Monday 5th February, 2024

Another ‘Independence Day’ has come and gone. Hours of pomp and circumstance complete with thunderous cannon fire were over and the sobering reality was dawning on Sri Lankans as this comment was written yesterday. Independence Day celebrations are replete with irony; beaming from ear to ear and singing the national anthem with gusto, at such spectacles, are the political ‘leaders’ who are responsible for ruining the economy of this country, which has become dependent on the rest of the world, as a result.

If yesterday’s event of grandeur had been cancelled or at least scaled down on account of the economic crisis, a lot of funds could have been saved and utilised for some useful purpose, such as the procurement of medicinal drugs for the state-run hospitals or the provision of sanitary facilities for underprivileged schools. However, the celebration of imaginary Independence is a time for reflection on how other countries have achieved progress and why Sri Lanka has remained underdeveloped since 1948.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol finds himself in the line of fire owing to an allegation that his wife improperly accepted a designer handbag as a gift from a controversial Korean-American pastor. The First Lady was secretly filmed receiving a Dior handbag worth more than USD 2,200. This revelation, which has triggered a media feeding frenzy, could not have come at a worse time for President Yeol and his party; elections to South Korea’s national assembly are only months away.

Thankfully, Sri Lanka currently has a respected First Lady, who is above board, but sadly it cannot be said that her husband does not suffer fools and crooks gladly, so to speak. With the next presidential election about eight or nine months away, President Ranil Wickremesinghe stands accused of shielding the corrupt.

The Auditor General himself has exposed corruption in cricket administration, which has not only ruined cricket but also tarnished the image of Sri Lanka. Worse, President Wickremesinghe sacked Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, who took on the crooked cricket administrators. Thereafter, the government embarked on a political witch-hunt against him.

The perpetrators of the sugar scam are still at large because they have links to the ruling SLPP. The staggering losses they caused to the state coffers have been passed on to the hapless public in the form of tax and tariff increases. The Health Ministry has become a metaphor for corruption, but the government is unflinchingly defending many crooks who are enriching themselves at the expense of the sick.

A Chief Minister in India had to resign prior to his arrest over a land scam, the other day. Hemant Soren, Chief Minister of Jharkhand, was remanded after being produced in court. In 2014, the three-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa, was sentenced to four years’ simple imprisonment and fined INR 100 crore for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

But here in this country, a person who was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment suspended for five years and fined Rs 25 million by the Colombo High Court (HC) in an extortion case involving a land grab, functions as a Cabinet Minister and Chief Government Whip. He has publicly pledged his support for President Wickremesinghe in the coming presidential race! He has appealed against the HC judgement (2022), but he should have been asked to resign from the aforesaid posts pending the appeal.

The SLPP-UNP government led by President Wickremesinghe has proved that it has no scruples about defending tainted politicians. On Friday, it allowed Minister Keheliya Rambukwella to be arrested over the fraudulent procurement of a consignment of fake immunoglobulin because it did not want to keep on testing the patience of the resentful public lest protests against the kid-glove treatment the police gave him should spin out of control.

He should have been arrested immediately after the lid was blown off the procurement scam, which caused several deaths in government hospitals and enormous losses to the state coffers. One should not be so naïve as to think that the government has thrown Rambukwella under the bus. It is obviously trying every trick in the book to open an escape route for him. With the CID and the state prosecutor on its side, the government might even succeed in its endeavour. Politicians taken into custody are never kept in remand prison; they are allowed to stay in the prison hospital instead. One can only hope that Rambukwella, who had himself admitted to the prison hospital on Saturday itself, will be examined by a team of independent medical specialists.

Last month, Singapore’s Transport Minister S. Iswaran resigned after being charged in a graft case. One of the main reasons why Singapore has become a First World country is its zero tolerance of corruption. The least that the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government can do to assuage public anger is to remove Rambukwella and others with serious allegations against them from the Cabinet forthwith.

It must also ensure that the cricket administration is cleansed of corrupt elements, who are sticking to their positions like limpets with the help of some members of President Wickremesinghe’s kitchen cabinet, and the Rajapaksa family.Independence as well as progress will remain a will-o’-the-wisp for this country unless corruption is eliminated and the rule of law restored as a national priority.