By K. Godage
Willie Chittampalam the well known Colombo Astro, states that Saturn is in the seventh House for Lnnka (whatever that may mean), and predicts that not political parties but ‘wheeler-dealers’ and the scum will win the forthcoming elections. He may be right. There are many persons vying, nay spending millions, to get elected or to have their surrogates get elected, so that they could manipulate their dummies to safeguard their interests, who are the dregs of our society. The cynic Willy says, we should feel good that we have such committed people who may not have much education to be law-makers but are seeking power, not to enrich themselves, but to serve us! Willie refers to them as the Marcos clan of Lanka. Let us pause to see what his friend President Ferdinand E Marcos did.

The safest place to begin is where no hearsay is entertained—-the The United States Federal Court of Appeals. In 1986 Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, along with certain others were named in a case in which the government of the Philippines sought an injunction to bar former President Marcos, his wife and others named from transferring or encumbering properties which the government claimed had been purchased with monies wrongfully taken from the Republic. More than adequate evidence was presented to prove that the Marcos couple had acquired the properties illegally.

At the heart of this case was the issue of who owned the following five properties:-

Number 40 Wall Street, A 71 story office building

The Crown building at the prestigious Fifth Avenue

The Herald Center at Sixth Avenue 200 Madison Avenue

Lindenmere an Estate in Suffolk County, Long Island

All properties were owned by a Panamanian Corporation, that had issued bearer Shares to unknown persons. The government of President Aquino was able to prove that the aforementioned properties were indeed owned by President and Mrs. Marcos and had been purchased from monies illegally siphoned off from Philippine government coffers.

Yes the President of the Republic and his wife had robbed the people of the country to the tune of billions of US Dollars. These four properties were not all the loot. The couple held millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Last but not least, when the couple bolted the Philippines on February 25 1986, after the rigged election of February7, which Marcos claimed he had won, (the claim was however rejected by the people who took to the streets), the couple took with them almost 50 crates filled with currency, jewelry, precious metals and negotiable instruments. Fortunately the government of the country was able to have the crates seized by US customs. The crates were returned to the Philippines. After the Marcos couple bolted the country, assets either belonging to them or being held on their behalf, began turning up in various parts of the world. The President and his wife had robbed their poor country blind over a period of twenty plus years in office. The Marcos assets were valued at a staggering fifty billion repeat billion US Dollars!

Our country too has been robbed though not on the scale of the Marcos operation. I recall that Mr. S.W.R.D Bandaranaikes government removed the civic rights of four members of Parliament for bribery but that was around 1957. Not a single politician has since been charged with robbing the state and its people and this is not because they have not done so. Corruption before 1977 was kids stuff when compared to what happened after that and that too seems to pale into insignificance after the stakes were upped with the war against the LTTE after 1995.

In 1977, it was the open economy and the big contracts that followed —-the Hydro-cracker project was among the first. That opened the floodgates. I recall the competitive bidding and the wheeler-dealing that went on. Even waiters and room boys at Colombo hotels were bribed to pass on information and copies of faxes and telexesreceived at the hotels by competitors. The whole business became so murky that President Jayawardene called off the project completely. Money acquired an importance unknown in our socialist years—— with the shops now full of goodies and with liberalized travel —- money became the ticket to the good life. A new breed of animal emerged —-the Comis kaaka , in the words of President Kumaratunge herself. Commissions were built in to the offer. The method of bribing became quite sophisticated. The multi-national Corporations which claim that it is against the laws of their countries to bribe foreign officials to obtain a business advantage, devised more subtle forms to win tenders. Foreign governments never took their Multi nationals to task for indulging in corrupt practicesthe looked the other way for it was to their advantage. They glibly speak of corruption in so-called third world countries, forgetting the fact that it is their Corporations who are the principal source of the corruption.

Whilst the Philippines story is a horrendous one, with even their last President about to become a convicted criminal and to be declared a common thief, the situation in other countries in South and South East Asia is no better.

South East Asia may not give us any comfort but we could draw a lesson from India where even her former Prime Minister if facing a jail sentence for corruption. Let us return to our own murky situation. Yes, not a single politician in this country has been charged with corruption and punished. This government made loud its boast about bringing all the crooks who had robbed our country over the previous 18 years to justice, but have they been able to establish charges against even onethe answer is NO. What is the message that went out was loud and clear"you can rob the country with impunity". It is indeeed a pity that the Judiciary cannot take legal notice and call upon anyone in this country to come before court and explain his or her wealth.

In our so-called Democracies the system itself breeds corruption. It is a structural problem. Every candidate requires at least six million rupees today to conduct a campaign. Where is this money to come from ? No party speaks about this because they are all in the same game but this is certainly the source of the river of corruption.

The electoral system requires the candidate to make himself or herself known to the constituents at his expense (in certain western countries the state picks up the tab). How does he do it ? He needs posters, and each poster is said to cost in the region of three hundred rupeesand each candidate prints a minimum of three thousand posters to cover the district. He needs people to paste his posters and in some cases to protect them. The candidate needs people to canvass for him and they dont come cheap. He needs people to organize his meetings. He needs money to print and send out his campaign literature, though postage itself is free. And above all, he need money to feed those who are working for him. The other major item would be transport costs. Hence the six million rupees as campaign costs referred to earlier and the need for patrons. This opportunity is seized with absolute alacrity by the under-world barons, wheeler dealers and influence peddlers. I have set this out not to make out a case for MPs to make money illegally but to draw attention to a problem, which is systemic. I do sincerely hope that the next government will look into this matter.

