SL: A NATION OF HUMBUGS!

President, Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance
The 17 illicit liquor deaths and basic economics

When the price of a commodity keeps escalating, people will seek substitutes. That’s the reason for the 17 deaths in Weliweriya through alcohol poisoning. This fact lays the blame at the doorstep of the UPFAGovernment. fairly and squarely.

By jacking up the price of arrack with every annual budget or even otherwise, the poor man’s drink has become the drink of elite, while the low income earner has to turn to rotgut liquor. That is simple economics. Not only has the price of arrack kept escalating, but is also accompanied by the price increase in cigarettes as a corollary. It is easy to say: "People should not drink and smoke. But then let’s not forget the fundamental freedoms.

We Sri Lankans are a nation of humbugs from top to bottom. We make sanctimonious noises. For instance, films and tele dramas portraying drink scenes are censored whereas everywhere retail alcohol outlets proliferate. Censoring of liquor scenes on films/TV only kills the storyline. The UPFA Government. and its predecessors thrive on humbug. They were/are keen on excise revenue and force the low income earner into kassippu dens. The excise tariff is not to deter people from consuming alcohol. That’s sheer bunkum!

On Poya days, illicit liquor sales soar. With our culture of impunity, the police are in cahoots with illicit liquor barons and those plying retail outlets.

Not only has the price of the cheapest arrack shot exponentially, but the quality of drink has sunk to low levels.

I have been drinking arrack for more than fifty years. In those halcyon days, arrack was distilled from coconut arrack, but today it is blended with cheap foreign spirits that makes arrack injurious to health.

The low income earner will always love his tot, so why not give him an affordable, health drink, which will wean him away from rotgut liquor and consequently reduce healthcare costs for the country.

Or else, we ban the manufacture of all alcoholic products and stop importing foreign liquor and enforce prohibition or be practical minded and worldly wise allowing the tippler a safe and healthy drink at affordable rates.

A. N. Adikaram
Nugegoda

courtesy... www island.lk