Who Should be The PM? What a lovely Debate?
Posted on April 18th, 2010
Prof. Hudson McLean
Thank you Lankaweb for giving the opportunity to create a Forum and Dialogue, to so many to express their opinion. The civilized way the contributors are behaving, in “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of the article, with a touch of humour, is excellent.
Now that the selection of PM is almost done, with the question marks on a string of Vice Presidents still awaiting a final accord, I would suggest that we turn our attention to a critical endemic, “A Cancer beneath the Skin”, which has been spreading in Sri Lanka for Donkey’s Years.
The consensus of opinions indicate that almost all readers of Lankaweb agree, excluding the the party members of UNP and JVP, that HE President Rajapaksa has served his country well by removing LTTE once and for all.
Also the general opinion is that, HE handled the Sarath Fonseka saga, in an even-handed democratic manner, both in his capacity as theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ President and as the C-in-C of Armed Forces.
And of course, as in every Democratic State there is room to disagree without getting ones nails pulled out!
HE has been given a mandate twice during a brief period to govern the country and turn a new leaf for the betterment of the citizens.
However, as one well knows, “Cancer beneath the Skin” once its diagnosed, the process of treatment, is long, complicated and arduous. Its somewhat like Cyperus Rotundus, aka Mustaka, aka “Kalanduru”.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This weed runs beneath the soil, destroying the lawns, quality grass and is difficult to eradicate.
This “Cancer beneath the Skin” is the prevalent illness in Sri Lanka, aka Bribery, Corruption, Extortion. The one who receives the Bribe, does not give a “receipt”. Therefore it is usually difficult to pin the flag.
Bribery & Corruption is an institution, not exclusive to Sri Lanka, is prevalent across the globe, from USA, UK, EU, Middle East, Africa, and all the Asian and Oriental countries, except in Singapore.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Political leaders, Presidents, large company executives have been identified on corruption and due legal process has convicted and imprisoned the perpetrators in many countries.
If President Rajapaksa is to succeed during his next term to raise the standard of living and the GDP, “Cancer beneath the Skin” must be identified and critical remedial action should be deployed.
From the traffic policemen to Customs Officials, from gate-keepers to government officials, must be kept-in-check 24×7.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This cannot be done by HE or by GR or any other top official, but only by the “Citizens Police”.
Both the “Giver” & the “Receiver” should receive equal punishment. Offering a bribe is equally unacceptable as receiving one. Reporting such incidents should be reported and rewarded.
HE should appoint, with haste, an Ombudsman Against Bribery & Corruption, with Hot Lines for interaction. An All-Party Committee should be directly under the Ombudsman to Check & Balance that the administration is Fair & Transparent.
All government officials must be open to random inspection of their Bank Accounts, and all assets, by the Ombudsman and the Inland Revenue.
Persons who are implicated, prosecuted and penalized should be Named & Shamed, with assets impounded and confiscated.
This action cannot be a “one-time” event. It must be an on-going grinding mill.
To be just and fair, rumour mongers and those who are attempting to take revenge on their adversaries, to punish unjustly, should be prosecuted as well, with heavy penalties, including prison sentences, for damages caused.
During several potential investment missions, I have personally experienced requests or more like demands for compensation up-front, gifts and other services from officials at several levels.
Hopefully, this subject of “Bribery & Corruption – How to Minimize B&C to Maximise Development” should open a platform for discussion in Lankaweb.
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April 18th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Dear Professor McLean
We will never forget how you kept us going during those dark Chandrika/Ranil/Prabhakaran days. Your inspiring writings, through Lankaweb, gave us the momentum, strength and hope. They were like reasons to live. For that I thank you again from the bottom of my heart. You and Charles Perera kept us going. Please keep fighting against bribery and corruption in Sri Lanka. On behalf of the innocent Sri Lankans this is a new fight that you must take head on. I know you are a top professor in the US. May the Gods protect you and your good wife.
April 18th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I ask everyone to write to the President and request him to confer “Deshamanya” awarad on our dear Charles Perera. I know the award has less value now as such corruptors as Lalith Kothalawela, Nawaloka and Harry J have been bestowed with them. Professor Hudson must be given “Deshakeerthi” award.
April 18th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
The good Professor is absolutely right that the Bribe Giver is as responsible as the Bribe Taker in these corrupt transactions. The idea of an Ombudsman is excellent…maybe H.E. would have to appoint several Ombudsmen for this particular issue since the problem has become so rampant!
April 18th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
I respect the idea of punishing “giver &taker”. I was in the public service for more than 15 years. I noticed the “HONEST” employees were “sidelined” by the bosses because bosses are very close to politicians.
The cancer must be eradicated from the “TOP” and not from “BOTTOM”.
As a first step “political” transfers must be stopped. MP or his office should not contact any employee in any case. If the MPs get the complaints of Bribe, they have to report the matter to the ombudsman or raise it in Parlaiment.
