Bitter sugar

Tuesday 16th March, 2021

The government is in the same predicament as an ant struggling to stay afloat in a jar of sugar syrup. The Opposition is in overdrive, inveighing against the SLPP for a sugar import racket, which has come to be dubbed the sugar scam. A controversial government decision to reduce import duty on sugar for the benefit of one of its cronies is believed to have caused a loss of about Rs. 15 billion to the state coffers. Ruling party politicians and some public officials loyal to them have denied any wrongdoing, but the public does not believe anything until it is officially denied.

Politicians who form a government after being starved of power for a long time, behave just like a bunch of famished persons given free food at a buffet. Their greed gets the better of them, and they make up for lost time. One may recall that no sooner had the UNP captured power in January 2015 than the first Treasury bond scam was committed at the Central Bank. The UNP had been struggling to pay for water and electricity at its headquarters, Sirikotha, but a few weeks after forming a government, it was rolling in money and even outspent the UPFA at the general election that followed. The SJB is labouring under the delusion that the sugar scam will cancel out the bond scams, and it will be able to improve its electoral performance.

The formation of a government is followed by the payback time for its financiers. The SLPP cronies are having a field day. So far, only the sugar scam has come to light. The government would have the public believe that it reduced the import duty on sugar in good faith; it insists that it expected the sugar price to come down significantly, but some unscrupulous traders did not pass the benefit of the duty reduction on to the public. It says, it reduced import duties on several commodities and sugar was only one of them. True, it did so purportedly to bring down the cost of living, but the question is why only the duty reduction in respect of sugar has become an issue. The reason is the political connections of the main beneficiary of the duty reduction. The Opposition insists that the businessman who stood to gain is an SLPP financier, who sponsored the Viyathmaga events. The government owes an explanation.

Among those who are calling for a probe into the sugar scam are some prominent government ministers, of all people. These crafty SLPP politicians have adopted the same ruse as the confederates of pickpockets. When pickpockets happen to come under attack by members of the public, their friends join the attackers and hit them harder than others do, take them away, vowing to hand them over to the police and thus help them make good their escape. One may recall what some SJB notables did while they were in the yahapalana government; they demanded action against the bond scammers, became members of the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) which probed the racket, and defended the racketeers while pretending to be attacking them. Finally, they unashamedly diluted the COPE report by having a slew of footnotes incorporated thereinto and safeguarded the interests of their government. They are now condemning corruption! The SLPP politicians are also emulating the accomplices of pickpockets and the public should not fall for their wiles.

Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando, one of the few hardworking ministers, has said that about Rs. 10 bn has been allocated for constructing 1,000 bridges in rural areas. It may be argued that the amount of funds (Rs. 15 bn) the state has reportedly lost due to the sugar scam is equal to the cost of 1,500 rural bridges. If the government thinks it can get away with the sugar racket by vilifying the Opposition and pulling the wool over the eyes of the public, it is mistaken.

The sugar scam is now before the people’s court, which will give its verdict come the next election.