Squeaky clean Blair in big bucks game

Here in London, where for hundreds of years, the good, the bad and the ugly have set forth with bible in one hand or bribes in the other to civilise the natives from Asia to the darkest Africa, the wheel has come full circle.

It seems that Blair's Britain-fighting shoulder to shoulder with Bush's America to protect their civilised values- is not averse these days to taking a little something from the descendants of those they once colonised.

So the Hinduja brothers of Indian origin, some of them linked to the Bofors deal that rocked the Rajiv Gandhi government, have been throwing a million here and there to help Tony Blair's government sustain a white elephant called the Millennium Dome and perhaps assist in obtaining a British passport or two.

Just a few days ago another billionaire of Indian origin Lakshmi Mittal, the steel king made centre-stage when it appeared that Prime Minister Tony Blair had written to his Rumanian counterpart supporting Mittal's attempts to buy up the biggest steel mill in that country.

Blair defended himself saying Mittal was a British entrepreneur and he employs British workers. Mittal is not British and his company is registered in the Dutch Antilles. Only one thousandth of his workforce apparently is employed here.

With such men of steel helping Blair, one would have thought the prime minister was impregnable. After all, what in the name of political patronage was wrong with a friendly letter from a friendly prime minister plugging the business deal of a chap who apparently Blair has hardly met?

Nothing at all, really. After all, he didn't over-rule a tender committee and set up another committee to re-evaluate the bid of, say a French firm, desirous of selling some locomotives or something like that only to give it eventually to-you guessed correct- to the French. If it is not locomotives, why it can be something else from Korea or the Emirates. Who cares from where as long as the cash flow is maintained. No, it was nothing like that, really. But the problem was that the aforementioned Mittal, without a word at all, had made a teeny-weeny donation to Labour Party funds before the general election last year. But there is, of course, more to the story because the British media, like the British bulldog, will not let go once it has got its teeth into you.

Never mind the quality of British journalism that is rotting alongside British politics. So it is better to chew up the establishment before the public chews up the media that few people here trust anyway.

Doubtless before the day is done there will be more dirty linen about Mittal et al and the Labour government, providing the British middle classes with the vicarious pleasure necessary to sustain their otherwise dreary lives.

As though the Hindujas and Mittals have not done enough to make Tony Blair's life miserable, despite the tough exterior he puts on for public purpose, another person of Indian origin has jabbed him from within the government. Like Julius Caesar, Tony might well have turned round and whispered those two words of final betrayal "et tu".

For months Blair defended Keith Vaz, the only Asian with ministerial rank in the first Blair government, over allegations of sleaze and links with the Hindujas.

Two weeks ago,Vaz was suspended from the House of Commons for one month by a parliamentary committee, for blocking official attempts to examine the allegations against him and refusing to answer questions.

It is not only Asians that have turned out to be Blair's nemesis. Media reports earlier this month said that a top Labour donor paved the way for one of the world's leading businessman to successfully lobby Blair for a change in the government's energy policy.

Earlier it had been disclosed that Enron, the collapsed energy giant, had paid Labour £ 38,000 to gain access to ministers in a bid to lift the same rules on energy, The Sunday Times reported.

So what's wrong with us doing a little bit of fiddling here and pocketing a commission there or even having your kith and kin as agents for arms dealers and buying from the firms they represent, Sri Lankan politicians and public officials might well ask.

Well, the difference is this. When some of Sri Lanka's arms purchasers knowingly buy antiquated, non-operative or dud weapons they are accessories before the fact to the death of hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers on the battlefield. In public they may worship other Gods, but in private they worship only one-that is mammon.

It is the love of money and the ostentation that flows from wealth that have made such politicians and officials collaborate with the merchants of death or transact shady deals at the cost of Sri Lankan lives and to the detriment of the people of the country. Tony Blair came to power promising that New Labour would be white than white, purer than pure.

But such sloganising has turned out to be nothing but empty rhetoric, pretentious prattle put together by the Labour Party's spin doctors who are contributing their fair share to the undoing of the government. There are moral lessons for us too in the corruption and sleaze in which other European countries are wallowing. Britain is not alone in this putrid business of trying to play footsie with the business community.

