Weekend Nation Editorial

Northern developments may hamper devolution of power

30 October 2016

The recent statements made by northern province chief minister Vigneswaran, Pongu Thamil rally, the sword attack on two state intelligence officers for which the responsibility has been claimed by Aavagroup, an incident where a police officer was attacked with a bottle while he was trying to control a crowd and other acts of violence, all seem to be happening unfortunately at a time most crucial to the Tamil community.

In the aftermath of a bitter war a new government is in power with a promise of reconciliation and new constitutional proposals are being made before a parliamentary committee. Some of the matters vital to the Tamil community such as the devolution of power are also likely to come up for discussion both in parliament and in the public domain.

There are organized groups behind some of these developments in the north while others are sporadic incidents that can take place anywhere, be it the north or the south. However, some of these developments are incited by irresponsible statements made by northern politicians in the recent past.

All in all, the net impact of these could be impediments for the reconciliation process and possible further devolution of powers to the periphery especially police and land powers. These undesirable and untimely developments have also provided an ideal platform for those in the south who want to block any further devolution by way of reconciliation.

This could also be the greatest obstacle to the ongoing constitutional process which has up to now received the support of all political parties in parliament. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all political parties in the north and all political and social groups that are genuinely interested in resolving the long-standing issues faced by the Tamil community to do everything within their power to reverse this trend.

Ideally they should refrain from taking any action or making public statements that are likely to encourage dissention or incite violence among particularly the northern youth. The law enforcement agencies also should be advised to exercise utmost caution when using power in the current difficult circumstances

Peace can be very fragile especially in a post-war period where every freedom is given to the citizen while maintaining peace can be more challenging during such periods than in times of war. Hard won peace, however fragile, should be maintained in the name of reconciliation and if we miss this opportunity, resolving the northern problem and other constitutional issues common to the whole country can never be done and the ultimate sufferers would be the economy of our country and the entire nation.

Sunday Times Editorial

Corruption and political agendas

30 October 2016

For the third consecutive week, the issue of corruption came to the fore of public debate. The President fired the first salvo referring to the ‘politicisation’ of the Government’s anti-corruption drive. His remarks caused consternation within the ranks of his National Unity Government, especially the main coalition partner, the UNP.

The President was being accused of trying to ‘politicise’ the process himself by sending smoke signals that he was unhappy with the manner in which his own SLFP ministers were being questioned by the Bribery Commission for past misdeeds. These were his close political fellow travellers who have abandoned his bete noir former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and he needed their support very badly, after all.

This snowball has begun to roll gathering momentum and to all but knock over the UNP now with the 2015 Central Bank bond scandal. It is the widely held public view that the party hierarchy was straining every sinew to protect a family that was directly culpable in this mega scandal.

The double-standards in the Government’s anti-corruption drive have been badly exposed by both the SLFP and UNP leadership. (It was a rather nihilistic approach adopted in investigating the bond scam. So much so, wild allegations have begun to surface and circulate justifiably or not that the UNP itself benefited financially from what the Parliamentary Oversight Committee (COPE) has found was a massive racket directly involving the then Governor of the Central Bank and his son-in-law.)

Why only this particular matter had to go before a Parliamentary committee when others went to the specially set up Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) is a valid question. The Bribery and Corruption Commission began its own inquiry last year, never to be heard of again. Many felt, even then, that this was merely an exercise to sweep things under the carpet and spin out the problem hoping it would go away. It did not, and instead, the foul stench of rotting garbage permeates the air.

Others might argue that given the fact that the FCID and the Bribery and Corruption Commission were tainted with a political flavour at the time, a Parliamentary committee was the better option. The COPE report, however damning, is only limited to making its recommendations, contentious as they are, to the whole of Parliament. There it sits. Now come the calls for a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry (which can take another month of Sundays of investigations). (That report too will also be limited to making recommendations while the perpetrators of this monumental crime will be basking in the sunshine.)

The UNP hierarchy may want not to know it, but the party has received a huge setback in public confidence, its once pristine image in tatters. Some compare it to the Bofors scandal that enveloped and later ruined the reputation of the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as ‘Mr. Clean’.

