Truth could hurt

Monday 21st February, 2022

Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong’s recent remark on criminal charges against the Indian legislators has made the Modi government see red, according to media reports. In a parliamentary speech, highlighting the steady decline in Indian political life since the demise of Jawaharlal Nehru, PM Loong has, quoting from a report, said every second member of the Indian Parliament faces criminal charges. Going by the context in which he made that remark, he was not trying to demean the Indian Parliament or its members; he only sought to stress the need to ‘prevent Singapore from going down the same road’. India’s Ministry of External Affairs summoned Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, and told him that PM Loong’s comment was ‘uncalled for’ and ‘unacceptable’.

Why the Indian government has taken umbrage at PM Loong’s remark at issue defies comprehension. He has only repeated what has been published about the Indian MPs to drive a point home. Several reports have revealed that many Indian lawmakers face criminal charges. Here in this country, too, we have a murder convict in Parliament. The prevailing culture of impunity has stood many others in good stead; otherwise most of them would have been languishing in the hellholes that are Sri Lankan prisons.

India’s ire would have been justifiable if the Singapore PM had got his facts wrong or fabricated something to denigrate the Indian lawmakers. It is not clear from what has been reported of the diplomatic dispute whether India has sought to deny PM Loong’s claim as baseless. If what Loong has said about the Indian parliament is factually correct, then the question is why New Delhi should make an issue of it?

Now that India has realised how hurtful it is to have a foreign leader saying something uncomplimentary about its MPs, or rather the lawmakers with criminal charges against them, will the Indian leaders and diplomats desist from bossing Sri Lankan leaders around, and discontinue the practice of dictating how the internal affairs of this country should be handled. How would New Delhi have reacted if Singapore had asked it to introduce a constitutional amendment to bring about ethnic reconciliation?

It is a pity that the Singapore PM left out Sri Lanka when he talked about the deterioration of parliamentary standards, etc. He should have told his MPs how cattle rustlers, chain snatchers, bootleggers, fraudsters, murderers, misogynists and other such anti-social elements had entered politics here, become MPs and ministers and risen above the law, over the past several decades.

Our report also said that following a Privileges Committee inquiry, the Singapore Parliament had voted for penalties for three leaders of the opposition Workers’ Party for lying in the parliament, and two of them had been fined. If we adopted that method to deal with the MPs who lie in the House, given the sheer number of liars among our honourable MPs we have had all these years, perhaps we would be able to raise enough funds from the fines on them to maintain Parliament.

PM Loong has also said in his speech that the people of Singapore can trust their leaders, systems and institutions if those in government uphold integrity, and enforce the same rules and standards equally for everyone. This is something Sri Lankan political leaders ought to heed.

Meanwhile, it behoves PM Loong, who is urging those in his government to uphold integrity to retain public trust in systems and institutions, to prevent his country from becoming a haven for crooks. A Singaporean wanted in Sri Lanka for what is widely considered the biggest ever financial crime here—the Treasury bond scams—is living freely in Singapore; having made good his escape during the previous government. He answered to the name of Arjuna Mahendran when he was here, but he is said to have changed his name for legal reasons. He was the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) when he committed the mega racket at the behest of his political masters, who have gone scot-free.

Will PM Loong care to expedite the extradition of the former CBSL chief so that the latter will stand trial here without further delay? Shouldn’t he put his own house in order before being critical of others?