But Blair is caught in the glare of public opinion because of his sanctimoniousness and his pretence at purity even today. There is a joke doing the rounds. What is the difference between God and Tony Blair? God does not call himself Tony Blair.

The moral for us is this. Don't make promises if you cannot keep them. If you do, ensure your own party faithful keep them too and deal with those who don't, wherever they are located. Otherwise public faith in politicians will decline so much that democracy and pluralistic politics will be the ultimate victims. 

Political survival and economic development

By the Economist

Of course Singapore itself is in a bit of crisis at the moment owing to the global recession. A wholly trade dependent economy like Singapore is bound to be very directly affected by the global recession. But Singapore's crisis is likely to be short lived. It will bounce back with the recovery of the international economy. 

We too are facing more than a pinch due to the international economic slow-down. Yet our crisis is far more deep rooted and will not be solved entirely with the global economic recovery. We need to get the economic fundamentals right. 

And that is a huge problem. There is in fact no need to be searching for the answers either in the development experience of other countries or be listening to the advice of international experts. Sri Lankan economists and policy makers know the answers, but they are unable to implement them. 

And one of the most important reasons for this is our political situation and culture. Lee Kwan Yew has in fact on many occasions pointed this out. He may have repeated this to the PM again. The right steps cannot be taken owing to the political unpopularity that the government is likely to suffer. 

The reasons for the conflict between political popularity and economic sense are owing to good economic decisions not being necessarily palatable in the short-run. Key economic decisions require immediate sacrifices and hardships. The economic returns are essentially long term. Their political repercussions are immediate. In the electoral politics of this country and the constitution we have, governments find it difficult to adopt the needed measures. Lee Kwan Yew's the city-state had no such constraints. 

He was able to take the correct decisions, impose the sacrifices and instill the discipline so essential for economic development without the need to worry about political popularity. Our situation is in stark contrast to this. In fact the political developments in the past two decades have made correct decision making an even more difficult political proposition. The inability of governments to get clear majorities, dependence on coalitions and frequent elections have made the proper economic decision making more difficult to achieve. It is now not only parliamentary elections that the government must keep an eye on but provincial government elections as well. 

The result of this is that short-termism has gripped our decision-making. The long term goals and long-term objectives get scant attention. In fact it is worse. There has been a lack of political accountability for the results of actions. These difficulties are of course compounded by the political culture of welfarism and dysfunctional socialist values. People have come to expect concessions, subsidies and dole outs. 

As Lee Kwan Yew has said Sri Lankan elections are a public auction of government benefits. There is a lack of appreciation that the people have to bear the costs of whatever the government gives the people. In the words of Milton Friedman "There is no such thing as a free lunch" Yet what people want are free lunches. What governments promise are free lunches. What the people in fact get are continuously increasing burdens. 

The resources of the country are being frittered away in expenditures that do not promote growth; in fact they stifle growth. In his Haj message the Prime Minister struck the note of requiring sacrifices to achieve national goals. Certainly economic growth cannot be achieved without sacrifices. The question is whether the government will have the courage to impose those sacrifices on the people? Will the opposition have a sense of national responsibility not to oppose government decisions that are in the long term interests of the country? 

President CMCLA once again

After the establishment of the Magistrate's Courts in the present premises and in its hundred years long history, this was one of the highest margins recorded by a winning candidate.

To help junior lawyers Mr. Warnakulasuriya had negotiated with the Hatton National Bank a loan to the upper limit of Rs. 500,000. The scheme was so successful that a large number of members from other branch associations have requested membership of the CMCLA. He also formulated an education scheme in Sinhala, and a Diploma Course in English for lawyers with the Open University. There was a tremendous response to this course from lawyers all over the country. Mr. Warnakulasuriya is expected to launch many such schemes to help juniors in the profession. 

P.D. Perera was elected as the Secretary by a slender majority of one vote over his rival Gamini Kirindage. 

Mr. Warnakulasuriya told The Sunday Times he intends standing for the presidency of the Bar Association next year.