One of the early mistakes the UNP made was not to investigate the Central Bank’s sordid affairs that took place before it took charge in January 2015. There was a basic reason to overlook this. The newly appointed man at the helm and his immediate family had cosy business dealings with the previous dispensation. Thus, there were no inquiries into bond scams of the pre-2015 times, the pyramid schemes, the Commonwealth Games and Greek bonds, and the hiring of lobby firms and purchase of property in the United States. Not for nothing did the Central Bank of yesteryear acquire the nick-name, along with the Colombo Stock Exchange, as ‘The Laundry’.

All this, by default, has come back to haunt the UNP, as its coalition partner in the Government of National Unity has openly, and now more vigorously come to distance itself from this particular sequence of events at the Central Bank.

The way some Cabinet Ministers spoke in Parliament this week when the COPE report on the 2015 Central Bank bond issue was being discussed must make it clear to the UNP that these strictures were surely under the direction of a ‘higher authority’ who has quite categorically said that he has given a ‘blank cheque’ to his party secretaries to work towards forming their own SLFP Government in the near future.

The UNP has painted itself into a corner on this issue, quite unwisely. What a fate to have befallen the UNP to defend one man and his son-in-law against all the odds.

More burdens on people,more perks for MPs

This week, Parliament approved a gut-wrenching blow on the ordinary people of this country by raising the Value Added Tax (VAT), an indirect tax that hits every citizen in many different ways.

Nobody likes taxes. Yet whether one likes it or not, taxes are needed to run a country. But finding revenue also comes with saving expenditure. When the humble citizens are asked to pay higher taxes, they expect it to be shared by all and that some people are not more equal than others.

Just as Parliament passes an enhanced VAT into law, its members from all sides of the floor have joined hands in stoutly defending moves not only to give to themselves duty-free vehicles, but allow any one of them to sell these vehicles pocketing the millions of rupees that ought to go to the Treasury and the common purse. The pithy Sinhala idiom “handa athey thiyanokota kaagen ahannada” (when the ladle is in your hand, whose permission do you need to serve yourself) is so apt. They seem to have no pangs of conscience to trouble them in doing what they do.

At a time when the call is for the common folk of this country is to tighten their belts even further than they already have, this is a pathetic, condemnable show by the very people who should set an example in sharing the burdens of the state.

Furthermore, MPs have been given the go-ahead to incorporate Foundations in their own name and collect “gifts” and “donations” –in other words, bribes, to collect money for their future political campaigns in the guise of doing social service work in their constituencies. This is the very culture that the UNP leader once frowned upon and banned in his party, while in Opposition. But that was once upon a time.

Some MPs have also been given the option of choosing an SUV or half a million rupees a month in lieu thereof for travelling. Are all these ‘santhosams’ to keep them happy, and earn their vote to pass the proposed new Constitution Bill, while the ordinary folk will be even more hard-pressed to pay their grocery, medical and phone bills?

Can the Finance Minister say to the public how much the ordinary people have to pay for the upkeep of their Right Honourable MPs. If not, why not?

Sunday Observer Editorial

COPE’s many plus points

30 October 2016


Our Parliament seems to have done its primary duty by the Constitution of the Republic: an important oversight body, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has successfully concluded its probe in the Central Bank bond issue and submitted a unanimous report to the House after months of division, bitter wrangling, and histrionics.

Most importantly, the report is not a cover-up or glossing over of the issue: surely the largest single case of maladministration and possible misappropriation in our State finance establishment to date. Rather, the COPE report attempts to clearly describe the problem, unambiguously point to accountability and firmly recommend remedial action that addresses multiple aspects of the case.

The unanimity of the Committee in drafting its final report is seen by many as being as great an achievement as the comprehensive scope and depth of its findings. After all, the COPE inquiry into the bond issue entertained Sri Lankans for months with the internal tussles among its members belonging to different parties – tussles sometimes ending in dramatic walkouts and verbal explosions, all indicating the intense divisions and differences on both procedure as well as the content of the probe.

