The uphill climb that Sri Lanka must embark on in order to simply get to where it was less than three years ago appears treacherous and daunting, a challenge the likes of which this country has never faced even at the height of the near-three-decade-long war.
Before taking on that challenge, however, it is of utmost importance to first identify, expose, and punish all those responsible in some way or the other for bringing this once-proud nation and its 22 million citizens to this helpless, pitiful, and beggarly state. Why, because this country can ill-afford such a misadventure, ever again. It is well worth a wager that the newly-anointed Prime Minister will most likely dodge the issue, given his penchant for ignoring the doings of his political nemesis in the past. But the fact of the matter is that, if the country is to rise from the ashes, even phoenix-like, it must first put its house in order, providing the foundation that is required for what must essentially be a national enterprise involving all of its people and not just a dubious leadership lacking a valid mandate.
The Prime Minister, who owes his newfound job to the people’s struggle, must not squander the opportunity to create a new and inclusive platform for all stakeholders, including professional organisations, to have their say and play a constructive role in the nation-rebuilding exercise, which must go hand in hand with the efforts of the new Cabinet to resuscitate the economy. It is indeed encouraging that the proposed 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which the new Justice Minister has promised to present to both Cabinet and Parliament this week, provides for such a platform in the form of a Consultative Council. However, lawmakers will do themselves a favour by providing it with the necessary constitutional clout so that it does not end up being yet another talkshop draining national resources.
At the ripe old age of 73, six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must at least now let go of the craving for his one-upmanship brand of politics and, for a change, put national interest ahead of his own. While it is this mindset of his that led to the splintering of his own Grand Old Party over the last three decades, it has also at the same time served him well personally, as it has put him in the right place at the right time, more often than not making him the default prime minister. But the downside of this particular brand of politics is that it has not only harmed his own party, but by extension the country as well.
Which is why, even though Wickremesinghe has donned the garb of the nation’s saviour these days, he simply cannot escape the reality that he is as much a part of the problem as he is the solution. Being a right-of-centre liberal in outlook, he no doubt is a good fit for the demands of the current job, but unlike in the past he should not allow enmity to obscure the national agenda. In fact it is the widely-held view that, had Wickremesinghe kept his main promise to the people in 2015 of bringing the corrupt before the law, not only would his party still probably be in power but the country would also not be in this unfortunate situation. Even today, as he battles on as Prime Minister, the call on the streets is for action against corruption. He must realise that, even at this late stage, when fate has been kind enough to grant him another kick at the goal, he should at least now have the courage of his convictions to take the bull by the horns.
The sad part of the present crisis is that we as a nation have been blessed abundantly with nature’s bounty. When the British left our shores, we were one of the richest countries in Asia, if not the richest. Singapore was non-existent and Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. were wastelands that had been reduced to rubble after World War II, which left us largely untouched. Post-independence we had nothing to build as the infrastructure we needed – such as roads, railroads, ports, airports, agriculture, exports, banking and trade, schools, universities, etc. – had all been set up and run efficiently by a much-respected and admired public service known as the Ceylon Civil Service. All that our politicians had to do was to keep the system going.
Instead, with power in their hands for the first time, our politicians were preoccupied with self-preservation. Insecure and inexperienced, the easiest way to carve out a share of the electorate was to create division among people on ethnic and religious lines, which, as expected, led to social upheaval and even war over the years. Later on, when the respective vote bases were established, their sights shifted to the till. Therefore, the people have every right to claim that we as a nation were never poor, but in fact were robbed by our own elected politicians. Today we find politicians tainted with multiple allegations of corruption living it up, while the law-abiding people are suffering in all sorts of queues. If corruption is to be eliminated – yes, eliminated, not minimised – we have to follow best practice as in the Singapore example.
Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had a very simple solution to the corruption problem. Rather than wasting time and precious resources in going after small fry, he targeted the big fish. His principle was ‘punish the top, not the bottom, and the problem will disappear’. True enough, Singapore is living proof of it. In fact one of PM Lee Kuan Yew’s first acts upon assuming office was to arrest a powerful minister who had simply accepted a paid holiday from a third party. Just months ago we had a sitting Prime Minister who, by his own admission, used a private jet of a ‘friend’ for globe-trotting with absolutely no consequence. Just the other day, the now former Prime Minister was allegedly airlifted during an acute fuel shortage from a naval base in Trincomalee to Colombo via SLAF helicopter just so he could mark attendance in Parliament. Both of these instances sum up the level of insensitivity, disregard, and contempt for even the most basic of conventions among the highest echelons of our political establishment.
Not surprisingly, probably taking the cue from the top, fellow party members of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) wasted one whole week in Parliament lamenting about the loss of personal property while not a word was spoken about the suffering being endured by the people and the fate of the country.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, known to be an avid fan of Lee Kuan Yew, has his work cut out if he’s serious about turning this country around. He knows only too well that the most powerful signal to stop the rot is the example that must essentially come from the top. If Wickremesinghe is to rectify the single biggest mistake that cost him the job the last time around and even savour the unlikely prospect of endearing himself to the public, then he should waste no time in answering the call of the masses already banging on his door to rein in the rogues. While we as a nation have been aspiring to be another Singapore, the problem has been the failure of our leaders to follow its example of zero tolerance for corruption.
