Casinos and keepers of the law
View(s):This week’s BT-RCB poll on the issues relating to the emergence of a new casino culture drew the largest ever response seen so far.
The Business Times, and lately in collaboration with Colombo-based Research Consultancy Bureau, has been conducting email polls for many years on issues of national interest. The RCB poll is conducted in Colombo city while some are conducted across the country. Both polls have become a popular outlet to express the people’s voice.
The email response to the ‘casino’ poll was the bigger ever since the newspaper started this trend of polling. People from all walks of life responded to the poll, articulating their views on an issue that has stirred debate in Sri Lanka with religious groups, jointly and individually, opposing this kind of development.
The core of the issue is the James Packer-mixed development project on D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha that would include an upmarket casino aimed at enticing high-spending Indians, Middle Easterners and other Asians away from traditional hotspots like Macau and Singapore, to Sri Lanka. Along with this are two other casino-related developments by business magnate Dhammika Perera and conglomerate John Keells Holdings. Opponents say that this high-stakes gambling could encourage anti-social activity like illegal drugs and prostitution and ruin Sri Lanka’s culture.
The debate however is silent on the many betting shops, horse racing centres and the casinos that already exist and have encouraged drugs, escort girls and prostitution, particularly through many Chinese and Russian women found in the casinos.
While the respondents on the BT poll were mixed on whether casinos should be allowed or not, the RCB street poll had a clearer message: Casinos are negative to society.
Interestingly, however, in both polls the respondents who were positive in opening Sri Lanka to mega casinos, were also cautious. The majority said foreign-operated casinos should be properly regulated and strictly open for foreigners only.
But in this category, most were also not too confident of the regulatory mechanism and questioned whether it would be properly implemented.
In essence the argument came back to the perennial question of ‘does the rule of law work in Sri Lanka; is it properly implemented”.
On that score, Sri Lankans positive on casinos as a growth sector in post-war Sri Lanka, were unsure whether the regulatory mechanism would be strictly enforced or restricted only to the masses while exempting a select few.
That’s nothing new. That the law works only for some people (mostly middle and rural classes) is a fact however much the police or the authorities try to put on a bold face to say that ‘everyone is equal before the law’. In recent times, people went to court to seek justice through constitutional means like human rights and/or fundamental rights petitions, if all what the police delivered was ‘injustice’. Even that course now is raising some doubts in society.
Corruption and the rule of law are invariably linked. Large-scale corruption happens because the law doesn’t take its course and serves only one segment of the population. Take the recent controversy of an officer working in the Prime Minister’s office issuing a letter seeking a duty waiver for a particular consignment that was later found to contain heroin. The whole trial is in the media with the police yet to step in and take whatever action against the culprits. If it was an ordinary citizen, he or she would have been jailed by now! The irony is that the PM’s officer says – rather casually – that these letters, seeking waiver or providing favours are given all the time! Isn’t this tantamount to a bribe? Isn’t this a corrupt act, using one’s high office to get favours done or seek undue advantage? The Prime Minister is also answerable for allowing this to happen. His integrity comes into question.
Integrity and its lack were also stressed by eminent jurist Prof. C.G. Weeramantry when he delivered the keynote address at the National Integrity Awards ceremony by Transparency International Sri Lanka on Monday.
“Somehow it (integrity) has been lost sight of the world over and that is for valid reasons. One is that the law by itself is unable to detect every instance of breach of confidence or breach of promise and so on, and it’s quite easy to find the loopholes in the law,” he was quoted as saying.
He said integrity and total honesty is absolutely essential in the discharge of affairs that are undertaken, particularly in public affairs. His message was clear: “There is no room for corruption. It has to be fought at all levels. The people have a duty and an obligation to expose corruption.”
Brave words indeed but who is listening? In today’s world, corrupt individuals also happily justify their actions. “Why are people picking on me? Everyone has been doing this (a particular dubious action) in the past, so why am I only targeted?” said an arrogant officer of a state-controlled institution. The “two wrongs don’t make a right” argument is old hat and no more pricks the conscience of society.
The success of this week’s BT-RCB poll reflects the desire of Sri Lankans to express their views without fear built mainly on the credibility of the paper not to expose the identity of the respondents. People don’t freely express their views on a national issue but BT-RCB polls have triggered an avalanche of comments based on trust and confidentially.
So even if the public is losing confidence in the law and its keepers, they have not lost faith in the media to act as their trusted watchdog, as the BT-RCB polls have repeatedly shown.