And this COPE process on the Central Bank bond issue is but the second with a previous oversight inquiry losing its way in the vagaries of parliamentary schedules and electoral tenure. The whole matter took an almost surreal tinge with a public awed by the sheer enormity of the apparent financial scam and bemused by a web of seemingly interlocking business and political interests. The process dragged on for so long with such confusion that many Sri Lankans were reminded of the brazen cover-ups of similarly mighty – but yet to be proven – scams during the previous regime that was overthrown mainly on issues of corruption and authoritarianism.

Huge credit must go to the chairperson of COPE, Parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti, for sticking to his arduous task of managing the proceedings and building consensus in the Committee when no one else thought it was possible. The fact that Mr. Handunnetti is a member of the Opposition perhaps helped in a situation where the two largest parliamentary parties, traditionally the competing rival power blocs, are both in government and subject to the ‘oversight’ of the Committee.

Adding to Mr. Handennetti’s historic role is that he represents a political movement that yet prides in its ‘revolutionary’ or social transformative mission and offers itself as a radical alternative to even the liberal democratic parliamentary system itself. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, however, does acknowledge that its current strategy is to establish its popular electoral credentials in the liberal parliamentary arena. Thus, Mr. Handunnetti’s accomplishment should be celebrated by citizens as a happy maturing of this once insurgent movement in its practice of the liberal democracy that it once rejected wholesale.

However, the COPE Chairperson’s management of the Committee process would not have succeeded if the bulk of the Committee’s membership, namely those parliamentarians of the SLFP and UNP coalition partners, had not negotiated hard among themselves to resolve party differences on this case in order to achieve consensus. But resolve the differences they did, much to the chagrin of those failed politicians and factions waiting in the wings to take advantage of coalition infighting.

Thus, ultimately, the Government, especially the Prime Minister as leader of the government parliamentary group, may also take major credit for the consensus finally achieved by COPE.

Proof of the pudding, however, is in its consumption and enjoyment. The COPE report now will be debated in the House and studied by the financial institutions as well as the law enforcement agencies. The whole world – including Sri Lankans voters, local business as well as foreign groups – will be watching to see how far the proposed investigations and prosecutions will go to bring about justice. And justice must be seen to have been done by a closely watching citizenry, ever ready through bitter experience, to believe the worst of the politicians whom they elect.

War on VAW

Can cricket heroism militate against real violence? We are about to learn as we watch two of our greatest cricketing legends bravely take up a burning social cause.

Violence Against Women is now a globally recognised social phenomenon which the United Nations is committed to curbing and, finally, ending. Perhaps the most significant dimension of this criminal phenomenon is that it is one which can be largely delineated according to gender in terms of perpetrator and victim. That is, by far, the vast number of cases of VAW is acts of violence perpetrated by men against women. Indeed, the reverse is so rare that the news media will seize on such an incident just as much as they would highlight ‘man eats dog’ over ‘dog eats man’.

Cricketing greats Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara need no introduction other than as the newly appointed brand ambassadors in the United Nations’. Both of them are recognised for their achievements as sportsmen and professionals. They are also known for their integrity in the face of the corrupting whirlwinds of the global sports industry.

Their fame as sports men will surely drive home the importance to other men to listen to their vital message against violence against women. May they be role models in their gentlemanly behaviour as much as they are emulated for their sporting endeavours.

Sunday Island Editorial

COPE and the bonds

30 October 2016
 

Predictably, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has attempted to put the best spin possible on the COPE report on the Central Bank bond scam that has seriously embarrassed both him personally and the UNP. But he is right when he says that such a report would not have been possible under the previous dispensation. That is why the majority of the country’s voters ousted the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime and replaced it with the Maithripala Sirisena presidency. But while the existing order may be arguably better than what preceded it, there is no debate on the fact that it has woefully fallen short of expectations. Public opinion has absolved President Sirisena from the goings on in the Central Bank because he dug in his heels and refused to reappoint Arjuna Mahendran as Governor of the Bank despite the prime minister’s best efforts. It is fortunate for this country which sadly lacks good people for the jobs that must be done that Dr. Indrajit Commaraswamy, albeit reluctantly, accepted the position.

