The Island Editorial

Learn from Romania

07 February 2017

 

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK), who claims to be the chief architect of the 2015 regime change and what is being flaunted as the UNP-SLFP unity government, has recently called for action to prevent corruption within ministerial ranks of the yahapalana administration before bringing the corrupt in the previous government to justice. So, now, it is confirmed that the yahapalana gods also have feet of clay!

CBK has, however, added in the same breath that corruption in the present government is not even one thousandth of that of the members of the previous government. She deserves thanks for her candid statement though one may not agree with her on the scale of corruption under the present regime. On the other hand, some key members of the Rajapaksa government, accused of corruption, are in the present Cabinet! The question is what action the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition has taken against its own members indulging in corruption.

CBK minced no words when she accused a member of the former ruling family of having stashed away ill-gotten money to the tune of USD 1,000 million in an offshore account. Naming the person concerned she dared him to sue her if she was wrong. What follows from her argument is that the amount of public funds which the incumbent ministers help themselves to averages at least USD 1 million each at present, being one-thousandth of USD 1,000 million.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has gone on record as saying the former ruling clan helped itself to public funds amounting to USD 18,000 million. This works out, according to CBK’s logic, to USD 18 mn for the current ruling cabal. Will the government explain why none of its members has been arrested and remanded for lining their pockets at the expense of the public? Joint Opposition (JO) firebrand Wimal Weerawansa has been remanded for allegedly abusing state vehicles and causing a loss of Rs. 90 million.

The general consensus is that the Rajapaksa regime was corrupt though the stolen money has not yet been recovered. A government in power is capable of covering its tracks because it keeps police, the state prosecutor and the anti-graft commission under its thumb. President Maithripala Sirisena has publicly admitted that there has been a bond scam at the Central Bank and the culprits must be brought to justice. He has appointed a special presidential commission for that purpose. But, there have been several other mega rackets which have gone uninvestigated. The JHU, a constituent of the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena coalition, has publicly alleged that some ministers received bribes amounting to USD 100 million from the Hambantota Port deal alone. The Customs have, under political pressure, released hundreds of fraudulently imported SUVs from its custody. There have also been paddy and rice rackets which have cost the state coffers billions of rupees.

It has been a case of Hobson’s choice for the people. They helped dislodge the previous regime because they believed it was corrupt and the crafty politicians who toppled it, promising a radical break from the past have proved to be no better. Public disillusionment and resentment, welling up at an alarming rate, presage trouble as can be seen from what is happening in Romania, where Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu’s government, which also came to power pledging to eliminate bribery and corruption as a national priority, has let down people by opting to give kid glove treatment to the corrupt.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets across Romania against a controversial decree of the Grindeanu administration to let many crooks off the hook. It has been revoked due to public protests, but demonstrators say they have lost faith in the government; they are vowing to go on protesting indefinitely.

This is what happens to any country when politicians who capture power pretending to be messiahs fail to live up to people’s expectations and are found to be a bunch of rogues themselves. People power protests become the inevitable outcome of public discontent, especially when elections which help the public vent their anger are postponed indefinitely. Leaderless protests and anarchy are coterminous. If the yahapalana rulers think they will be able to prevent a popular uprising with the help of some malleable judges and a servile police force they are mistaken.

Ceylon Today Editorial

Tamil Nadu’s New Amma and Sri Lanka

07 February 2017

 

Exactly two months after the death of her mentor, the beloved politician fondly known as Amma – Jayalalithaa Jayaram, AIADMK General Secretary V. K. Sasikala Natarajan was unanimously elected leader of the AIADMK, paving the way for her to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Sasikala, as expected, took up her rightfully handed down position as the new Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu earlier this week, paving the way to new possible political era in Tamil Nadu – the closest Indian State to our own island nation.

A long-term companion of former Chief Minister the late Jayalalithaa, Sasikala was elected as leader of the AIADMK on Sunday and paved the way to the interim Chief Minister O. Paneerselvam's resignation. He had later said he was resigning and Sasikala would lead the party and the government. In a letter to the Governor, he cited "personal reasons" to resign from the post.

In his letter sent to the Governor, Panneerselvam also sought to relieve the Council of Ministers appointed by him by Monday.

Sasikala is expected to swear in as Chief Minister on 9 February, which is an auspicious day, a senior party representative said.

Sasikala's history is rather vibrant and it all began with her meeting her mentor Jayalalithaa in 1983. In 1991, Jayalalithaa, after becoming the Chief Minister entrusts Sasikala as her close aide and even goes to adopt Saiskala's nephew, in 1995, who would be eventually disowned the following year. Sasikala has been accused in a disproportionate assets case alongside the Amma.

Again in 2012, Sasikala is accused of conspiring against Jayalalithaa and is ousted from her support. Hundred days later however, Sasikala finds her way back to Jayalalithaa after 'unconditionally apologizing'. In September 2016, Sasikala was reported to have accompanied the ailing Jayalalithaa to the hospital where she had remained by her side until Jayalalithaa's passing.

When Sasikala swears in as the new Tamil Nadu Chief Minister sometime this week, it will be the fastest rise to power by anybody in Indian politics, except Bihar's Rabri Devi, who was asked to keep the chair warm for her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav when he had to resign on corruption charges two decades ago. Rabri was an illiterate housewife and an absolute fledgling, but she went on to rule the State for three truncated terms. In comparison, Sasikala has a whole term ahead of her; and unlike Rabri, it's no stop-gap arrangement. Her Chief Minister's post will be real, she will be her only boss and there will be no time out.

