Editorial

Transparency International (TISL)’s local branch has done some work on bribery and corruption in this country and disclosed some of its not-so startling findings. It said that a quarter of the population accept bribery and corruption as facts of life. What is surprising is that the figure seems conservative.

In recent election campaigns, both sides of the political divide hammered out the corruption card against the other pretending to be lily white themselves. The former government drew the attention of the voters to many allegations but the few cases already filed against their predecessors – now back in government. The accused became the accusers bringing out the Central Bank bond scam of the previous government. The unclean hands of both sides were further soiled by throwing mud at each other. But the mud did not stick as both sides had thick skins, and the people cared less.

Faced with these allegations and counter allegations, the hapless voter was left with ‘Hobson’s Choice’ at least on that score. Corruption was therefore, arguably, an election non-issue because the voter could not decide on the degree of corruption committed by either of the sides.

Many voters would tell our reporters on the field with a certain amount of disdain that “we know both sides are corrupt; so long as our job gets done, it doesn’t matter what they do in Colombo”.

The fact that corruption starts at the highest levels of government has become the new-normal. Politicians and political parties need money to finance their campaigns. In the past election laws specified the upper limits candidates could spend for elections. There’s no lid anymore. In some other democracies, campaign funds are officially authorized, where it is declared and is public knowledge. In Sri Lanka, big money is given ‘under the table’, and accepted with both hands. Very rarely is such money given without expecting a return on investment. And today, the ‘donors’ are not just local mudalalis or entrepreneurs, but foreign companies doing mega government or public funded projects here.

Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on his entry into national politics in 1994 came to realise that the subject was taboo, except if accusing the other side. In one of his early Cabinet meetings he was hauled over the coals by his ministerial colleagues when he spoke out about corruption within the government. When he led a Sri Lankan business delegation abroad and spoke about the subject, he received some friendly advice that night not to bring it up again the next morning for ‘the business of business, is business’.

That corruption is endemic in Sri Lanka needs no survey for confirmation. It is well known that children are taught to lie from the time they have to enter primary school, and nothing really moves in the public sector without the greasing of palms. “Wkag mq¿jkakï wmsg neß fudflda” (if they can, why not we) is the underlying motto of the policeman on the beat, the clerk at the municipality or the record room, and even the school principal. These clerks and cops want their palms oiled to buy a motorbike, put food on the table and pay for their children’s tuition given their low salaries.

The TISL has some other stats for any government serious about tackling chronic bribery and corruption, among them that most people have hardly heard of the Bribery and Corruption Commission. When neither the Commission nor even the courts have punished anyone in high office, the results again, are not surprising. It is only when a sitting government sends one of its own to jail, while in office, for bribery or corruption will it count.

Ties with West Asia and the Gulf

As President Rajapaksa seems to meet these envoys without note takers or advisers, it is hoped he will receive briefs from the Ministry of Foreign Relations on the nuances involved in complicated matters of foreign policy. The anti-Muslim campaign here in Sri Lanka in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings raised concerns among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and there were signs of dangerous repercussions to follow.

The sensitivity stems from the fact that almost a million Sri Lankans work in West Asia and the Gulf countries remitting annually USD 7 billion to this country. Without this the country will be in greater peril. On the other hand, many deficiencies persist for the Sri Lankan workers in these countries: there is a need to ensure the basics such as minimum wages, decent housing, confiscation of passports and other issues that the Foreign Employment Bureau and successive governments have long ignored as job agents run a mafia hand-in-glove with politicians. The President might consider bringing the Bureau under him to stop the rot.

That said, Sri Lanka must not be the hunting ground for the sectarian divisions of these West Asian and Gulf countries exporting their interpretation of the holy Koran and their religious ideologies that have plagued even Islamic countries like Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Genocide”; a loose term

Myanmar’s iconic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has brushed aside Western attempts to demonize her for defending her nation before the court. She is arguing that there was no “genocidal intent” in what Myanmar’s soldiers did in rooting out an insurgency unleashed by an armed group, ARSA that was using the ordinary civilians as a human shield to claim territory within Myanmar – even if, as she concedes, there was some “disproportionate force” in the flushing out operations. Comparisons with the LTTE’s military campaign for Eelam cannot be ignored.

Genocide is a loose term bandied about, especially by the West when that is exactly what is happening on their watch in the Islamic countries of West Asia. The situation in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab nations facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is a textbook case of genocide. The Gambia and the IOC sees, hears and speaks no evil in Yemen.

These happenings on the international stage are not without implications for a country like Sri Lanka, already under the cosh on similar allegations at the UNHRC in Geneva.