Dilrook Kannangara

As elections draw near political jokers are coming out of the woodwork. Jokes require no logic. Add to that most Sri Lankans have short memories. Using both, shameless and highly corrupt politicians try to fool the people yet again.

On April 12, 2022 Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy.

By then Gotabaya was the president and defense minister, Mahinda was Prime Minister and Finance Minister and Basil was the Economic Affairs Minister.

In November 2023 Sri Lanka Supreme Court found that the trio (along with some key appointees of them) responsible for the economic disaster of Sri Lanka and for the total breakdown of law and order. Actions and inaction of Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil directly contributed to Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy and they violated a number of key safeguards in the Constitution too.

The fire-sale or auction that Sri Lanka is about to undergo is a direct consequence of bankruptcy these created.

No company, individual or nation can come out of bankruptcy without auctioning some of its rights, assets, privileges and inheritance. As explained in hethu pala wadaya” (the logic of actions and their consequences) every action has consequences. Having taken the action, one cannot deny its consequences!

Unfortunately, this is exactly what Mahinda and Namal are doing right now. Having bankrupted the nation, they now oppose auctioning some assets of Sri Lanka. They should have considered this inevitable consequence of their actions before bankrupting the nation. It also proves they are politicians who cannot take responsibility for their own actions.

It is true that national assets should not be auctioned to pay for the sins and crimes of politicians who bankrupted the nation. Instead, auctioneers should auction the assets of these politicians. However, these very same politicians have blocked that using their parliamentary power forcing Sri Lanka to sell its assets to come out of bankruptcy. That shows their duplicity.

The next government has a responsibility to take action to protect national assets. Instead of selling off national assets they should auction the assets of the politicians the Supreme Court found guilty of bankrupting Sri Lanka. They and their close relatives have assets around the world and a sizable chunk of Sri Lanka’s loans can be repaid using them.

Someone got to pay for Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy and that someone is none other than the trio who bankrupted the nation according to the Supreme Court.