Columns

High jinks in high places are common enough that average man, as DH Lawrence once called them, takes these often sordid happenings, as a part of everyday life they can do little about and those who can don’t.

What is intolerable though is when politicians in and with power and their acolytes with access to power rob and mislead the very people they claim to serve. How often does one hear of corruption, fraud, abuse and misuse of power and a cynical disdain for laws that other citizens are compelled to obey and follow.

It is no secret that some politicians and their equally crooked henchmen fiddle the books and rob the state which they have vowed to serve, never mind that the very people who elected them to office are left to rummage the bottoms of the barrels to survive.

But what is happening right now here involving the country’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson would go down in London theatres as true farce, had it not been for the trying and often tragic circumstances and  background in which the scene is set.

This story has gone round the globe because it happened during the early years of the coronavirus outbreak when the world was grappling with the pandemic that was taking thousands of lives daily and no end seemed to be in sight.

Had it been another prime minister who had a greater respect for truth and integrity and lacked the arrogance and bumptiousness of the elitist Boris Johnson, the story might have disappeared from the news pages and ended up with the comic strips and cartoons which is where the Johnsonian episodes should rightly be.

And if it was in some countries we know the story would have been swept under the carpet. Nay, even buried deep like the caches of LTTE gold that some people connected with the government appear to be looking for probably to replace part of the gold reserves that the Sri Lanka Central Bank is believed to have sold recently.

What Johnson is alleged to have done — not once mind you, but several times we are told — held parties at his Downing Street flat or garden or attended them at a time when the rest of the British public was under lock and key, metaphorically speaking, by stringent COVID-19 laws that disallowed social mixing, required mandatory wearing of face masks, travel restrictions and several other tight rules and regulations.

Little by little the emerging evidence including pictures of Boris Johnson and wife enjoying cheese and wine along with some Downing Street staff, aroused public anger enough to demand an official inquiry into the behaviour or the prime minister and his staff.

What caused real outrage was Downing Street partying while the Queen sat in church alone in mourning and keeping vigil over the body of her dead husband Prince Philip whose burial was next day. The juxtaposing of the pictures multiplied public ire even among those who were not particularly supportive of the monarchy.

The importance of what has occurred here from the earliest partying incident in May 2020 is not so much in the incidents themselves but how parliamentary democracy works when even the country’s leaders cannot absolve themselves of responsibility and accountability.

The inquiry into prime ministerial conduct and that of civil servants under his charge is being held by the second most senior official in the Cabinet Office, Sue Gray, and her inquiry team. Among the several critical questions the ‘Affaire Boris’ raises is how democratic governance deals with issues that even involve the prime minister and the serious consequences that follow if he or any of his ministers are found to have misled or lied to parliament, including their resignations.

As the besieged prime minister and a disturbed public anxiously await the release of the Sue Gray report which at the time of writing, has still not been handed over to the prime minister’s office though it is said to have been completed, would  or could such an inquiry headed by public officials ever be held in Sri Lanka?.

Can one expect an official team to conduct an impartial and fair inquiry — if such a miracle happens there — and public officials survive such an arduous test or will they do what many of them would — just ensure that their future is secure? Sri Lankan officials are safe because there is no provision for public officials to inquire into the country’s rulers.

What is being inquired into here was whether the prime minister and officials breached the covid laws. It would indeed be ironic if those who made the laws — that is Boris Johnson and ministers — violated the very laws they were responsible for, while everybody else was compelled to adhere to them.

Johnson had told parliament that he was not aware that he had broken any laws. He had told MPs that “all guidelines were followed” by No 10. But now it appears there is evidence to indicate that on Johnson’s birthday in June 2020 staff gathered inside his Downing Street flat to wish him when gatherings of more than two persons were not permitted during the first lockdown.

While some might consider all this rather frivolous adding to the current contretemps, the Metropolitan Police, better known as Scotland Yard, has begun an inquiry into what might go down in history as “Partygate”. In mounting a defence of his PM, Common’s leader Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed that Police investigating something does not mean any crime has necessarily been committed.

But Police chief Cressida Dick said the police were investigating these “after the fact” lockdown incidents because they appear to be “serious and flagrant” breaches of the rules and there seemed to be no “serious defence”.

The last occasion when the Met Police investigated a prime minister was when Tony Blair was accused of ‘selling’ honours for donations.

Could any in Sri Lanka expect Minister Sarath Weerasekera’s police to investigate impartially the country’s president or prime minister? Wonder what happened to the pistol-packing lowly state minister Lohan Ratwatte’s incursion into the Anuradhapura prison and activities therein into which an inquiry was promised. Would it be less time wasting than waiting for Godot?

The trade mark of many British governments has been their cavalier disregard for honesty, integrity and accountability, the Guardian newspaper said recently. Despite all the safeguards and procedures adopted to protect democratic governance, governments and leaders still find ways to circumvent and undermine standards of behavior.

How could one expect fair and good governance when there are those who are ready to dispense with the constitution and the rule of law without compunction?

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London)