In his address to the nation last week, Wickremesinghe more or less confirmed what the Opposition had been stating for months. While he scored points for being honest in explaining the actual situation as opposed to his predecessor who revelled in doing the opposite, the new information was limited to a proposal to privatise the loss-making National Carrier and presenting a ‘concessionary budget’ to replace the ‘development budget’. However, what raised eyebrows was his silence on holding to account those responsible for the economic calamity.
Interestingly, in an interview with UK’s Sky TV, Wickremesinghe blamed the previous regime for the economic carnage, but when asked if those responsible should be punished and the President be made to step down immediately, he resorted to his trademark style of sidestepping the issue, stating that the matter needed to be studied.
Sri Lanka entered the history books last week as the first country in the Asia Pacific region in many decades to record a hard default of its external obligations, officially confirming the nation’s bankruptcy status. Just this January when the then Finance Minister and Governor of the Central Bank proceeded to pay a maturing International Sovereign Bond of $ 500 million despite the pleading of the Opposition parties not to do so, the duo informed the nation that there was no cause for alarm and that even the next maturing ISB of $ 1 billion in July would be paid up without any issue. Having obviously led an entire nation up the gum tree, how is it that these individuals are being allowed to walk free?
Sri Lanka’s road to recovery could be a lot quicker and less painful if the new political dispensation gets its act together by first, building confidence in the system by holding to account those responsible for the present crisis and second, doing all it can to harness the wealth of goodwill flowing in from the international community. Already there is positive sentiment on the international front with the powerful Group of Seven or G7 expressing support to the Paris Club’s efforts to address Sri Lanka’s external debt issue. In addition, three key multilateral agencies have also announced a joint programme to support the new Government’s response to the crisis. The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have agreed in principle to adopt a coordinated approach to Sri Lanka’s immediate requirements through the reallocation of resources from existing projects. Therefore it is up to the Government, which unfortunately is yet to name a finance minister, to grab what it is on offer with both hands, while putting in place a durable foundation for a corruption-free country that could turn out to be PM Wickremesinghe’s enduring legacy.
Corruption-driven bankruptcy
22 May 2022
Corruption-driven bankruptcy
22 May 2022
The uphill climb that Sri Lanka must embark on in order to simply get to where it was less than three years ago appears treacherous and daunting, a challenge the likes of which this country has never faced even at the height of the near-three-decade-long war.
Before taking on that challenge, however, it is of utmost importance to first identify, expose, and punish all those responsible in some way or the other for bringing this once-proud nation and its 22 million citizens to this helpless, pitiful, and beggarly state. Why, because this country can ill-afford such a misadventure, ever again. It is well worth a wager that the newly-anointed Prime Minister will most likely dodge the issue, given his penchant for ignoring the doings of his political nemesis in the past. But the fact of the matter is that, if the country is to rise from the ashes, even phoenix-like, it must first put its house in order, providing the foundation that is required for what must essentially be a national enterprise involving all of its people and not just a dubious leadership lacking a valid mandate.
The Prime Minister, who owes his newfound job to the people’s struggle, must not squander the opportunity to create a new and inclusive platform for all stakeholders, including professional organisations, to have their say and play a constructive role in the nation-rebuilding exercise, which must go hand in hand with the efforts of the new Cabinet to resuscitate the economy. It is indeed encouraging that the proposed 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which the new Justice Minister has promised to present to both Cabinet and Parliament this week, provides for such a platform in the form of a Consultative Council. However, lawmakers will do themselves a favour by providing it with the necessary constitutional clout so that it does not end up being yet another talkshop draining national resources.
At the ripe old age of 73, six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must at least now let go of the craving for his one-upmanship brand of politics and, for a change, put national interest ahead of his own. While it is this mindset of his that led to the splintering of his own Grand Old Party over the last three decades, it has also at the same time served him well personally, as it has put him in the right place at the right time, more often than not making him the default prime minister. But the downside of this particular brand of politics is that it has not only harmed his own party, but by extension the country as well.
Which is why, even though Wickremesinghe has donned the garb of the nation’s saviour these days, he simply cannot escape the reality that he is as much a part of the problem as he is the solution. Being a right-of-centre liberal in outlook, he no doubt is a good fit for the demands of the current job, but unlike in the past he should not allow enmity to obscure the national agenda. In fact it is the widely-held view that, had Wickremesinghe kept his main promise to the people in 2015 of bringing the corrupt before the law, not only would his party still probably be in power but the country would also not be in this unfortunate situation. Even today, as he battles on as Prime Minister, the call on the streets is for action against corruption. He must realise that, even at this late stage, when fate has been kind enough to grant him another kick at the goal, he should at least now have the courage of his convictions to take the bull by the horns.
