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Moves to break bribery deadlock
As the Commission to investigate allegations of Bribery and Corruption was saddled with more than 1000 and complaints and unable to proceed with investigations due to the absence of a third member in the Commission, the Government has suggested to move amendments to expedite the procedure in filling in the vacancy.

The party leaders meeting was informed that the government wanted to propose amendments to existing procedure to the Constitutional Council selecting members to the Commission.

The Sunday Times learns that party leaders had wanted the government to submit the proposed amendments for consideration.

As the Constitutional Council failed to fill in the vacancy of a Commission member for the sixth consecutive month a large number of complaints being made to the Commission are going uninvestigated while some of them have been discouraged from making complaints.

"We are now getting a large number of complaints, but we are helpless as we cannot proceed with the investigations due to the vacancy not being filled," Commissioner Dr. Kingsley Wickremasuriya told a news conference on Friday.

Commission Chairman S. Anandacoomaraswamy said they were not in a position to proceed into certain investigations or fully exercise their powers due to the existing vacancy.

Dr. Wickremasuriya told The Sunday Times there were also 52 cases with indictments prepared, but the Commission was not in a position to file action due to the vacancy. Some of the 52 cases are against politicians.

The Commission's activities have been crippled at a time when there has been an increase of complaints filed by persons directly instead of being anonymous.

The Bribery Commission has been inoperational since February this year when one of the Commissioners, T.N.Abeyawira died.

The laws require that the vacancy should be filled only by either a retired Supreme Court or Appeal Court judge and the Commission cannot function unless all three Commissioners sit.

Former Court of Appeal Judge, K.Viknarajah who was proposed to fill the vacancy had declined to accept the position due to the cumbersome procedure to apply for the post.

Skilled Lankans serve US instead of Lanka, says Hillary Clinton
By Walter Jayawardhana in Los Angeles
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in her best seller, 'Living History', has said that Sri Lanka's potential for economic growth had been severely undermined by the LTTE's terrorist war.

Ms. Clinton's book sales exceeded one million last week, a world record for an autobiography by a former first lady of the United States.

Inspired by her 1995 visit to South Asia, New York's popular Democratic Senator who has so far authored or co-authored more than 300 acts in the Senate during her brief period in there has mentioned Sri Lanka several times in her book -- very favourably.

"The relentless campaign of terror (by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) undermined the potential for economic growth and foreign investment," she wrote of Sri Lanka. She also drew the attention of her readers to the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister by the same terrorist group.

Writing favourably about Sri Lanka's high literacy rate of both men and women, Senator Clinton wrote, "No country in South Asia has yet achieved all these conditions. Men and women who could have contributed to their own country's advancement are instead contributing to ours. Sri Lanka, for example, where I ended up my trip had a high rate of literacy for both men and women, but the country had lived in terror for years because of a guerilla insurgence by the Hindu Tamil Tigers against the majority Sinhalese population and Government. The relentless campaign of terror undermined its potential for economic growth and foreign investment."

Widely rumoured and viciously attacked by the conservatives of America that she was having ambitions of becoming the first woman President of the United States, Senator Clinton was probably inspired by the South Asian women who became Presidents and Prime Ministers probably more than in anywhere else in the world. In Sri Lanka she was received by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been the first countries to produce woman prime ministers and presidents. Our own Sirima Bandaranaike was the world's first elected woman prime minister.

Ms. Clinton wrote in 'Living History' that the women of Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have reached the level of Presidents and Prime Ministers.

Some say the book has laid the groundwork for Ms. Clinton to become the President of the country. But she has denied having any such ambitions. Critics say the vicious attacks on her book by the conservatives, whose patron saint these days is President Bush, have in fact made the book extremely popular.

Ms. Clinton was paid 2.85 million dollars as an advance by publisher Simon and Schuster. In eight of the 16 countries where foreign rights have been already sold, the book has become the best seller. According to the agreement, Ms. Clinton would receive eight million dollars from the first US edition.

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