While Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya’s meeting in Tangalle saw empty seats, teachers who stayed away now face official inquiries, exposing a government that demands sacrifice from citizens but continues lavish motorcades and long distance political rallies during a crippling fuel crisis.
Teachers’ trade unions are protesting against what they describe as a political witch hunt against members who did not attend a meeting chaired by Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya in Tangalle on Sunday, March 15, 2026. Many seats in the Tangalle Municipal Council auditorium were left empty. The unions have taken exception to a letter sent by the Tangalle Zonal Education Office to school principals, asking them to explain why their staff members did not attend the meeting. Their consternation is understandable. When the show cause letter dated March 24 became public and received bad press, some trade unionists speculated that government politicians might try to dissociate themselves from it. The letter would not have been issued if the absence of teachers had not become a concern to the government, so it is unlikely that the Zonal Education Director acted without her superiors’ knowledge.
Teachers and other state workers should be free to decide whether to attend meetings held outside regular working hours, especially during weekends, and must not be penalized for skipping such events. The show cause letter can be seen as a kind of comeuppance for state sector teachers who, together with their union leaders, went out of their way to bring the JVP NPP to power, as did other state employees evident from postal vote results in 2024. Now, it seems mandatory for them to attend even unofficial meetings chaired by ruling party politicians.
Why should government politicians travel all the way from Colombo to faraway places to chair meetings while the country faces a crippling energy crisis that has prompted ruling party politicians to urge the public to reduce fuel consumption? Shouldn’t they practice what they preach?
VIP motorcades consist of dozens of vehicles, some operating undercover, blending into traffic as current leaders came to power promising to disband VIP security divisions and do away with huge security contingents. Whenever they travel, one can see lead cars, pilot vehicles, decoy cars, and many other vehicles carrying counter assault teams. They ought to travel less and help save state funds and precious fuel. They must follow energy saving guidelines issued by the Commissioner General of Essential Services. Almost all meetings attended by government leaders can be held online. State officials also have to travel long distances in official vehicles to attend events graced by politicians in power. Nothing usually comes of such meetings, which only help politicians wax eloquent and say very little in many words.
In Pakistan, fuel allocation for the state sector has been halved as an energy crisis management measure. Sixty percent of state owned vehicles have been taken off the roads, and fuel quotas for ministers have been abolished. Sri Lanka must adopt such austerity measures and ensure that politicians share in the hardships faced by the public. After all, present day leaders came to power promising to use public transport. This is the best time for them to make good on their election promises and travel with ordinary people in crowded buses and trains. They claim to be very popular, and a research organization would have the public believe that the approval rating of the incumbent government has increased to 65 percent. So there is no reason why ruling party politicians should hesitate to travel with hapless commuters.
About two months ago, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake went for a constitutional walk with only a single security officer in Jaffna, and the government released a video of his famous walk to gain political mileage. If the former war zone is safe for the Head of State and Commander in Chief to move about without heavy security, why can’t other government politicians travel in buses and trains or cycle to work? Above all, they insist in Parliament and elsewhere that law abiding citizens do not have to worry about frequent shooting incidents, which they describe as turf wars among drug dealers. They need not worry about their safety at all, for they say they have no underworld links. Shouldn’t they set an example to the public at least during the current fuel crisis by cancelling meetings and using public transport?