Whatever the connections, Mahendran should not have been appointed Governor in the first instance. If his son-in-law owned a company dealing in the bond market regulated by the Central Bank, there was a clear conflict of interest in such an appointment. Saying that former Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal’s sister was a director of Perpetual Treasuries owned by Arjun Aloysious, Mahendran’s son-in-law, does not in any way mitigate the offence. It merely demonstrates that bad appointments, unfortunately, have a long history in this country and both Tweedledum and Tweedledee must equally bear responsibility for that reality. Eventually the already overburdened taxpayer must pick up the tab for what their rulers, coming to office solemnly pledging to serve the people, do. Whatever the heat generated and hijinks that preceded the eventual presentation of the COPE report, the silver lining is that the oversight committee was chaired by an opposition MP. That was in the best tradition of parliamentary government - something that had been too often overlooked in the past.

Whether the promised debate on the COPE report will be possible before the presentation of the 2017 budget on November 10 is uncertain. The so-called joint opposition has pressed for this but whether it would be forthcoming remains to be seen. The country is only too well aware of the ongoing foot dragging on the long overdue local government elections and the skills of their leaders, of whatever political hue, in putting off what they’d rather not confront is very well known. Once the budget debate begins and it goes through all its stages with the prolonged discussions, a lot of time will pass. By then much of the heat generated in final stages of the COPE proceedings and the presentation of the report would have dissipated. According to yesterday’s newspapers, Mahendran has been held "directly responsible" for what happened. The recommendations, apparently, have been unanimously approved though the UNP members of the committee have included various footnotes that are part of the report. They have been accused of attempting to dilute the report by this device. Given their anxiety to protect Mahendran, this is not unlikely.

The prime minister said that the COPE report must be sent to the Attorney General and his advice on what must follow be obtained. There has been at least one complaint on the bond issue to one of the special bodies set up to investigate various frauds. But it is doubtful that the agency concerned acted with the same alacrity in this matter as it did in others involving personalities of the previous dispensation where statements were recorded, suspects arrested, taken to courts and remanded. Functionaries of the previous regime have alleged witch hunts against them and posed for the cameras displaying their manacles and broad smiles. Most of them have been bailed out after a few days in remand. While it was reported that Mahendran appeared before COPE and answered questions put to him, we do not know whether he was summoned by any other investigatory agency although a complaint had been made about the bond matter. He was certainly not arrested, manacled and remanded as were loyalists of the previous regime.

The COPE report will now be published and will include the Auditor General’s (AG) report on the bond issues. There have been allegations that there were attempt to pressure the AG to make changes in his report which was denied. In any event it is clear that there have been no changes in that report and the original stands. There are questions in the public mind on how billions of rupees had been loaned to Perpetual Treasuries without security to enable the company to purchase large tranches of government bonds to be re-sold very quickly in the secondary market. How this happened would have hopefully been explained in the COPE report. Whether the company had insider information or not will be very hard to establish. Patterns of purchases may be indicators but not conclusive proof. But the slightest doubt existing on these matters is unacceptable and that is why Mahendran’s appointment as Governor, while his son-in-law’s firm was a bond dealer, was highly improper. As threadbare as the cliché may be, justice must not only be done but be seen to be done. Given the published figures of the magnitude of the profits made by Perpetual running into the billions, suspicions are inevitable.

The media has been faulted for publishing details of proceedings of a parliamentary committee before its report had been released. There is no doubt that such information has been released by members of the committee itself. Before rapping the Press for publishing such reports, it would be useful for critics to turn the lamp inwards and deal with the sources of the ‘leaks’ who are no less than ‘honorable’ Members of Parliament. There has been talk that proceedings of parliamentary committees, like the proceedings of the House itself, will be opened to the press. But nothing tangible in this regard has happened. There are pros and cons on both sides of this matter that merits careful examination before any final decision is made.