Poor Presidents!

Tuesday 17th January, 2023

Former President Maithripala Sirisena has broken his silence about last week’s Supreme Court verdict. Speaking at a public event, he has referred to the historic apex court order that he pay Rs. 100 million as compensation to the Easter Sunday victims for his failure to prevent a series of terrorist bomb blasts, in 2019, when he was the President. He has said he respects the judiciary but has no money to pay as much as Rs. 100 million and will therefore seek his friends’ help to raise funds.

All Sri Lankan politicians, especially former Presidents, would have the public believe that they are in indigence, as it were, but the comforts of life are certainly far from lacking for them. They and their progeny continue to live high on the hog. They own palatial houses, here and overseas, and fleets of luxury vehicles. Their children are members of the leisure class and splurge on ultra-expensive vehicles, designer wear and fairytale weddings while the ordinary youth are working their fingers to the bone to make ends meet.

Sirisena’s claim at issue reminds us of something Basil Rajapaksa said years ago. Speaking at a local dairy farmers’ conference, during the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, Basil claimed that the only asset he had was a herd of milch cows! Pointing out that all members of the Rajapaksa family were wealthy, we asked editorially whether those animals were wish-granting cattle, and argued that the country’s poverty could be eradicated in next to no time if such cows were distributed among the needy. Basil must be the only small-scale Sri Lankan dairy farmer to live the life of Riley, owning properties in the US, flying first/business class and paying for VIP facilities at airports!

Sirisena says he has duly declared his assets and liabilities all these years and therefore anyone can see that he lacks the wherewithal to pay Rs. 100 million as compensation. But no one with an iota of intelligence expects the present-day politicians to declare their assets truthfully. Their asset declarations are like their election manifestos, which people do not take seriously. Sri Lankan politicians may not be intelligent enough to be able to develop the country but they are not so stupid as to have all their assets in their own names and declare them.

All Sri Lankan politicians have surplus campaign funds, which they invest through various fronts. Presidential candidates spend billions of rupees on their election campaigns, but not all the money they receive is spent on electioneering, as is public knowledge. Politicians help moneybags in numerous ways and benefit from the largesse of the latter in return. There is said to be no such thing as a free lunch, and that is especially true of presidential pardons. It is therefore hard to believe that political leaders, especially former Presidents, ever become penniless in this country.

Uruguay is perhaps the only country that has had a poor President. Jose Mujica, 87, is his name. He is currently in retirement. A former Tupamaro guerrilla, he led an austere lifestyle and donated part of his presidential salary to a charity, refused to occupy the official residence, and lived in his wife’s farmhouse. While serving as the President, he would wait in queues at government hospitals to receive treatment like ordinary people. The Sri Lankan leaders responsible for bankrupting the country and inflicting so much suffering on the public ought to emulate Mujica instead of living off the hapless public who are struggling to keep the wolf from the door.

Sirisena will have to beg, borrow or steal enough money to pay Rs. 100 million as compensation. That will however be the least of his problems, as it stands. The Catholic Church has said its struggle for justice will continue until criminal proceedings are instituted against him and others as per the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which probed the Easter Sunday terror strikes. The worst is yet to come for him.