Stolen funds and gullible public

Wednesday 9th November, 2022

The SLPP dissidents have stressed the need to secure international assistance to recover Sri Lanka’s stolen funds, and adopt measures to ensure that revenue from taxes and tariffs will not end up in the ruling politicians’ offshore accounts. One cannot but agree with them. Their call must have struck a responsive chord with the resentful public. But even if the incumbent regime is dislodged, the next government is not likely to go the whole hog to recover the stolen public funds, for the politicians currently in opposition, save a few, are as corrupt as their ruling party counterparts; they will make up for lost time instead of trying to catch thieves. The question is how advisable it is for the public to depend on politicians to investigate the corrupt and bring back the stolen national wealth?

The UNP-led Yahapalana government (2015-2019) came to power, promising to bring the corrupt to justice and confiscate the stolen funds, and went so far as to set up the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) and have some prominent members of the Rajapaksa regime arrested. But nobody has been jailed and no stolen funds have been recovered. Today, the UNP and the Rajapaksas are sharing power!

One should not labour under the delusion that only politicians are corrupt and vile, and if we manage to rein them in, hey presto, the country will be a better place to live in. There is no gainsaying that taming them is half the battle in achieving national progress, but there are many others exploiting the public, and they, too, need to be severely dealt with. Bakers, eatery owners, private bus and school vehicle operators, truckers, and taxi drivers make the most of the increases in the prices of essential commodities and services by effecting disproportionate increases to the prices of their products and services. Private hospitals fleece the sick, and traders exploit consumers with impunity. Shirkers abound in the state sector, which has become synonymous with inefficiency, lethargy and corruption. Political reforms alone will not help address these problems.

The task of ridding the country of corruption is too serious to be left entirely to politicians, who themselves are corrupt, bar a few. Social reforms are a prerequisite for cleansing politics. Hence the need for a powerful, inclusive social movement transcending divisive politics to bring about a radical attitudinal change in Sri Lankans, who ‘suffer the corrupt gladly’! Aragalaya came close to being such a movement but unfortunately it became politicised and thereby polluted.

Unless the patriotic Sri Lankans who are genuinely desirous of enthroning good governance and achieving economic prosperity are mobilised to sink their political differences and join forces to facilitate the emergence of a new socio-political culture, progress will continue to elude this country, with the corrupt voted out of power making comebacks. This, we believe, is a task for social reformers, who alone can bring all people together to fight for their rights.

Politics has become a religion of sorts here, and corrupt politicians are adept at pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible public and regaining power, the way the Rajapaksas did after the 2015 regime change; they are doing their damnedest to take the people for a ride again and consolidate their hold on power. They might succeed in their endeavour unless a social reform movement is launched urgently parallel to the efforts being made to change the political system. We ought to learn from the experience of the Philippines, where the son of a dictator ousted by the people more than three decades ago has become the President.

The People Power Revolution, on which Aragalaya was modelled, helped the Filipinos to put an end to the oppressive Marcos regime in 1986. President Ferdinand Marcos and his family became a metaphor for corruption and abuse of power. They also earned notoriety for their extravagant and opulent lifestyles. When protesters stormed the Presidential Palace, they found more than 2,000 pairs of expensive shoes left behind by First Lady Imelda. But about 36 years on, the former dictator’s son, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos (aka Bongbong), has become the President!

The only thing Bongbong had to flaunt during his presidential election campaign was the fact that he was the ousted dictator’s son! Interestingly, the Marcos government used to boast that it had built more roads than all its predecessors combined. A young member of the Rajapaksa family has recently made a similar claim. The need for a truly social movement to educate and empower the Sri Lanka public so that they will not emulate the Filipinos cannot be overstated.