Editorial

16th November 1997

Accountability

is minding the store?

In the aftermath of another glaring secu rity lapse in the city of Colombo on Fri day this time at the Kelanitissa Thermal Power Station, we spotlight today vital questions about public accountability.

Our Special Assignment investigation today reveals that sentries at strategic points at Kelanitissa were sleeping when the LTTE saboteurs cut in through the fence. The Defence Secretary and Police top brass got to the scene after the terrorists had bolted. One resident in the area told a private TV station that not even a cat visited the place earlier. Who is accountable for this major security lapse? Kelanitissa is the nerve centre of the thermal power supply system and if the intruders had come with bigger bombs, the consequences would have been catastrophic.

As usual, a committee would probably be appointed and we are familiar with what happens to such reports. We will be told how many kilos the explosives were, from where they came and how they came. But we will not be told who is accountable for the security lapse.

After the October Poya bomb blast in the Fort, a probe committee found among other things that the killer lorry carrying some 350 kilos of explosives had travelled through the city, without being checked even at a single point. Who was accountable for that lapse? No heads rolled. The only ones that rolled were those of the innocent victims.

Virtues such as moral responsibility appeared to have little place. Editors of newspapers are held accountable-even criminally-when something damaging is published in their newspaper. They are summoned to court and made to stand in the dock for days. But when it comes to matters of State-none is accountable. When there was military victory such as Operation Riviresa in Jaffna, the Deputy Defence Minister brought a scroll and gave it to the Commander- in-Chief of the Armed Forces in a ceremony telecast live to the nation. When 1,500 soldiers were butchered and the Mullaitivu camp over-run shortly thereafter there wasn't a hum. Victory has many fathers and mothers. Defeat is always an orphan.

Seldom in recent years have we heard of an elected leader or public official taking moral responsibility for any crisis or failure. They opt to go into hiding like cowards do.

During the past few weeks, The Sunday Times and other sections of the non-Government media have revealed details of a report by a high-level Presidential Committee which probed recent SLAF disasters. The committee was headed by the Defence Secretary.

It is well over two months now since the committee report was handed over to the President and Commander-in Chief. Instead of disciplinary or corrective action, we see VIPs in high places providing air cover to the person blamed or indicted while making diversionary attacks on the independent media which dare to speak. The complainant has become the accused. They are killing the messenger.

Allegations about various companies run by a man who wields influence at the highest-levels have been repeatedly made in The Sunday Times, but the reaction from the government has been to ignore, and in fact cover-up some of the most serious allegations of corruption in modern times.

Instead, what is corruption in Sri Lanka? It is a school principal who is charged with taking cups and saucers worth Rs. 900. This is the mockery that goes on in Sri Lanka.

Take also the tragedy that has befallen Sri Lanka's sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe, by far the best athlete produced by this country in recent years. Again the complainant has become the victim. The cover-up privilege and the power of the state have been used to debunk her complaint and defame her character in the most disgusting manner.

The bribery-gate scandals rocking the Permanent Commission on Bribery and Corruption and the Cricket Board indicate a fearful trend. The litany goes on, and on. If you are one of them you can get away with murder, smuggling, corruption or incompetence. If you are not, may the Devas protect you.

It is accountability that forms the core of the country's conscience and we may be fearfully close to losing ours.

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