An appeal to Japan

Thursday 29th September, 2022

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is reported to have had several productive meetings in Japan and received assurances of more Japanese assistance. This is certainly good news amidst reports of doom and gloom. There is something even more uplifting; Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has said, at a meeting with President Wickremesinghe, that Sri Lanka should handle development finance in a transparent and fair manner in conformity with international rules and standards. His statement has struck a responsive chord with all Sri Lankans, whose leaders have enriched themselves by stealing public funds and carrying out crooked deals, and ruined the economy.

Japan has been a true friend of Sri Lanka, which has tremendously benefited from the former’s munificence. There is hardly any sector here, which has not gained from generous Japanese assistance. Japan has thrown a lifeline to Sri Lanka, again; it has undertaken to help the latter with external debt restructuring, which is a prerequisite for IMF assistance.

It is being argued in some quarters that Japan is trying to further the interests of the strategic forum, QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), as a member thereof, by intervening to enable Sri Lanka to manage its debt, sort out its economy and lessen its dependence on China. It has also been claimed that two other QUAD members, India and the US, are also actively involved in helping straighten up Sri Lanka’s ailing economy as part of their strategy to counter China’s growing influence in the region. However, there is reason to believe that Japan would have helped Sri Lanka anyway. There have been instances where Japan even went out of its way to help Sri Lanka financially. During the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, Japan had to curtail development assistance due to domestic economic compulsions, but it ensured that Sri Lanka would not be affected by its decision; it expedited the process of granting aid to Sri Lanka by having relevant agreements signed in Colombo instead of Tokyo ahead of the implementation of its decision. But the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government with Mahinda as the PM had no qualms about antagonising Japan by cancelling a Japanese-funded light rail transit project on some flimsy pretext. So much for its gratitude!

Let it be repeated that Sri Lankans should be grateful to Japan for its generosity, which has stood them in good stead. But Japan has to do something more to enable this country to come out of the present crisis. Japan should help eliminate bribery and corruption here. It is now public knowledge that a few moons ago, a Japanese diplomat made a complaint to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself that a Cabinet minister had asked for a bribe from a Japanese company. When Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa raised the issue in Parliament, demanding an explanation, President Rajapaksa asked Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to resign pending an inquiry. But before a proper investigation got underway, President Rajapaksa had to resign, and his successor, Wickremesinghe, true to form, appointed a committee, which exonerated the minister, who was then reappointed to the Cabinet. Silva’s reappointment was a slap in the face of Japan! The silence of the Japanese government over the issue has made some Sri Lankans wonder whether its diplomat made a false allegation.

Sri Lankans hold Japan in high esteem for its zero tolerance of bribery and corruption and its unwavering commitment to upholding accountability in everything it does. They fervently hope that the Japanese government will call for a thorough probe into its diplomat’s complaint at issue, which has been swept under the carpet at this end. That is the best way to ensure that development finance will be handled in a transparent and fair manner here. There will be no hope for this country unless the corrupt elements in the garb of politicians and public officials are weeded out. One can only hope that Japan, India, the US, the EU, the IMF, the World Bank and all other nations and international organisations, which Sri Lanka is now dependent on to turn its economy around, will bring pressure to bear on the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government to put robust mechanisms in place to fight bribery and corruption.