EDITORIAL

Half A League Onward

Few media institutions welcomed the UNF government in December 2003 with the hearty enthusiasm that we did. We had good reason. After all, it was we who demonstrated to the nation that Chandrika Kumaratunga's was the most corrupt government in Sri Lanka's history. It was we who proved beyond a shadow of doubt that she was a fluent, habitual and barefaced liar. And we were among the many media institutions her government had attacked, not with mere words, but with blows and bullets and when all else failed, going so far as to illegally seal us.

Unlike Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected while his rival was still in the land of the living. Unlike Kumaratunga, he won office despite not making empty promises: indeed, he hardly made any promises at all. And unlike Kumaratunga, after 20 months in office, the Prime Minister is yet to have his name caught up in a story even the slightest bit suggestive of scandal. Unlike Kumaratunga, he has not summoned cabinet appointed tender boards to Temple Trees and decreed how a tender should be awarded. Wickremesinghe has not just been clean: he has been squeaky clean.

If Wickremesinghe were to leave a legacy, it would be his role as a peacemaker. While we have always acknowledged that, we have mercilessly harried the Prime Minister on two counts: his inability to pay to the people of Sri Lanka a share of the dividend of peace; and his inability to curb corruption among some of his ministers.

On the first count, Wickremesinghe last week thankfully paid the first instalment. The Rs. 17 billion the government will invest in rural development will be a visible sign that the savings that peace has brought will translate into better lives for the people. Likewise, the minimum price for paddy will undoubtedly make farmers smile. Likewise, the substantial salary hikes being planned for the November budget too, would be eagerly welcomed by many. The market for shares in 'Sri Lanka Limited' is looking bullish, especially given the imminent recommencement of talks with the Tigers.

All this, however, is not music to the ears of the PA and JVP, still desperately engaged in finding a common ground upon which to found an alliance. For her part, the President has suddenly taken pen in hand and begun shooting off letters to all and sundry, finding fault with a variety of trivia. Recipients of her missives have included Karu Jayasuriya, who has been found wanting because of the CEB's erratic power delivery. Isn't it amazing that the President has thought it fit to criticise Jayasuriya, who has after all, delivered a pretty good (though horrendously wasteful and expensive) power supply, when she kept mum when her uncle, Anuruddha Ratwatte plunged the country into the worst power crisis in its history? Has she forgotten the dark days of '96 when the whole country was in darkness for four consecutive days and even she had to have a great big generator running continuously, parked on Galle Road, outside Temple Trees? And that in the middle of it all, Ratwatte took time off to marry again and helicopter to Kandy, leaving the nation in darkness? No letters then. Neither were there letters when she fled the country in the wake of the LTTE's attack on the Sapugaskanda refinery. Our advice to this queen of hypocrites is, Madam, pray put a sock in it.

And what of the JVP? They claim the government is irresponsible to pursue its peace process. The JVP, it must be remembered, knows all about responsibility. According to them, responsibility is sadistically murdering anyone who dares not subscribe to their bloodthirsty creed. It is about destroying public property, robbing banks, hijacking vehicles and gunning down people in cold blood. It is telling people under the threat of death to boycott Indian foodstuffs and evict the IPKF while their own leader, Somawansa Amarasinghe, flees to India with Indian help in fear of retribution from the victims of JVP terror. It is even about having the hypocritical gall to return to Sri Lanka and profusely thank the Indians for saving his life. That is the JVP for you.

But if you think, dear reader, that by these statements we sing hymns of gratitude to Ranil Wickremesinghe, you are mistaken. Wickremesinghe has a long way to go in reining in the errant ministers in his cabinet, some of whom are taking the country for the ride of its life. On the plus side of this unhappy coin is the fact that the Prime Minister has acted by initiating reform, as he did in the case of the Emirates agreement and the gunboat scandal. But that is a long way from taking action against ministers who are facing serious allegations of not just corruption but abuse of power and human rights. Week after week we have exposed corrupt deals, quoting chapter and verse, extensively supporting our stories with incriminating documents. Yet, Wickremesinghe is yet to take action against a single member of the government.

Only last week, we exposed two horrendous stories in our pages, in which we demonstrated that poor ministerial decision-making had cost the country billions of rupees. We did not present evidence that either of the ministers concerned took a bribe: indeed, we have none. But it is beyond doubt that they acted with irresponsibility and negligence in a manner that should at least have drawn the Premier's rebuke. Yet, there was none. It is popularly said that Wickremesinghe cannot risk offending his ministers because a single crossover now could bring down his government and with it the good work that is beginning to show results. But it is now clear that he is even afraid to offend Tilak Marapone, a national list MP who would be hard pressed to win a 100 votes in an election: he is a creature of the Prime Minister's making. Yet, Wickremesinghe cannot say 'boo' to him, a mere a run-of-the-mill goose.

Consider the facts. An American company offers guns the navy wants for a price of $ 4.85 million. An Israeli company offers guns that even Marapone accepts are substantially the same at $ 10.85 million, which is 124% higher. Yet, Marapone on Navy Commander Sandagiri's advice thinks it is in the national interest to buy from Israel. And it is not because the American product is no good because, when pressed, he agreed to buy 15 guns each from America and Israel, thereby accepting the fact that the American weapon was good enough. In that case, as Lands Minister Rajitha Senaratne has quite rightly said, why not buy the whole lot from America and save an awful lot of money? Marapone has no comeback to that. And if Marapone was merely acting on advice, he should have been cautious in going the extra mile to defend the deal and attract the flak to himself. It might not hurt Wickremesinghe to note, as he ponders over this issue, that America has a law (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) that makes it a criminal offence for a US company to pay more than 3% commission for overseas sales. This makes payoffs, even foreign ones, impossible for Americans, many of whom have gone to prison for overlooking this fact. That is why so few third world countries buy, for example, US-made Boeing aircraft: no bribes. No such restrictions in Israel, are there?

We do not claim that every minister has his hand in the till; in many cases, they may just be covering up for negligent or corrupt officials. We do not doubt, for example, that this is what Finance Minister Choksy did in the case of the bizarre billion-rupee tender for equipping the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Hospital for Children, which we also highlighted last week. There, despite a cabinet appointed committee warning him in writing, with documentary support, that there was a serious fraud, the Minister chose to go on the advice of a private company, in the process telling albeit unwittingly an untruth to cabinet that the Austrian government had endorsed a deal in which the Austrian government had no part. The Sunday Leader maintains that someone made a killing on this deal, and Choksy was fed with the wrong information which in good faith he probably believed but the mistake the Finance Minister made in this instance was trying to justify the deal to defend the actions, in all likelihood, of one of his officials. We are not for a moment questioning Choksy's integrity because we believe he is one of the ministers whose honesty is not in question but even Homer nods and Choksy will do well to be alert to the possibility of one of his officials slipping one past him.

So, well done, Mr. Prime Minister, for at last getting the show on the road: but pray remember that the people are not fools. They see your ministers making money hand over fist, they know what that kind of money is called, and they know who the ministers are. Question is, do you?