Blight of black money

Wednesday 22nd May, 2024

Elections are the season of bounty for politicians, with funds pouring into their campaign war chests from all over the world. The approach of a presidential election has made moneybags loosen their purse strings, causing a feeding frenzy among politicians with an insatiable thirst for funds. One of our columnists, in his article published on this page today, discusses a very pertinent issue – political financing and problems associated with it, in Sri Lanka. Chartered Accountant, academic, researcher, author and former banker, Prof. C. A. Saliya, stresses the need to ensure transparency in election financing. He refers to some issues identified by Transparency International in respect of campaign financing in this country: the use of election campaigns to launder illegal funds, the purchase of allegiances of certain candidates or parties, the abuse of state resources, media patronage and political party leaders’ favouritism toward wealthy candidates.

There is no denying that the absence of robust legal and regulatory mechanisms to prevent malpractices involving political financing has created a situation where politics has become a metaphor for corruption in this country. Some laws have been made to tackle the issues related to campaign financing, but they, in our book, lack strong teeth, and non-compliance remains a problem.

He who pays the piper is said to call the tune. The veracity of this adage has become patently clear from the fact that the incumbent SLPP-UNP dispensation does as the super rich say and looks after their interests. It stands accused of giving kid-glove treatment to the local liquor barons; it has baulked at recovering as much as Rs. 7 billion some liquor manufacturing companies owe the state coffers. One of the first few things the SLPP did after winning the 2019 presidential election was to slash the import duty on sugar thereby enabling one of its financiers to make a killing in return for services rendered. The country lost billions of rupees as a result. The UNP-led Yahapalana government enabled Perpetual Treasuries to carry out Treasury bond scams, and benefited from the latter’s slush funds so much so that at the 2015 general election, the candidates of the UNP, which had not been able to pay water and electricity bills at Sirikotha, outspent their rivals. No wonder the Yahapalana MPs were falling over themselves to defend the Treasury bond scammers in Parliament, especially at COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) meetings. Sadly, even the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, which pontificates to others on the virtues of transparency, integrity, etc., happened to secure a sponsorship from Perpetual Treasuries for a professional event, Law Asia Conference, in 2016.

Worse, we revealed in the aftermath of the killing of upright High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya in 2004 that the mastermind behind the assassination, notorious drug dealer, Mohammed Niyaz Naufer alias Kudu Naufer, had, through a front, sponsored food and beverages at a judicial officers’ official function. Hence the pressing need to identify the sources of funding of all sorts.

With the next presidential election only a few months away, there has been a huge increase in campaign-related expenses on the part of those who are eyeing the coveted presidency. Chances are that truckloads of black money will be laundered again. Our holier-than-thou political party leaders claim to be paragons of virtue, and, if so, they should account for their funds, political or otherwise, of their own volition; they should uphold utmost transparency in the acquisition and disbursement of their funds. This is the only way they can prove that they do not benefit from the largesse of criminals, other lawbreakers and crooked moneybags bent on enriching themselves at the expense of the public.

Will the JVP/NPP, which has vowed to rid the country of bribery and corruption in case of forming the next government, disclose the amounts of funds it has raised and the sources of funding? The SJB, which is on a handout distribution campaign, should reveal where funds for that programme come from. They should be able to do so if they have nothing to hide. The UNP, which was reduced to penury following its ignominious defeat at the 2020 general election, is now in a position to outspend others. No amount of campaign expenditure will make a dent in the SLPP’s huge clandestine funds.

All political parties, especially the UNP, the SJB, the JVP/NPP, the SLPP and the SLFP ought to account for their funds and reveal the sources thereof if they are to allay serious doubts and suspicions in the public mind. The worst that can happen to a country is for its lawmakers, especially government leaders, to fall under the sway of lawbreakers and dubious entities and characters.