{"id":84933,"date":"2024-10-19T20:59:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T00:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84933"},"modified":"2024-10-20T00:02:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T04:02:38","slug":"ex-presidents-chandrikaranil-and-maithripala-were-responsible-for-corruption-running-rampant-in-the-public-political-sector-when-they-handled-the-reins-of-executive-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84933","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Presidents Chandrika,Ranil and Maithripala were responsible for corruption running rampant in the public\/political sector when they handled the reins of executive office."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Kishali Pinto- Jayawardene<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hideous sight of three former Presidents of Sri Lanka laughing their heads off on the national stage when invited by the country\u2019s accounting professionals to speak on a corruption culture that brought the nation to ruinous bankruptcy in 2022 sums up exactly why the political parties that they lead have been resoundingly rejected by the people.<\/p>\n

Red rags waved to an enraged public<\/strong><\/p>\n

No more and no less. Certainly there is nothing wrong with a pithy joke or two in addressing an audience. But wholesale cynical cackling by the ex-Presidents (Wickremesinghe, Kumaratunga and Sirisena) in addressing the 45th National Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) on the viciously entrenched corruption-cancer of the body politic is another matter. <\/p>\n

It is nothing short of three red rags waved by the speakers to the enraged bull of the Sri Lankan public, with the session moderator performing the role of a less than skilled matador.
\nFor that matter, the lustily applauding audience of Colombo\u2019s top accounting professionals, who apparently found these Presidential jokes to be thoroughly entertaining, bear equal responsibility. <\/p>\n

This behaviour exemplifies the painful gap between what these comedy sessions represent (ie; the corrupt and \u2018privileged\u2019 elite) and the enormous hurt of the Sri Lankan people who have been the first victims of their collective leadership failures.<\/p>\n

This hurt is what the Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) campaign cry of a \u201976 year old curse\u2019 skilfully tapped into, to capture coveted executive office in September\u2019s presidential polls. Granted, former President Maithripala Sirisena was correct in rejecting the AKD cry of a \u201976-year old curse\u2019 by pointing out that Sri Lanka\u2019s immediate post-independence leaders were not corrupt. But he failed to acknowledge the major distinction between those leaders who did not fatten themselves on executive privileges and Presidents of yore who enabled Cabinet members and political hangers-on to rob the public purse.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Is \u2018experience\u2019 to rob, a primary political trait?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That distinction is very much recognised by the Sri Lankan people. And ex-Presidents are none so blind as those who refuse to see, if that ugly reality is ignored. A day later to this comedy show, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe exhorted voters, in a so-called \u2018special address,\u2019 to opt for candidates contesting under his \u2018gas cylinder\u2019 symbol at the general elections. <\/p>\n

His plea was that \u2018experience\u2019 is needed to handle a seriously challenged economy. But can this request be taken seriously when he (inappropriately) guffaws in responding to political corruption?<\/p>\n

Is this what the \u2018famed\u2019 \u2018experience\u2019 amounts to?<\/p>\n

The question more is what these ex-Presidents did when near and dear favourites in the Presidential Secretariat, from Chiefs of Staff to political hangers-on to fat cat officials brought in as spurious \u2018consultants\u2019 and \u2018advisors\u2019 feasted off public funds in broad daylight while they closed the Nelsonian eye? <\/p>\n

On her part, former President Kumaratunga proclaimed that she had chased away a relative of a junior Minister who offered a fat bribe when she was in the Prime Ministerial seat.
\nRegardless, the question is as to why more stringent action was not taken in reporting the same to the Commission tasked with tackling bribery or corruption?<\/p>\n

What too, of well-known corruption scandals in Kumaratunga\u2019s time, including and not limited to the Waters Edge case (2008), where the Supreme Court ruled that the ex-President had abused her executive powers to facilitate a corrupt deal by which she transferred state lands meant for a \u2018public purpose\u2019 to a private golf course?<\/p>\n

