‘Fodder’ for thought

Thursday 17th February, 2022

India has thrown a lifeline to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), which is struggling to maintain an uninterrupted supply of diesel. It has made available 40,000 MT of diesel, according to a news item in this newspaper yesterday. Besides, India has provided as many as 100,000 Rapid Antigen Test kits to the Ministry of Health. How come India’s economy remains resilient amidst the current pandemic while Sri Lanka is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy with its patriotic leaders begging for funds from other countries? Perhaps, the answer to this question is found in another report we carried yesterday; a special Indian court has convicted former Chief Minister of Bihar and Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad in an INR 1.39 billion Treasury embezzlement case, according to our news item, which also says the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo has been convicted in four other cases pertaining to an animal feed racket.

India has its share of crooks in the garb of political leaders and public officials, and its legal and judicial processes are far from perfect, but thankfully the law applies even to the powerful there whereas in this country, political crooks in power are above the law, and even capable of having corruption cases against them thrown out. Following every change of government here, the winners have cases filed against their predecessors for corruption, abuse of power and various other offences while making up for lost time. When the accused return to power, cases against them are withdrawn, and they have their political rivals prosecuted. Big crooks do not go to prison, as a result. Instead, they take turns to govern the country!

Corruption eats into the vitals of a society like cancer, and a nation that does not make a serious effort to battle it, and elects the corrupt as its leaders is doomed. This is the mistake Sri Lanka has been repeating over the past several decades.

Singapore and Sri Lanka may be different in many respects, but there are lessons that the latter could draw from the former in achieving national progress. Lee Kuan Yew, the visionary leader who drained the swamp that Singapore once was, has said in his book, ‘From Third World to First: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom’: “… in 1959, we set out to have a clean administration. We were sickened by the greed, corruption, and decadence of many Asian leaders. Fighters for freedom for their oppressed peoples had become plunderers of their wealth. Their societies slid backward ….” Nothing explains Sri Lanka’s predicament better than this observation.

Lalu Prasad has got into trouble over a fodder racket. But here those who lined their pockets to the tune of millions of US dollars through a milch cow fraud are going places. Those who masterminded the Treasury bond scams have got away with their crime, and, worse, they are now pontificating to others on the virtues of integrity and accountability! Those who are shielding the perpetrators of the mega sugar tax racket, which caused a huge loss to the state coffers, are trying to revive the economy!

Lee Kuan Yew, in the aforesaid book, reveals the circumstance that led to the suicide of one of his ministers owing to a corruption probe. He says he refused to help his friend who had taken a bribe, and let the latter face the full force of the law. Most Sri Lankan ministers, both past and present, did not even own bicycles when they took to politics, but today they are not only filthy rich but also make a vulgar display of their opulence with their progeny driving around in super luxury vehicles. The taxman never questions these parasites, who have all the luck. More crooks enter politics and fatten themselves on public funds with impunity. They are even free to unleash violence against their critics.

No wonder Sri Lanka has been pauperised while other nations are achieving their development goals.