The sad part of the present crisis is that we as a nation have been blessed abundantly with nature’s bounty. When the British left our shores, we were one of the richest countries in Asia, if not the richest. Singapore was non-existent and Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. were wastelands that had been reduced to rubble after World War II, which left us largely untouched. Post-independence we had nothing to build as the infrastructure we needed – such as roads, railroads, ports, airports, agriculture, exports, banking and trade, schools, universities, etc. – had all been set up and run efficiently by a much-respected and admired public service known as the Ceylon Civil Service. All that our politicians had to do was to keep the system going.
Instead, with power in their hands for the first time, our politicians were preoccupied with self-preservation. Insecure and inexperienced, the easiest way to carve out a share of the electorate was to create division among people on ethnic and religious lines, which, as expected, led to social upheaval and even war over the years. Later on, when the respective vote bases were established, their sights shifted to the till. Therefore, the people have every right to claim that we as a nation were never poor, but in fact were robbed by our own elected politicians. Today we find politicians tainted with multiple allegations of corruption living it up, while the law-abiding people are suffering in all sorts of queues. If corruption is to be eliminated – yes, eliminated, not minimised – we have to follow best practice as in the Singapore example.
Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had a very simple solution to the corruption problem. Rather than wasting time and precious resources in going after small fry, he targeted the big fish. His principle was ‘punish the top, not the bottom, and the problem will disappear’. True enough, Singapore is living proof of it. In fact one of PM Lee Kuan Yew’s first acts upon assuming office was to arrest a powerful minister who had simply accepted a paid holiday from a third party. Just months ago we had a sitting Prime Minister who, by his own admission, used a private jet of a ‘friend’ for globe-trotting with absolutely no consequence. Just the other day, the now former Prime Minister was allegedly airlifted during an acute fuel shortage from a naval base in Trincomalee to Colombo via SLAF helicopter just so he could mark attendance in Parliament. Both of these instances sum up the level of insensitivity, disregard, and contempt for even the most basic of conventions among the highest echelons of our political establishment.
Not surprisingly, probably taking the cue from the top, fellow party members of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) wasted one whole week in Parliament lamenting about the loss of personal property while not a word was spoken about the suffering being endured by the people and the fate of the country.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, known to be an avid fan of Lee Kuan Yew, has his work cut out if he’s serious about turning this country around. He knows only too well that the most powerful signal to stop the rot is the example that must essentially come from the top. If Wickremesinghe is to rectify the single biggest mistake that cost him the job the last time around and even savour the unlikely prospect of endearing himself to the public, then he should waste no time in answering the call of the masses already banging on his door to rein in the rogues. While we as a nation have been aspiring to be another Singapore, the problem has been the failure of our leaders to follow its example of zero tolerance for corruption.
In his address to the nation last week, Wickremesinghe more or less confirmed what the Opposition had been stating for months. While he scored points for being honest in explaining the actual situation as opposed to his predecessor who revelled in doing the opposite, the new information was limited to a proposal to privatise the loss-making National Carrier and presenting a ‘concessionary budget’ to replace the ‘development budget’. However, what raised eyebrows was his silence on holding to account those responsible for the economic calamity.
Interestingly, in an interview with UK’s Sky TV, Wickremesinghe blamed the previous regime for the economic carnage, but when asked if those responsible should be punished and the President be made to step down immediately, he resorted to his trademark style of sidestepping the issue, stating that the matter needed to be studied.
Sri Lanka entered the history books last week as the first country in the Asia Pacific region in many decades to record a hard default of its external obligations, officially confirming the nation’s bankruptcy status. Just this January when the then Finance Minister and Governor of the Central Bank proceeded to pay a maturing International Sovereign Bond of $ 500 million despite the pleading of the Opposition parties not to do so, the duo informed the nation that there was no cause for alarm and that even the next maturing ISB of $ 1 billion in July would be paid up without any issue. Having obviously led an entire nation up the gum tree, how is it that these individuals are being allowed to walk free?
Sri Lanka’s road to recovery could be a lot quicker and less painful if the new political dispensation gets its act together by first, building confidence in the system by holding to account those responsible for the present crisis and second, doing all it can to harness the wealth of goodwill flowing in from the international community. Already there is positive sentiment on the international front with the powerful Group of Seven or G7 expressing support to the Paris Club’s efforts to address Sri Lanka’s external debt issue. In addition, three key multilateral agencies have also announced a joint programme to support the new Government’s response to the crisis. The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have agreed in principle to adopt a coordinated approach to Sri Lanka’s immediate requirements through the reallocation of resources from existing projects. Therefore it is up to the Government, which unfortunately is yet to name a finance minister, to grab what it is on offer with both hands, while putting in place a durable foundation for a corruption-free country that could turn out to be PM Wickremesinghe’s enduring legacy.
Kapruka
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!