Ceylon Today Editorial

Lessons from Korea

21 April 2017

The Bribery Commissioner's Department (BCD) established by statute in 1958, 36 years later, underwent a name- change in 1994 and was renamed the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).

Its Director General Sarath Jayamanne PC, speaking at a function in Colombo yesterday, said that with these changes, CIABOC was also empowered to investigate 'corruption', not covered by the previous BCD.

BCD's powers were limited to investigate bribery charges only, a legacy of the British, with the introduction of the Penal Code of 1883, a Code which has undergone only a few changes since, he said.

Jayamanne said that corruption covers the declaration of assets and seeking explanations from the defendant as to how assets were accumulated. He however said that Sri Lanka's bribery laws, since its inception in 1883, broadly cover only the public sector, though there is a section in its laws which says that offering a bribe is an offence.

The insinuation being that the offerer, being a member of the private sector or a private person, making or promising of such an illegal undertaking to a public sector official, so that some work, illegal or otherwise, may be executed, or hastened to be executed, has also committed an offence.

He said that CIABOC was a 'legacy' of the 17 year rule of the UNP which immediately preceded its establishment. CIABOC was instituted by the UNP's arch political rival, the SLFP led PA coalition, elected to power in 1994, to investigate alleged corrupt acts of its predecessor, the UNP.

Jayamanne also averred that similarly, the birth of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), a branch of the Police, took place, after a near 21 year rule of the PA/UPFA Government, ousted after the election of incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena on 8 January, 2015. Sirisena's ascent to power was possible due to the support of the then Opposition led by the UNP.

He said that it's only the FCID and the CID which are empowered to investigate money laundering (ML). Jayamanne said that CIABOC doesn't have the teeth to investigate ML, a crime which was recognized by law only in 2006, with the passing of the ML Act that year.

The CIABOC Chief said that currently a team from Switzerland was in town to help the authorities to strengthen their ML investigative capabilities.

Governments, which have ruled this country since independence, have either been the UNP and/or with other coalition partners, or the SLFP and/or with coalition partners. The political race, right along, has been a two-horse race.

In this context, successive governments' fight against bribery, corruption and ML within the past 40 years, namely by the UNP and/or with its coalition partners, or the SLFP and/or with its coalition partners, discounting the brief two plus years of the UNP/UNF rule in between, i.e. from December 2001 to February 2004, has mainly centred round trying to detect illegal enrichment by their rival politicos, when in power.

The SLFP led PA Government, elected to power in 1994 after the end of the first 17 years of those 40 years strengthened the hand of the BCD by including 'corruption' also as a crime. Further, BCD was also reconstituted as CIABOC, in a political vendetta, to seek and prosecute UNP politicos which governed the country in the immediately preceding 17 years, for allegedly stashing ill-gotten gain, aside from allegedly breaching an over a century old law which had already recognized corruption's twin brother 'bribery' also as a crime. But CIABOC's activities were primarily confined within the borders of this land. In an evolutionary stage, of seeking and prosecuting,mainly politicos who ruled the roost immediately preceding the election of a new government 21 years later in 2015, of allegedly stashing ill gotten gain outside the borders of this land, the FCID was also created that year, the year the UNP's Presidential candidate was elected to power. FCID was empowered to conduct such criminal investigations outside the borders of this island.

But, as inferred to by the UK's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris, who was also a speaker at this event, who, quoting Transparency International, an NGO, said that Sri Lanka's corruption perception index was ranked high, i.e. by being placed 95th out of 175 countries and getting a failed score of 36%, whereas its giant and closest neighbour India, scraped through with a pass by getting 40%, whilst being ranked 79th.

He imputed that such country rankings are perceived as being important to foreign investors, where a higher corruption perception index acts as a negative to attract such investments.

Therefore, what Sri Lanka needs are not only laws nor the strengthening of laws to go after ill gotten gain, but independence, courage, strength and competency to implement the same.