Although she got extremely lucky to become the first Chief Minister in India whose only claim to the post is her role as a caregiver to an incumbent who died in harness, it's truly a daunting task because she will now be the Executive Head of a State with constitutional obligations. Moreover, she has to fit in to the shoes of J. Jayalalithaa, who was both a mass leader and one of the most experienced politician-administrators in the country.

And it's this undistinguished background that involves Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu fishermen crossing maritime borders to poach for fish, that Sasikala will define herself. Sasikala, similar to her mentor in every way, has been an ardent critic of Sri Lanka Navy's and Sri Lanka Government's stance on the fishermen issue and has demanded the release of arrested fishermen and confiscated machinery on numerous occasions. We cannot expect the leopard to change its spots and same goes for Sasikala – she will find her niche in standing against the Sri Lanka Government based on the fishermen issue, in order to protect the people's favour for her.

If the optimist is spared a few minutes to hope, it could be said that Sasikala might even take the initial steps to resolve this matter for once and for all. We can hope that Sasikala would do something Jayalalithaa had never done during her tenure. But realistically, the ball doesn't swing that way.

We'll just have to wait and see what the new Amma would do.

Daily News Editorial

It’s action time

07 February 2017

The decision by the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) to investigate the infamous ‘hedging deals’ where the country lost a monumental Rs. 14 billion is indeed a timely one given that the public attention has today been craftily diverted to the alleged Central Bank bond scam by those members of the Joint Opposition against whom corruption investigations are pending. According to our main story yesterday COPE has decided to launch a full scale investigation into the oil price ‘hedging deals’ of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) in 2007 which resulted in heavy losses to the state. COPE Chairman Sunil Handunhetti said a similar investigation, as in the case of the Treasury bond transaction, would be commenced on the much talked about ‘hedging deals’.

The alleged Treasury bond scam had already been subjected to a full scale investigation by COPE and the matter has been directed to the Attorney General for action, by parliament. In addition President Maithripala Sirisena appointed a Special Presidential Commission to probe the affair, giving the Commission a three month time frame to reveal its findings .On the other hand, the ‘hedging deals’ were swept under the carpet by the Rajapaksa regime with no person or persons held accountable. It will therefore be a monumental lapse on the part of the government if the ‘hedging deals’ that blew a vast hole in the economy were left to whither on the vine and the culprits allowed to go scot free. It is surprising indeed that this matter which obviously reeked of corruption was not probed by the Yahapalanaya government at the very inception. Anti-corruption champions such as Wasantha Samarasinghe and Keerthie Tennakoon too had been lukewarm on the ‘hedging deals’ while going hammer and tongs on alleged bond scam. All the actors involved in the matter are well known and the public is owed an explanation as to why this was sent into the forgotten things of limbo while investigating bodies were going after much lesser offences such as misuse of government vehicles.

Not just the ‘hedging deals’, but the Greek bond issue where the country again lost billions too should be brought to the fore and the wrongdoers punished. The ‘hedging deals’ drew strictures from no less a personage than the former the Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva who stated in open court that his peon had more qualifications than the individual placed at the helm of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation at the time- another glaring instance where nepotism under Rajapaksa rule cost the country dear. The losses incurred by the alleged Central Bank bond scam pales into insignificance when considering the cumulative losses suffered as a result of the ‘hedging deals’ and the Greek bond affair. What is more, those directly responsible for this mind boggling loss to the country are today taking high ground on the bond issue and has the brass to give press interviews on the matter while government ministers hardly talk about the ‘hedging deals’ or other mega scams of the past, giving the impression to the public, and justifiably so, that charges leveled against the Rajapaksas were mere fiction.

This failure on the part of the government to communicate effectively with the public has not only caused misgivings in the minds of the public pertaining to corruption allegations against former VIPs but also emboldened those in the Joint Opposition, hauled before the various Commissions, to carry out their camouflage act by going to the Bribery Commission against a Top Ten team of Ministers. A clear case of the hunter becoming the hunted.

The Joint Opposition anti-corruption crusaders who are now busy drawing a red herring to deflect the mega corruption charges laid at their feet should be effectively countered by bringing out the whole sordid details of the ‘hedging deals’. This, and the Greek bond affair, are only just two instances where billions were frittered away by the Rajapaksa government. Other cases of profligacy too should be reopened and those now posing as paragons of virtue should be exposed, starting with all Central Bank involvements. To begin with, a probe is in order to ascertain who was responsible for paying out astronomical amounts to the US lobby firms to promote Sri Lanka among the US Congressmen and for writing the speeches of the then Ambassador - another instance where nepotism under Rajapaksa took a heavy toll on the country’s finances.

The government should also take up the matter of financial loss to the country resulting from the failed bid to secure the right to hold the Commonwealth Games in Hambantota where a plane load of sportsmen, models, actresses journalists et al. were flown to the Carribean in the company of the country’s first son.

The government, by remaining silent on these matters, is inadvertently giving the lie to its claim, made during the elections, of mega corruption and financial profligacy during the Rajapaksa Presidency, thus making the swindlers, and fraudsters look squeaky clean. Why not open the whole can of worms and expose those in Lilly white garb who lorded it over under Rajapaksa rule?