Corruption seems to have gone the same way as pollution; everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it. Suddenly, some people wake up, get agitated and go hell for leather to battle corruption but their interest fizzles out when another issue crops up.

Yesterday, we reported (in the City and Late City editions) that former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and former Chairman of John Keells Holdings Ken Balendra had emphasised the need for promoting the whistle blowing culture in the corporate sector. We also quoted President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID), Mahen Dayananda as having said whistle blowing should be encouraged in Sri Lanka. We couldn't agree with these two corporate top guns more! For, the private sector is as responsible as the public sector for corruption in this country.

But, the question is whether whistle blowing serves any purpose in a society not properly equipped to deal with corruption. Whatever anti-corruption laws we have in place do not cover the private sector, which is involved in almost all mega corrupt deals so far revealed. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) is unable to initiate investigations on its own and therefore cannot probe corrupt public officials unless someone intrepid comes forward and lodges a complaint. As a result, only petty clerks, coroners and peons get caught for taking small bribes while top public officers and politicians thriving on corrupt deals running into millions and billions of rupees go scot free, as only a few people dare move either the judiciary or the CIABOC against such powerful racketeers and incur their wrath.

Proffering gratuitous advice to politicians on good governance and transparency has apparently become a favourite pastime of corporate bigwigs. There is much hype about conferences and seminars they conduct on such matters. Once a famous banking guru claimed that the private sector was capable of running the government efficiently without politicians, if given a chance! In spite of this kind of rhetoric, it is only too well known that the private sector is working hand in glove with corrupt politicians and top bureaucrats in turning a dirty penny at the expense of the hapless public. Efforts being made by the private sector to rid the country of corruption are similar in many ways to some protests against deforestation in South America, organised by the logging industry itself through its proxies so as to give vent to pent up public anger in a controlled manner from time to time without leaving room for genuine environmental activists to move in.

The unholy alliance between politicians and moneybags has also put paid to our ad hoc and half-hearted attempts to battle corruption. This is election time and that big businesses shower funds on politicians and political parties is an open secret. Some of them are smart enough to fund the campaigns of all leading candidates so that whoever wins, they will stand to gain. They also sponsor ultra radical parties with trade union thugs to avoid labour trouble. Little wonder that governments or Oppositions for that matter collaborate with corrupt elements in the private sector.

When the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) exposed several mega corrupt deals and the Supreme Court shot down some of them, we were happy that a breakthrough had been made at long last in the country's fight against bribery and corruption. But, our euphoria was short-lived. Today, the chief architect of the anti-corruption drive in Parliament finds himself in the very party whose members were responsible for the shady deals he valiantly exposed!