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Put the Railways back on track

Our front page picture yesterday of the almost deserted, doleful Fort Railway Station testified depressingly to the devastating impact of the current railway strike. Besides causing tremendous hardships for the numerous train commuters, the strike had a crippling impact on the economy, with day-to-day business and the transportation of goods to and from urban centres being severely affected.

The public's cup of sorrow is certainly filled to overflowing but it would be also relevant to ask: are things falling apart and the "Centre" proving its incapability to hold them together?

From what could be understood the trigger for the strike has been Government's decision to bring the Railways under the Railway Authority. There is deep and widespread apprehension over the rationale-if any-behind this move, among railway employees.

Apparently, they are yet to grasp how they would stand to gain by this decision and why the Railways couldn't have been revived under the dispensation which prevailed. Accordingly, greater public discussion should have been conducted on the pros and cons of this measure, prior to the decision to bring the Railway Authority into existence. In particular, the sense of insecurity among the railway workers and their unions needs to be addressed by the Government.

A striking railway unionist was quoted yesterday as asking whether the Railways too are going the "CWE way". Right away we need to emphasize that privatization - if this is intended - is no panacea for our ills. The State needs to preserve the "family silver" rather than sell it.

Unfortunately, the tendency over the years has been to bring ailing State sector services "under the hammer". As a result the vital needs of the majority of the public are being brazenly ignored. What has, then, become of the "Social Contract" which is believed to bind the State to the people? Are the vital interests of the public being bartered away?

The Government needs to pay heed to the allegations of corruption, dishonesty and mismanagement which are levelled against some of its functionaries in the public sector. Today, the situation is that the public interest is being callously disregarded by some who are hell-bent on making a fast buck. Until these parasites are brought to justice, the charge of misrule cannot be disproved.

This brings as to the partly paralyzed Bribery and Corruption Commission. Couldn't the President and the Government put their heads together and ensure the vibrant functioning of this vital institution? And couldn't the Commission ensure that the "big fish" rather than the "sprats" are brought to justice by it?

The political will needs to make its presence felt to put ailing public sector institutions, such as the Railways, back on track. These institutions need to be renewed from within rather than be rendered redundant from without.

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A dangerous contagion

Just when Asia is beginning to recover from the massive socio-economic damage caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) last year, a virulent bird flu has surfaced in several countries in the region. Asian countries wary of another epidemic are culling poultry and shutting their doors to chicken imports. Sri Lanka too has slapped a ban on imports of day-old chicks and introduced strict quarantine checks.

This trepidation is justified in the context of a World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that if bird flu mutates into a more contagious form it could kill millions of people. Influenza, longhand for flu, is usually regarded as a simple cold accompanied by fever, headache, coughing and muscular aches that can be tamed in a few days.

But flu is a furtive assailant which, in its most pathogenic strain, could wipe out a substantial section of the population. The 1918-19 strain of Spanish flu killed an estimated 40-50 million people. This is around twice the number of people who have died from AIDS in 23 years. In 1968, 700,000 people were killed globally by the "Hong Kong" flu.

Avian flu (strain H5N1), first identified in Italy 100 years ago, is only transmitted from poultry to humans, not from humans to humans. But viral strains mutate over time and swap genes with other viruses. This is why health authorities fear that the avian flu could merge with human flu.

Avian flu is extremely dangerous - a mortality rate of 33 per cent was recorded in the first outbreak in Hong Kong seven years ago. If bird flu's lethality and the human flu's contagiousness combine, the world will have a killer on the loose. No one would have antibody resistance to an entirely new strain. There will be no time to prepare and distribute a vaccine.

Breathing in virus-laden droplets coughed or sneezed by someone nearby is enough to get the disease, which can spread swiftly through air travellers.

Drawing on the SARS experience, Asian nations should get together to counter the threat posed by bird flu, with WHO assistance. Ignoring the very real danger posed to Asia's billions by this contagion could be a deadly mistake.

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