Judicial directives swallowed up by political influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, a long forgotten feature of this ruling was that the Court directed the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption to undertake an \u2018immediate inquiry\u2019 of the transaction under the Bribery Act. That \u2018inquiry\u2019 was later swallowed up by the long arm of political influence similar to countless others. Space does not suffice to list the other instances where judicial directives to investigate high profile political corruption were thrown into the proverbial dustbin.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe\u2019s partner Maithripala Sirisena in the ill-fated coalition administration of 2015-2019 boasted that he was the only President (in recent times) to have \u2018allowed\u2019 corruption allegations into his Chief of Staff and others to proceed without political interference. Is this the fact that the law was permitted to take its course, to be boasted about? <\/p>\n

That is like asking for bouquets when the Rule of Law takes its normal course.
\nSuch absurd Presidential boasts and shrugging responsibility off to \u2018other Presidents\u2019 (read, the Rajapaksas) who apparently were the only culprits, are belied by rude facts. A President need not be found dipping his or her hand into bags full of money to be culpable for corruption. <\/p>\n

It will suffice if they act as political enablers. Though technically speaking, a fish rots from the gut, it is true of our endemic \u2018corruption culture\u2019 that the fish rots from the head down.<\/p>\n

An ugly public mood prevails<\/strong><\/p>\n

In other words, these three ex-Presidents were responsible for corruption running rampant in the public\/political sector when they handled the reins of executive office. Setting up Procurement Agencies or Corruption Commissions which were monumentally ineffective during their terms in office is no excuse for that singular sin. Neither can any of them wash their hands of guilt in actively politicising the judiciary, which directly impacted on anti-corruption efforts.<\/p>\n

That includes making highly controversial appointments as Chief Justices and lambasting the Court when \u2018politically adverse\u2019 rulings were handed down, which former President Ranil Wickremesinghe took to extraordinary heights (or lows). But what he and his predecessors in the presidential office must understand is that the public mood has turned towards the guillotine (metaphorically speaking, that is). The cry is \u2018off with Presidential privileges.\u2019
\nMore in tune than this disgraceful show would have been a \u2018mea cul-pa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa\u2019 (my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault) by the ex-Presidents. Astoundingly, these crude insensitivities were exhibited just weeks after the electorate resoundingly rejected the \u2018old\u2019 and for better or for worse, brought in the \u2018new.\u2019 Put bluntly, arrogant, self-aggrandising and monstrously egoistic leadership on their part, (apart from the ruin brought about by the Rajapaksas), was a primary factor in the decimation of main-stream political parties<\/p>\n

The AKD regime\u2019s predictable back-pedalling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The end result was last month\u2019s electoral tilting towards the AKD victory, capturing a meteoric rise from 3% in previous polls to 42%. It is now increasingly obvious and predictably so, that the new regime cannot possibly live up to pre-election promises freely doled out to adoring supporters. It is busy back-pedalling from ambitious guarantees across the board. <\/p>\n

Rather than \u2018definitely cancelling\u2019 the Adani Group backed wind power project in Sri Lanka, that campaign call is now framed as \u2018revising\u2019 the deal.<\/p>\n

Its proclamation to grant salary increases every six months to public servants proportionate to the cost-of living has fared little better. AKD\u2019s (indecent) haste to hold the Parliamentary elections next month reflects a necessarily shrewd decision to capitalize on the gloss of the Presidential win before that fades. It remains to be seen if its campaign assurance to abolish the Executive Presidency will be adhered to or if election rhetoric will yield to political reality as in the past.<\/p>\n

Regardless, this recent warped comedy of three ex-Presidents per-ormed exuberantly and without a trace of shame, stands as an excellent justification as to why this obnoxious office must be scrapped post haste.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kishali Pinto- Jayawardene The hideous sight of three former Presidents of Sri Lanka laughing their heads off on the national stage when invited by the country\u2019s accounting professionals to speak on a corruption culture that brought the nation to ruinous bankruptcy in 2022 sums up exactly why the political parties that they lead have …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ex-Presidents Chandrika,Ranil and Maithripala were responsible for corruption running rampant in the public\/political sector when they handled the reins of executive office.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84936,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84933\/revisions\/84936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}