By

Liyanage Amarakeerthi

Rumour had it for many years that our president contained the dissent of his colleagues by manipulating a set of ‘files.’ President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently heard saying something like this, “Reverend Sir, I have files of those who left me. But I don’t want to use them.” It is important to note who, the addressee is here: he was directly addressing the Buddhist monks. We just happened to overhear it. What the president was saying must be true primarily because he would not tell a lie to the Maha Sangha whose blessings he often invokes and on whose blessings he has thrived. Yes, the president must be having the files and that was why many other politicos decided to stay back and sing for supper.

So, there must be files. Then, it is the president who must be held responsible for not ‘using’ those files. His statement was directed at those ministers who are still with him rather than those had already left. What is in a file? That is the question. The concept of files needs to be revisited.

Recently humourist Puswedilla also talked about files: According to him the files of those who defected the government include the following: “love letters,” “school leaving certificate”, “A /L certificate.” and the like. If the files are to be used against them the content must be terrible. For example, their Advanced Level examination results must be so bad. Well, that cannot be the case. For one thing, among the defectors, there was a professor of English whose PhD was not something awarded by a vice chancellor he himself had appointed. If the A/L record is the content in the file that brings them shame, those who did not leave do not have admirable files. President himself does not have a great A/L records. That was why he started his career as a humble library assistant who would make sure books remain where they belong in the shelves. It was great job. While some people have men of letters as their presidents we have a man of books.

The files the president talks about must be something else. Let’s take an educated guess. It was reported once that when a famous private tuition master was going to run for elections from the UNP, he received a phone called from a person who mentioned that magic word, ‘files.’ That word alone took care of the tuition master’s political ambition. That files must be about income tax. There are so many billionaires in the tuition field whose tax records are rather murky. But in evading tax they are not alone. But that powerful caller failed to recognize that tuition masters flourish in education because the government does not invest enough on it. Without the help of tuition masters many students would not have passed highly competitive exams. Those exams are competitive not because they are qualitatively so much higher than any equivalent exam in the world but because higher education opportunities in the country are extremely limited.

During the ten years of President Rajapaksa’s rule the funding for state education sector has continued to dwindle indirectly helping many other tuition masters. In addition, the president’s cabinet itself has a famous tuition master who was quite instrumental in making private tuition a big business in the 70s and 80s. And that big business tuition master is now taking care of the school system of the country! That means one can be a big tuition master with a not –so-clean income tax file and can still run for elections if he gets the ticket from the ruling party.

Well then, what must be in those files of the defectors? President may be indicating that those defectors are corrupt and they have accumulated money through illegal means. In the presence of those monks, the president declared that he would not ‘use’ them against the defectors. That means our president is shielding a bunchy of crooks. If that is the case, we will be better off without such a president. We need our president to maintain the rule of law.

Files are important for everything and our president is no different in his handling of files. Some countries look at our president’s files when they make decisions on us. Some countries do not want to fund us in our development projects because, they claim, our president’s human rights file is not all that great. Some countries, like China, do not give a damn about our president’s file as long as they can advance their own economic and political interests. Our president loves China. It is the greatest political love story in the recent history.

At the forthcoming election, people are going to examine the president’s file. It is not easy. Those defectors and some others who follow them will have the president’s file. There are all kinds of stories that the president and his family became incredibly wealthy within ten years or so. That means, there must be a huge file on him.

Since president himself does not allow us to see it, we need a new president who can get us that file. Reverend Athuraliye Rathana, who was among the few monks to talk about that big presidential file, has spoken of a car priced Rs. 900 million and many such things. The story of that car must be in that big file. We would love to do anything needed to take a look at that file after January 8!

We need a form of government that creates room for people to maintain files on their leaders. That is one reason the executive presidency has to go because it only allows the president to wave magic files at people that he dislikes.

After January 8 a new president may be saying, “Reverend Sir, now I have his file and his file is terrible but I will not use it because he was working within a constitution that led him to corruption. Let’s now write a new constitution that allows people check their leaders’ files from time to time. Within such a constitution no one will be able blackmail anyone by ‘wagging’ some files at their faces.”

Rather idealist words, I know; but this is meant to be a bit funny, isn’t it?

Courtesy:The Island