Bribery and corruption
People may ask, pertinently, "who cares about bribery and corruption?’’ “The Government is not bothered, so are we -- and we have better things to worry about,'' they may say.

But bribery and corruption is universally recognized to be a malaise that could have a corrosive effect on the body politic of a nation. Graft usually retards growth, and if at all rarely stimulates it. In countries such as Sri Lanka, bribery and corruption exist from the top echelon to the bottom of the pile -- from the highest to the humblest. At the highest level, it benefits only a handful while depriving millions of ordinary citizens of a better future and subverts the system by giving an unfair advantage to the corrupt over the law abiding.

The bribery and corruption crisis in Sri Lanka has now entered a chronic stage displaying sheer inefficiency on the part of the country's two parallel governments, the Executive and Legislature both. Since February this year, as we have pointed out before, the Bribery and Corruption Commission is non-functional.

An attempt to appoint a respected former Court of Appeal judge and a former Chairman of the Public Service Commission to a vacancy on the Commission, proved futile due to some absurdity in the appointment process. Here is a textbook case of impractical policies standing in the way of results. It is a case of a well-known public official of years of distinguished service being asked to sit for a test, and answer questions drafted by someone from Mars.

Now comes a controversy over a set of Amendments to the Bribery and Corruption Law. The original law was poorly drafted in the first place. The President is now raising objections to these amendments.

The President's objections on the other hand, that the Commission's numbers must not be enlarged or that those qualified to be Commissioners must not be from a wider spectrum of endeavour has no merit. Having three commissioners of a fairly senior age is the crux of the problem that's impeding the functionality of the Commission at present. That these Commissioners must be retired Supreme Court judges flies in the face of what's required, because the President herself rejected a retired Supreme Court judge for this job saying he was corrupt.

Having retired Supreme Court judges sit on these Commissions is archaic public policy. The Commissioners must necessarily be those who do not get entangled with the prosecution arm of the Commission There now is a tendency for a blurring of identity between the prosecutors and the Commissioners, creating confusion and conflict.

What is needed today is a team of young, trained and qualified professionals, especially accountants and lawyers, policemen and IT specialists with a knowledge of international commerce and money laundering. Such people must have an idealistic zest for cleansing public life to do the work of the prosecution. There must be prosecutorial innovation. The infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone for instance was jailed for tax evasion when they could not nab him for bootlegging.

But all this talk of cleansing is pie-in-the-sky, when the biggest bribe-takers in this country are the political parties whose elections are fought and won on the buckshee of the crooked businessmen--for whom all governments have an IOU when privatization time comes and tenders for public utilities are on offer. So given that consideration, it would appear, in a sense, that there probably is cohabitation by both parties on this issue and a common understanding that there is no great urgency to rock the boat.

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