Courts must be given “independence”. For example “How can Mervin Silva ban liquor in his electorate?”
POLICE must be trained in a different way to become friends of public. Our Police is still a “colonial” police and always work to :save” the interest of the people in “POWER”.
Civil Rights of citizens must be respected by the ENFORCERS of LAWS.
MPs are LAW MAKERS and they must respect the LAWS of the land first!
April 19th, 2010 at 12:37 am
When I work out the worth of reading Lankaweb articles against my time, I see no losses at all for reading many articles including this one. The comments are a bonus. I wish Editor could create a link to access all the comments made during a specific period such as 48 hours so that people like me can find time to follow them. I hope there are others like me shuffling and postponing tasks to find some extra time who have a long way to retirement.
Professor is perfectly right to compare B & C with Kalanduru, though every time I become amazed of your Sinhala word usage, which reminds me one of the UK born academics speaking to me in broken Sinhala when I tried to introduce myself as a new member of the team in another English colony. The agony is that it is impossible to get rid of Kalanduru, a very good thing if the life on the planet is considered. I carried out a small project to “exterminate life” within a chosen piece of land in my backyard. I could have been successful if not for Kalanduru and a few other seeds, which were not normal plants found in this area of planet due to its strange weather pattern. When I compare your assertion with my research, the unfortunate outcome is that it is impossible to eradicate B & C because it is a very natural trait of life not just for humans, but for all other types of life.
It is interesting to note that every one who got a view (let me be out of the loop for the moment) on B & C have a strong desire to even condone forceful means to get rid of it. I am not sure whether many of you are not aware that the measures proposed are adopted by some of the western countries affected by the worst of B & C, that even go to the length of offering sex (not those engaged in that oldest profession, but employees under special circumstances) like a variety of chimpanzees in Africa. The other problem is the nature of B & C that vary from culture to culture. Unfortunately, If we use the generic meaning based on natural traits, all humans are naturally corrupt and prone to bribe their way. Having said that, our problem seems to be confined to B & C that occurs between two parties alien to each other. This B & C is man made and an unfortunate outcome of growing up as part the of community life after giving up the solo life in the wild.
When it comes to man made B & C, the worst possible system is English built system of governance. As I experienced, man-contributed B & C comes where control, selling and buying activities are involved. English government goes for 100% control and thus becomes the worst contributor to B & C. Having seen all these suggestions implemented by various governments and organizations within their jurisdictions, I can assure that there are super-smart people who will overcome all the obstacles to their trade mark B & C. Does anyone want to test me by suggesting specific means to get rid of B & C?
Is B & C that bad? Though I see myself as a beneficiary of B & C prevailing in Lanka, I do not know the answer as it is “an effect than a cause”. I am a person who tried to to live in Lanka on B & C with no luck because my conscience did not help me at all. Thus I chose to end up in the west to find that I left the baby system to live with the mother of all B & C systems. We cannot eliminate B & C unless we know what it is. Unfortunately, I had to go with institutionalized B & C of many forms and have developed a new system of governance to totally eliminate unacceptable B & C, unless we consider putting some thing of value from one of our pockets to the other in our dress. Instead of going further let me leave it to all of you to come up with something more profound than “use of force”, a form of terror in disguise that will create a B & C class of enforcers. We already have 1.7 million of them in the public service alone.
Ref. Singapore, I wonder whether they are way above you to figure out how corrupt they are. One of my main reasons to leave Lanka has a root in a good product purchased from Singapore and a fellow employee corrupted to the core. Unfortunately, I have close and personal experiences of how corrupt they are, and even lost my interest to use their airline which was my favorite before my enlightenment.
April 19th, 2010 at 1:02 am
It is a good idea to get all the parlimentarians to declare their assets. Brothal keepers, night club owners, wine store owners, etc. should be kept outside the parliament because you cannot find a good politician among them as it is unthinkable to find an honest burglar.
The problem is how many people want to get into politics to serve the country and why are they struggling to win a seat and go to the parliament? Don’t they have any ulterior motives? Prof. McLean suggests to minimize B&C because he knows that it is not possible to eradicate it from this planet where many people live with lust and ecstasy for money and wealth. But, it should not be an excuse to just close the eyes and let it happen. Even the legislators are not immune to the law of the country.
“Be ye ever so high, still the law is above you” – Thomas Fuller, A 17th century historian
April 19th, 2010 at 5:26 am
Dear Prof McLean
Since we have social inequality, economic/social competition, and economic instability, it is not easy to stop bribes and corruptions at first. We have to equally eradicate commercial frauds, tax evasions, and illegal profit by large entrepreneurs. Every commercial enterprise is maintaining 2-3 income tax books. If they correctly pay income tax that itself enough for our treasury. How many millions of foreign exchange annually smuggled by businessmen out of the country? How much they deposit in Swiss and foreign banks? How many millions of foreign exchange they send out annually for educates their kids? Priority should be catching elephants first not the turtles.