Editorial

The New Year has begun with the favourite pastime of political parties – elections. With the ruling coalition seemingly trying to duck them, and the gung-ho opposition parties demanding them as a stepping stone to greater victories on the horizon, the elections, legally scheduled for March, still hang in the balance.

The Cabinet spokesman made an astounding, even dangerous statement this week to the effect that the Government cannot afford to spend Rs.10 billion on elections. The Minister of Agriculture, however, outdid him in a way by saying that the Rs. 10 billion could be better spent on paying for the paddy harvest. Such were the nonsensical and farcical voices coming from the ruling coalition.

It seems that the Delimitation Commission (also known as the Amalgamation Commission) proposals to halve the number of the 8,000 councillors and redraw the wards to hold the elections under a hybrid first-past-the-post and proportional representation voting system (FPP and PR) will be merely a scrap of paper. Why Parliament cannot fast forward these reforms into law before an election is beyond comprehension.

With Parliament sitting this week, there was nothing to indicate the upcoming elections will be put off – only a report on youth representation to local councils was presented. It now appears, however, that the ball is in the Attorney General’s — and the court’s court, whether the elections can be held according to the petitions before it. Thus, these elections are not yet a fait-accompli.

Long termed a ‘punchi chandaya‘ or small elections, the polls this time have generated political interest disproportionate to their real importance. Prior to the introduction of the Provincial Councils, these local government councils were the nursery for national-level politics. Several former Presidents cut their teeth in these councils before entering the national stage. Today, these councils have become the third tier of the political hierarchy and with the possible exception of the bigger municipalities, the calibre of candidates is bound to be, therefore, third grade, so to say.

Already, the dogfight has begun within the Opposition camp scrambling to come first, with insults and counter-insults flying across from various platforms. The ruling coalition, meanwhile, is putting up a brave front showing it is not about to run away from a contest and a surfeit of breakaway groups are scrambling to join whomever they see as the winning side.

The entire ‘punchi chandaya‘ is all about one-upmanship and scoring political points. It has very little to do with a fair electoral system for voters nor for lean and efficient councils. The wanton waste of public funds has never been a worry for politicians.

With the 75th anniversary of Independence next month, and an election campaign probably in full swing by then, the country will be embroiled in a ‘pukka’ public showcasing of how divided the nation is due to parochial politics. Whoever wins, will the country be the loser with hurried elections to what would be dysfunctional councils with a bloated number of councillors, including ward members, whom the voters will hardly ever know as their representative as they did in the past?

The need for no-more corruption pledge

At least it was different to the oath they had to take last year to follow the ‘Visions of Prosperity’ manifesto of the former President that ended in an illusion and untold hardships heaped on the people with the edifice of the entire state apparatus eventually collapsing.

This year’s oath would have been triggered partly by fears that the country was on the fringes of starvation. Not only is food price inflation at a record high, but the poor have been forced to cut down on their food intake and malnourishment among children is increasing.

However, not all public servants can contribute to a ‘Grow More Food’ campaign. In many instances, their work and priorities will have nothing to do with food production. On the other hand, though the oath has a passing reference to ‘honesty’, they might have laid greater emphasis on a ‘No More Corruption’ pledge.

The public service is riddled with corruption from top to bottom and that is universally acknowledged, both locally and abroad. Some years back, the Police Department received the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt government department, but giving them a good run for their money for the top slots would be the Customs, Excise and Inland Revenue, as well as the ministries and departments that have the authority to raise revenue, engage in development projects, especially through unsolicited tenders and indulge in imports like food, petroleum products, gas and medicines. Ministers are usually the head honchos in the game, but they cannot do things alone; they need the support of the public servants to implement their grand designs.

Procurements – of which there are many throughout each year – are overrun by corruption. Everyone from ministers to public servants has been accused of seriously compromising processes that have been put in place to safeguard the nation. Unsolicited proposals and urgent, emergency imports outside these established procedures have become the order of the day of late, and for obvious reasons.

None of the corruption in the State sector is possible unless public servants, at worst are complicit and, at best, spineless. What started small has now become the norm and ministry secretaries and heads of government institutions, from highways and power to the port and elsewhere – including many political appointees from outside the public service, have profited from these and even taken their loot abroad – Dubai, Singapore and Australia being the favoured destinations.

If, forced by the IMF or otherwise, a clean system of procurement is finally introduced — and properly implemented — declarations of assets of public officials must become unavoidable and accessible. There cannot be a cleaning-up by looking only at the political level, but at everyone across the ranks that allowed corruption in Sri Lanka to reach the toxic levels of today.