘devolution of power to the periphery’ on which our constitutional experts waxed eloquent on for years? Are the duties of these ladies and gentlemen with devolved powers now to be taken over by the Sri Lanka Police and the Army? The least said about the Health Ministry, the better.

Military rule?

The STF and the army with their military efficiency, most likely, would do a good job eradicating the mosquito. But it would be a dangerous trend if the civilian administration cannot perform their day-to-day duties such as controlling breeding of mosquitoes. We are well aware that the armed services are capable of performing vital duties to keep the essential services to the community going. Operation of harbours and airports, transportation in buses and trains, maintenance of power supplies etc. are some such duties. But if the community turns out to be dependent for essentially civilian duties such as control in breeding of carriers of diseases such as flies and mosquitoes, garbage disposal etc, the armed forces become institutionalised for civilian service and the country will be slipping into army rule or rule by all the security forces.

This is all the more dangerous because emergency rule now appears to have become a permanent fixture. An Executive President with full presidential powers and a near two third majority in parliament should not resort to use of the police and military to provide public health services to the people. What is happening is the use of a mosquito for further militarisation of government.

Militarisation of the dengue mosquito should not happen.