Not a single prosecution of a politico has taken place since the institution of CIABOC 23 years ago with taxpayers' money in 1994 and the same may well be said of the FCID since its establishment two years ago in 2015. But, on the other hand, look at Korea, where a sitting executive President has ended up in jail within a year on charges of bribery!

Daily News Editorial

Meethotamulla and its aftermath

21 April 2017

Joint Opposition parliament group leader Dinesh Gunawardena has requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to summon an emergency session of parliament. The Speaker, on his part, says parliament can be summoned only at the instance of the Prime Minister. What parliament can achieve at this stage is indeed a moot point unless the JO is planning to use a parliament debate on Meethotamulla to attack the government and blame it for the tragedy.

A sample of what form a parliament debate would take was shown by Gunawardena himself when he told a media briefing on Wednesday that the government ought to be ashamed for offering a mere Rs. 100,000 as compensation on behalf of a victim. This, after Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake having assured that the sum mentioned by the MP was only an insurance payment and that full compensation would follow.

Anyway, the damage has been done and how a parliament debate is going to help the Meethotamulla victims is difficult to fathom. On the contrary, a slanging match over the whole affair will only increase the ire of an already incensed general public who attribute the tragedy to the negligence of politicians of all hues.

This, at a time the country witnessed the dignified presence of our national cricketers led by skipper Rangana Herath at the tragedy site, offering solace and material comfort to the victims. Hopefully this gesture on the part of our cricketers would spur an avalanche of largesse from others, particularly the corporate sector. It must be remembered that the Meethotamulla garbage mountain includes a not inconsiderable portion of factory waste and discards in addition to the garbage and litter from wealthy homes in the city. Hence they are all obliged to come to the assistance of the victims in whatever form.

Meanwhile garbage trucks keep roaming the streets of Colombo and elsewhere, aimlessly, trying to locate dumping grounds while still others are driven from pillar to post after being chased away by irate residents who would not want another Meethotamulla in their backyards. The blame game is also continuing apace, the latest addition to the babel of voices is that of Gamini Lokuge who was nowhere near the Meethotamulla garbage site following the tragedy, although as an MP representing the Colombo District he would have been a recipient of the manapeys of the Meethotamulla residents. Like fellow Colombo District MP Udaya Gammanpila he has emerged from the shadows to take aim at the government. The former UNP stalwart, now an abject follower of Mahinda Rajapaksa, is repeating the claim of Gammanpila that had Gota's Puttalam project being implemented the tragedy could have been averted.

He also reiterates Gammanpila's claim that funds were allocated in the 2015 budget for Gota's project but a change in government put paid to the matter. Lokuge who is based in an electorate where the garbage problem is most acute should have been among the first to urge the former Defence Secretary to get on with the project at the very outset and not in 2015 when the garbage problem had got out of hand. Credit is also sought to be given to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa for conditioning the military for such arduous tasks as the rescue mission in Meethotamulla when it is common knowledge that even in the pre-war days the army was well geared to handle emergency operations, as witnessed in the cyclone devastation in the East in 1977.

A parliament debate, called for by Dinesh G., no doubt will also centre on the merits of Gotabhaya, curtsy JO speakers, and on what might have been, had his projects and plans for the city being implemented, never mind if the Puttalam project was pigeon holed and funds allocated only in 2015.

Be that as it may, the directive issued by President Maithripala Sirisena for speedy resettlement of the victims of the Meethotamulla tragedy is to be welcomed. Steps have been taken to provide homes to 98 families as an initial measure and a programme has already been drawn up in this connection. It is not just homes and accommodation, the victims should be given assistance to rebuild their devastated lives. As television showed there are a large number of children among the displaced, whose education is going to suffer. Among these children there are those who had lost one or both parents. A special programme should be devised to seek out these children, lest they be left to their own devises and be exploited by unsavoury elements. The Ministry of Women and Childcare should move in the matter. It is laudable indeed that our national cricketers who visited the scene had taken cognizance of this factor and have pledged to support the children to rebuild their future. Others too should join in without leaving everything in the hands of the government. Private Television channels who give wide publicity to their charitable projects can take the lead in this connection. No one will begrudge them for the publicity they shower on themselves by assisting the victims of the Meethotamulla tragedy.

