Sidestepping accountability

Over the past few days President Maithripala Sirisena and members of the United National Party (UNP) have been blaming each other for delayed corruption investigations. President Sirisena during a meeting with the Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) had accused the UNP, in particular MPs Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sagala Ratnayake, for delaying investigations into corruption allegations of MP Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government. Sirisena also stated he was preparing to appoint a presidential commission to probe corruption within the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government that existed till 26 October. 

Just hours after the meeting MP Ratnayake tweeted denying the allegations and accusing Sirisena of being responsible for investigation delays. Since then, there has been an uptick in both sides trading insults, with each side accusing the other of disrupting investigations and attempting to cover up corruption. This is simply adding more disappointment, if such a thing were possible at this stage, to the already-disillusioned public who have been watching their country lumber on with no prime minister, cabinet or government for over a month.

The ‘Yahapalanaya’ Government was elected in 2015 to bring clean government to Sri Lanka. It was entrusted with the task of managing public finances in a transparent manner to reduce corruption, mismanagement and wastage. It is truly disheartening to hear the same key figures of that Government now accuse each other of corruption when their job was to ensure that no corruption happened in the first place. They were appointed to clean up the swamp, to borrow a phrase from US President Donald Trump, not make the swamp bigger. 

To make matters worse, President Sirisena, who spent a considerable amount of time speaking from public stages about the alleged corrupt activities of MP Rajapaksa and his loyalists, then decided to reappoint him as prime minister because it suited his political agenda. This is completely throwing the ideals of the ‘Yahapalanaya’ mandate out the window and attempting to reverse the movement that sought to establish better governance in Sri Lanka. 

By that same measure the UNP also cannot wash its hands by blaming Sirisena. MP Ratnayake in his speech threatened to reveal details of Sirisena’s actions if “wild allegations” did not stop. This is a complete breach of public trust. If any member of the UNP has such information, they are duty bound to place it before the public and the relevant authorities, rather than use it as a bargaining chip. Such actions are completely unacceptable from public representatives. The UNP cannot talk about representing the interests of democracy in Sri Lanka if it is not willing to promote and practice good governance. 

The vote of 6.2 million people was not for specific politicians but rather for the ideals and pledges they made to carry out once they came to office. For over three years the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government had to be pushed to carry out their pledges of minimising corruption and conduct investigations into allegations of serious fraud. The UNP then destroyed its own credibility through the Central Bank bond scam.

Perhaps the only thing more disappointing than the destruction to Sri Lanka’s democracy is that both of the key players on either side of the political divide cannot come together, at least at this late date, to protect the interests of the public over their personal power games.