Were the right questions asked?

The Institute of Chartered Accountants deserves the highest praise for persuading three of Sri Lanka’s former Presidents, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe, to appear on a single platform at its 45^th annual conference last week. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was also billed to appear was a no show, whether on second thoughts or on account of his increasing frailty that is often visible on television home screens. Whether Gotabaya Rajapaksa was invited and what his response was, we do not know. His public appearances since he quit the presidency have been few and far between. Nevertheless, three out of five living ex-presidents on a common platform was not at all a bad show for which the organizers deserve the warmest congratulations.

Naturally corruption was a focus at this meeting. Like the broad masses of the country, those who led Sri Lanka are all too aware of endemic corruption which certainly influenced the recent election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the President of the Republic. Corruption, no doubt, has been present not only during the post-independence period but in pre-independent Ceylon as well. To cite one example, it has been alleged that what became then the Kelani Valley Railway Line was built for a mine in South Africa. When it was not purchased as arranged by the intended buyer, a British Governor is alleged to have purchased it for the Ceylon Government Railway.

Although it is cliche today, and widely parroted that all of Ceylon/Sri Lanka’s leaders have, in one way or another been corrupt or at least guilty of cronyism, few in good conscience can accuse the Senanayakes, Bandaranaikes or Sir. John Kotelawela of that. Mr. Bandaranaike paid with his life for resisting the demands of Mapitigama Buddharakkita who played no minor role in ensuring the 1956 electoral landslide that swept SWRD to power. There is a tendency to frame corruption as a post-independence phenomenon that followed the brown sahibs taking over as rulers of the country. But that is not strictly correct although, admittedly, corruption as we know today has grown exponentially in recent decades. It is widely perceived that the opening of the economy in 1978 – not 1977 when J.R. Jayewardene won his five sixths landslide as is often wrongly said – gave an impetus to this development. But that is not also correct at least in the lower levels of the public service where pita vaasi or fringe benefits have long been a fact of life.

The police constable, the village headman, court clerks etc. have enjoyed such perquisites and we would wager that no importer or exporter can claim they have not oiled palms at customs. Auditors have no difficulty passing such payments as acceptable “pre-shipment expenditure.” Editorial writers over the years have expounded about sprats who are netted while the sharks get away. The recent long remanding of former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella – incidentally a school bearing his name got a new name the other day – was a rare occurrence. But Prasanna Ranatunga, convicted of extortion, served a full term as a cabinet minister in the last government pending an appeal still not concluded. Voters at the recent presidential election had a problem marking a cross against names of candidates who have consorted and co-existed with corrupt elements in their governments. Media giving publicity to those such as the unlamented Mervyn Silva is also culpable.

President Wickremesinghe, at least within public knowledge, had no obligations to the Rajapaksas when he was prime minister of the Yahapalana government of 2015. This, of course, was not the case when he assumed the prime ministry post-Aragalaya and was elected to serve the balance Gotabaya term by the SLPP majority in parliament. At last week’s forum former President Chandrika Kumaratunga accused Yahapalana PM RW of doing nothing about hoarded loot of USD one billion of the young son of an unnamed political leader banked in Dubai. “I saw the bank statement with my own eyes,” CBK said. “But we could not charge him in court as we needed the original documents.”

RW responded saying his then government sent teams to Dubai but could not find any evidence. “I was told that the member’s relative had kept money abroad. The bank was named as the National Bank of Dubai. We sent in teams which had officials from the police, AG’s department and the Bribery Commission. We were not able to get anything at all. It was not there. Minister Tilak Marapona spoke to the foreign minister of the UAE. There was no trace of the money. The bank said they cannot disclose anything unless we have a court order.” Interesting. But we remember a minister at that time shooting his mouth off about a bank account number is possession of that government giving an early warning.

In any case, Dubai banks like Swiss banks do not easily part with information on account holders. That would undermine their secret accounts business that has grow in mind boggling proportions. The question now in Sri Lanka is whether there was/is a will to pursue these matters to their conclusion even if there was a way. RW’s claim that we lack the skills for this kind of investigation is credible. But we have a record of locking up at least one capable investigator. Shani Abeysekera is now back in the police. Hopefully some moribund cases will at least now get moving.

Sadly, we have no ‘Hard Talk’ kind of investigators to fire the right questions at ex-presidents on the podium at public events. Even if we did, whether moderators would have permitted such questions is doubtful. CBK has a Waters Edge conviction where both she and her friend Ronnie Pieris were fined. Sirisena has paid a Rs. 100 million penalty on the Easter bombing after first pleading he had no money and depended on a mango plantation – over and above ex-presidential perks and pension – for his livelihood. A lot of searching questions could have been asked.