Ceylon Today Editorial

Good Guy Bopage

22 December 2016

Sri Lankans have a disgusting tendency to grant power to those who don't require it and venerate them until the power gets to their head. The power corrupts the individual and in return they gradually destroy the person who brought them to power. Politicians are the perfect example for this. It has become such a common occurrence that you, the reader, probably have a few examples in your head while reading this.

We have this notion that people who control power have to be respected, venerated like local deities even though it was through our intervention that they have come into power. We stand up to show respect when a politician walks into a room. We bend and greet them while they stand straight, basking in the glory that we give them. Utter foolishness, yet we do it anyway. Every now and then, we come across those rare personalities that put their beliefs and ideology before their position and governing authority. Nimal Bopage is one such character.

Nimal Bopage currently holds the position of Secretary to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Mass Media. He was assigned his seat in the Ministry, following the arrival of the Yahapalana Government under the Sirisena- Wickremesinghe administration. Since then, Bopage has had several fleeting moments of fame as the Ministry Secretary due to several poorly worded press communiqués. Since then he has become sort of a laughing stock among the mainstream media institutions.

However, all the jokes and the pun makers that ridiculed him yesterday are praising him for his actions today. Bopage recently claimed that he cannot sign the Cabinet Memorandum that authorized the purchase of 58 luxury vehicles for MPs at the cost of Rs 700,000 a month, due to several irregularities in the process.

According to him, the purchase of vehicles which was authorized in a Cabinet Memo earlier this year, has not received the approval of the President as well as the Technical Evaluation Committee and the Procurement Committee. He added that there is an obvious complication in purchasing 58 vehicles on 60 instalments by MPs whose term in Parliament ends in 45 months. He added that after expiry of their tenures as MPs the vehicles will be re-acquired by the purchaser despite the government's expenditure on the vehicles.

He argued that the purchase is irrefutably expensive even to a layman's understanding. Paying Rs 700,000 a month for a luxury car is a ridiculous attempt. If the government decides to reduce the instalment months to suit the 45 months, then the instalment payment of Rs 700,000 would increase to some atrocious Rs 900, 000 per vehicle, per month. All this for the MP's to do supervision activities of the government's development projects – an excuse that one cannot help but laugh at because it simply amounts to a rather sick joke.

More so, once the 60 instalment months are due, the vehicles will be returned to its original owner. Bopage's refusal to sign the Cabinet Memo is a highly commendable act. Despite the Prime Minister demanding that he should either sign the Cabinet Memo, approving the purchase of vehicles or resign from the position of Ministry Secretary, he stands firm with his principles.

"I cannot go forward with this without ironing out these issues," he insisted. These are the type of public servants this country deserves. These are the type of public servants, every other public servant who prefers to do absolutely nothing, should strive to become. It could be their New Year's resolution. If they are going to continue doing nothing, at least it should be for a cause that would serve a purpose and give a message. The public servant's actions should portray his strong principles and force of will.

After all, a public servant is the backbone of a country's government. If one is corrupt, the other shall be the same – the current plight we have had the bad luck of facing. It is once in a blue moon that this messed up system sees a good public servant like Nimal Bopage.