Sunday Times 2
An urgent need to strengthen the people’s sovereignty
The recent presidential election superficially appeared to be a contest between two individuals. But, in fact, there were much deeper currents at work; currents that warned a supposedly sovereign people that there was an imminent danger of drowning and suffocating unless they took a firm stand against divisiveness based on ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious grounds, and rose above these differences.
Heeding this warning, people capable of facing reality without being swayed by primitive emotions, in spite of belonging to diverse groups, made up their minds to sink these differences and work towards a common aim of rejecting a type of monarchical rule which totally ignored the vast majority of the people and made a mockery of the constitutionally enshrined concept of the sovereignty of the people.
A thinking, and not emotionally driven people, deeply desired a drastic change towards a people-centred, people-oriented style of governance – a governance which treated all citizen of this country as equals; regardless of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious differences. It is only a united country that can maintain its true unitary status, provided this unity is reached through consensus among diverse groups and not by threat or coercion of smaller groups by a dominant majority.
The new President, together with a polychromatic group of political parties, offered to put in place such a change. From the time of his election the newly elected President has repeatedly maintained that he is Sri Lanka’s No One Public Servant. Today, the people who voted the new President into office are not placated merely by the President’s most welcome words. These words need to be matched by deeds which meet the people’s expectations.
The President has promised to eradicate corruption and take action against those who had indulged in corruption during the long period of stewardship of the former regime.
Just recently he addressed ministry secretaries requesting them to conduct their duties honestly and diligently and put an end to bribery, corruption, wastage and irregularities which were widespread in the state sector. This polite request clearly applies to the future.
But what about these evils which he said were widespread? It is this past that impacted forcefully on those who voted President Maithripala Sirisena into office. What has MS done to deal with these miscreants? This is a question many MS followers have begun to ask.
Sixteen days into his ambitious 100-day programme of cleaning up the garbage bins left behind by his predecessor and his fawning courtiers is quite a short period in which to achieve such a monumental task. No right thinking person wants him to go on a witch hunt where political opponents are dealt with without a proper legally based enquiry. What the people want and demand is justice, where all citizens, regardless of political affiliation and other differences mentioned above, are given a chance to defend themselves. Such inquiries, based on legally based norms take time. So the people must be patient. President MS clearly does not want to shake up the whole system of governance by giving way to easy knee-jerk responses.
Clearly, he needs to move cautiously and take early action, for the moment, only on misdeeds exposed after thorough and careful investigation by bodies responsible to Parliament, such as COPE and the Auditor General’s Department.
Over the years these two most important watchdogs of the nation have presented to Parliament a large volume of evidence of mismanagement, irregular and illegal fiscal procedures, fraud and corruption, involving powerful politicians and public officials acting in collusion with them, with a resultant colossal waste of public (the peoples’) money.
These reports of gross malpractice are sufficient to take action against miscreants. The current COPE Chairman who did not pull his punches complained on many an occasion that he had presented the results of his meticulous probes to Parliament, but, no action had been taken by the administration, through the agency of legally empowered bodies like the Bribery Commission. We all know that the previous administration looked the other way, even when it was fully aware that such malpractices had taken place and continued to do so.
But MS, on the basis of his promises to the people, is honour bound to act and do so fast; lest the huge sharks escape to shark protected havens leaving the sprats to take the rap.
Some supporters of the programme for a change towards Better Governance, are beginning to suspect that appointing MS as Chairman of the SLFP was a cunning ploy to save the big boys of the SLFP from being hauled before the courts.
Finally, although certain investigations have been set going on some allegations involving the one-time highest in the land and his closest courtiers, not to mention highly placed, powerful public officers alleged to be responsible for siphoning off huge sums of the people’s money, people are concerned that we may be fed with the old and familiar refrain. “The evidence is insufficient to prosecute the offender.”
Finally, all concerned citizens of this land hope and pray that the new President will keep in mind that his highest loyalty is to Sri Lanka and its people and not to his fellow travellers in the SLFP of which he is now chairman. President MS is too experienced a politician to be taken in by the hordes of people wanting and waiting to kiss his hand.
We wish him All the Very Best in his most responsible task of carving out a better future for Sri Lanka, not merely for the present generation, but for generations to come. A Sovereign People must remain unfettered to assist him in this endeavour.