The Island Editorial

JO and May Day

21 April 2017

 

Political parties are making grand preparations to hijack the International Workers’ Day again. The Joint Opposition (JO) says it will hold the biggest May Day rally. (Other parties are equally confident.) All signs are that workers’ interests will be subjugated to those of politicians this year, too. What the working class desperately needs is certainly not political muscle flexing in their name but having emerging challenges and threats to their interests addressed on the day dedicated to their cause.

There cannot be a bigger threat to workers than the frightening prospect of losing their EPF benefits or part thereof. Speculation is also rife that the government is mulling over a new tax on the EPF at the expense of workers. The Central Bank (CB) Monetary Board inquiry has revealed that the EPF has lost as much as Rs. 10 bn due to the much-investigated bond scams; highly respected CB professionals have also confirmed this fact which was also highlighted in the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) investigation into the bond controversy. So, what is needed now is action against the culprits and it is the bounden duty of the Opposition to take up the issue and crank up pressure on the government to bring the culprits, who are members of the ruling cabal, to book. A former minister was arrested and remanded for weeks for allegedly misusing state vehicles, but the bond racketeers who have caused a staggering loss running into billions of rupees to both the state coffers and the EPF are enjoying legal immunity as it were. Had there been such incriminating evidence against any member of the previous regime, he or she would have been arrested by the Sri Lankan version of Gestapo, the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigations Division) and remanded without bail.

The unfolding yahapalana drama reminds us of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, The Animal Farm, where farm animals revolt and get rid of their owner only to have pigs arrogating to themselves all the power and becoming ‘more equal than others’. It hurts the people who expected a clean break from the political culture that prevailed under the previous dispensation to see the self-proclaimed champions of good governance and their privileged chums remain above the law and line their pockets with impunity just like their predecessors. Ironically, they have had to bank on the bad guys who were ousted in 2015 for bribery and corruption, abuse of power and the suppression of dissent to act as a countervailing force against the yahapalana administration. They are left with no alternative but to set former thieves to catch new thieves!

The TNA, which leads the official Opposition, has reduced itself to a regional party. Its raison d’etre is apparently to rid the North and East of the army. Regrettably, it has not made use of its position to reach out to the people in all parts of the country by way of bridge building. The JVP has been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds so much that it now does not know whether it is running or hunting. While making a lot of noise about the bond scams it has craftily ensured that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s name does not get mentioned in the report issued by the COPE, headed by one of its MPs, on the issue. It acts out of expediency rather than principle and, therefore, cannot be expected to go the whole hog to make the bond racketeers pay for their sins and return the money the EPF has lost, preferably with interest.

Most of the trade unions are affiliated to political parties and the leaders of the so-called independent ones have also sold their souls to politicians. They, too, cannot be expected to address the issues troubling the working class.

So, people, especially workers, are dependent on the JO, for want of a better alternative, to have their burning problems addressed effectively. The JO has to take up cudgels for them without leaving them in the lurch. That is the way it can prove that it has not struck any deals with the UNP to go slow on issues such as the bond scams and the resultant EPF losses. If the JO wants to expand its support base and evolve into a formidable political force instead of remaining an influential pressure group it has to fight for the rights of people without limiting its campaign to efforts to protect the interests of the Rajapaksas and bring them to power by engineering the downfall of President Maithripala Sirisena. The upcoming May Day will provide the JO worthies with an opportunity to prove, if they can, that theirs is a broad pro-people agenda by taking up the EPF issue. Let them make the EPF losses the main plank of their May Day platform.