Kleptocrats and file trick

Wednesday 24th July, 2024

No Sri Lankan election is complete without the so-called file trick (the act of displaying dossiers which are said to contain information about persons allegedly involved in corruption). The JVP/NPP claims to have slews of such files.

In the run-up to the 2015 presidential election, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed to have several files on his archrival, Maithripala Sirisena, and the latter pledged to throw the Rajapaksas behind bars for their corrupt deals and abuse of power and set up an anti-corruption secretariat and a special police unit for that purpose. Sirisena won the presidency but nobody was sent to jail, and three years later he and the Rajapaksas kissed and made up. So much for the files on corruption!

JVP/NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has recently claimed that Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Prime Minister, caused the Yahapalana government’s anti-corruption drive to wither on the vine after two prominent UNPers had been found to be involved in corrupt deals. Why did he wait so long to reveal that to the public? Why did the JVP prop up the UNP-led Yahapalana administration with such corrupt elements in its ranks?

Dissanayake said, in Japan, of all places, the other day, that he had two ‘files’ on President Wickremesinghe himself. Why doesn’t he reveal to the public what is in those files ahead of the upcoming presidential election? It is high time he did so. If the UNP is confident that the JVP is propagating a lie to discredit Wickremesinghe, why doesn’t it dare Dissanayake to disclose what is in those files?

President Wickremesinghe has reportedly said the anti-corruption secretariat had 400 files but legal action was initiated only in respect of 40 of them; the files the JVP was displaying were ‘empty’. The original files were with him and the JVP had only copies of them, he has said. Has he opted not to reveal information contained in those ‘original files’ because he is dependent on the corrupt in the SLPP to retain his hold on power?

Was it information in those original dossiers that prompted Wickremesinghe to make so bold as to vilify Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament about six years ago? One may recall that in 2018, the then UNP MPs burst into a noisy protest with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe himself asking, “Kauda hora (who is the thief)?” and others chanting in chorus, “Mahinda hora (thief).” Not to be outdone, the dissident UPFA MPs belonging to what was called the Joint Opposition invaded the Well of the House, with one of them asking, “Kauda hora?”, and the other Rajapaksa loyalists shouting, “Ranil hora.” (Videos of these protests are available on the Internet.) Today, Ranil and Mahinda are savouring power, together, and their acolytes are in the government and the Opposition.

While Dissanayake is travelling around the world, promising to bring those who have amassed ill-gotten wealth to justice, under a JVP/NPP government, Sunil Handunnetti, described as the shadow Finance Minister of the JVP-led alliance has revealed a plan to launch a programme to attract funds from the public including those that have gone unaccounted for, in case the JVP/NPP forming a government. The government and the SJB have accused the JVP/NPP of planning to facilitate money laundering with state assistance while promising to trace and confiscate all illegal assets. If the JVP/NPP is planning to do what Handunnetti says, then of what use will the files that Dissanayake claims to have in his possession be?

Dissanayake and Wickremesinghe, we repeat, ought to disclose information about corruption in the files they claim to have. Let them be asked to fish or cut bait.