Someone sans a name describing himself or herself as the media Coordinator for former President Chandrika Kumaratunga has flown off the handle and, in a strongly worded letter (carried in full today), vented his or her spleen on us over a recent news item where we said a fund had been launched to collect money for CBK to pay the State in keeping with the Waters Edge judgment by the Supreme Court. CBK is, no doubt, entitled to her version of the story but why her media functionary accuses this newspaper of a malicious intent defies comprehension. Is he or she trying to project his or her political boss as a victim of a vicious media campaign so as to gain some public sympathy?

What is consuming us is not a malicious intent to cast aspersions on any politician but a strong desire to humble and unmask corrupt potentates lining their pockets with public funds and pretending to be paragons of virtue.

The media coordinator (MC) says CBK 'has not requested anyone to collect funds for her to pay the State. We assure him or her that our news item was not based on a figment of imagination but hard facts culled from more than one source. Interestingly, in the same breath, MC says CBK 'has received messages from people who wish to raise funds to pay the Courts but she has not responded to any'.

Curiouser and Curiouser! Who are those people? The 4.8 million rupee question is whether they were also beneficiaries of some illegal land deals under the PA/UPFA governments? CBK, it may be recalled, while in office, said someone had offered her a bribe. But, she never took action against him or her. Nor did she ever reveal the culprit's name. Offering a bribe – to the Executive President of the country for that matter – is a punishable offence. So, why didn't CBK report the matter to the Bribery Commission? CBK's claim smacks of connivance, to say the least.

So much for CBK and people’s offers!

Anyone desirous of raising funds for CBK to make the payment at issue had better be mindful of the fact that his or her contribution towards that despicable cause will be tantamount to an endorsement of abuse of power and illegal land deals. It was public land that the Kumaratunga government illegally granted to Ronnie Peiris et al to construct Waters Edge and a golf course and those offering to help CBK out at this juncture cannot be the ordinary people who have hailed the Supreme Court judgment and are furious. Therefore, the public, we believe, will be interested in knowing who the people willing to help CBK with fund raising are.

The apex court has, in its historic ruling in the Waters Edge case, sent a strong message to all the rulers – past, present and future –that no institution created by the Constitution is above the basic law of the land and no leader can get away with the plunder of public assets and abuse of power. Therefore, let no one trifle with that laudable message by resorting to gimmicks aimed at generating sympathy for or pledging solidarity with anyone responsible for the illegal land deal in question.

What the plunderers of state property who get into trouble having betrayed the public trust and abused their power to feather their nests really deserve from the hapless masses is not financial assistance but a torrent of rotten eggs. And those who try to defend robber queens and robber kings in the soup deserve to be flogged in public!

Will the brave defenders of the corrupt come forward?