Yes election expenses are no excuse for politicians to enrich themselves at our expense. Let us pause to reflect on at least a few of the opportunities that have presented themselves for our politicians to enrich themselves, their relations and friend for generations to come. As stated earlier, the so-called Open Economy spawned a few hundred Commission Agents, Brokers, wheeler-dealers and down right con-men bent on making a fast buck. The easiest way to succeed was to befriend and control those with political power. In recent years we had the Mahaweli project. The reported cost of the project is said to have bee a little less than a billion US Dollars—- what would have been the built in 3% commission on that (discounting for the over-invoicing)——there certainly was enough and more to go around. In those years from 1977 when we opened our economy, till 1994, the governments of this country made some huge purchases——-we bought ships, huge numbers of busses and Airplanes. Though we were liberalizing our economy there were yet opportunities to make money through the granting of various approvals and licenses. The opportunities for corruption were immense and not to be missed by politicians and also high officials who were in league with their political superiors.

In 1994 Corruption or Dhushanya was a major issue and those who came to be elected were elected on that platform . The other was issue was fear or Bheeshanaya. What a fantastic mandate they received to transform this country and what did they do with it——they dissipated it without any compunction. The expectations were great and the disappointment only equal to it. At the time we cast our votes for the PA our present Prime Minister held back an important secret from usand what was it? Yes, he now says that we should not take either the contents of Manifestos or what they say seriously! Do wish he had told us suckers this, at that time. Yes, what he now says is indeed true —-going by their record for they have not done even one thing they promised to do in the past seven years! If at all something has happened —-it is that some in government have suddenly inherited ancestral wealth and got rich overnight —— building mansions for themselves could be the smallest part of it. I would not be surprised if quite a few of them have stacked away millions of public funds away from this country in Swiss and other bank accounts. Some are said to own property abroad. Their lifestyles beggar description——- these parasitic vermin believe that we the people owe them, their kith and kin and their friends, a living.

The 1994 government came riding a white horse and even named their Bribery Commissioner in their Manifesto. The history of their Bribery Commission is too shameful to recall. Two Commissioners stood their ground but that did not change anything. Crude power prevailed and those who came to cleanup the mess began to wallow in the mess themselves. Now they have removed Rienzie Arsecularatne, the incorruptible Director General of the Bribery Commission, who most probably refused to bow to government dictates and prostitute the Commission.

In recent days when certain thieves fell out and began spilling the beans on each other, we the people, foolishly thought that the UNP, having learned from their own mistakes would make corruption an issue and campaign to clean-up our society and establish a value based society. But what a let down this has been. The UNP has taken unto its fold those who were, in the recent past, associated in the minds of the people of this country, with every known form of corruption and violence. The Bheeshanaya and Dhushanaya practitioners of the PA are now with the UNP (not that the PA has none—- they still have consultants left in their ranks). The excuse is that they helped to bring down the government and must therefore be rewarded. They should say that to the Chinese with kondays —-not to us. The government was tottering and its life was ebbing from it —-they had in the minds of the people lost their mandate and the moral right to govern. All the UNP had to do was wait, for the government was terminally ill and its downfall imminent, but the UNP had no patience. Our forefathers knew what they were talking about when they said "Evasema dahas vatee"—- "Patience is worth millions". But the UNP wanted Power Now. Consequently we the people have to pay the price. They should not have brought the government down until they had seen to it that the five Commissions were established. If there was public support the JVP would have pressurized the government to introduce legislation, to allow for a non party caretaker government for the conduct of elections. Further, perhaps, with a little luck, the electoral system could also have been refined, to enable the will of the people to be better reflected. The playing field would then have been really leveled. The structures would have been in place for real Democracy to emerge once again in our country.

Finally, many in this country would like Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe to state his position on the corruption issue. I consider a man not corrupt and incorruptible only when he or she has been in a position to indulge in corruption and has not yielded to that temptation. Mr. RW served as a Minister and as Prime Minister and passed that test with flying colours, So he owes to himself more than to any one else, to ensure that any administration he heads is free of persons tainted with corruption. Let us not tolerate those who have enriched themselves by illegal means. All those who have come over from the PA should be asked to clear themselves of any corruption charges before they are offered Ministries.

As for inquiring into ill-gotten wealth of any Member of Parliament, Mr. W would be well aware that it is no big deal to find out whether there is substance in an allegation. All we need to do is to compare the assets declaration form of an MP, which he is required to submit when he enters Parliament, with his present assets and the assets of his family. Next we need to check out their income tax returns. If they have not been filed then, that itself constitutes an offence. Investigators could very easily trace the undeclared wealth of anyone either here or abroad. It is only the political will that is necessary. People have been hanged on circumstantial evidence when such evidence is overwhelming. We may not hang them (though they deserve to be hanged or make them face a firing squad as they do in China for such crimes, but please let us charge them and send them to jail, where they would find their level.

If the main political parties do not ensure that Justice is meted out, the disappointed, frustrated and angry youth of this country assisted by the twenty five or thirty thousand deserters, may rise in revolt once again and mete out peoples justice to the social parasites. This is not ominous bur real.