Diana continues to embarrass the Government

This week the Colombo Chief Magistrate informed the Criminal Investigations Department that it can arrest State Minister Diana Gamage if there is evidence that she had violated the Immigration and Emigration Act. The Colombo Chief Magistrate made the observation when the case over the State Minister’s citizenship was taken up. 

Gamage is accused of serious crimes pertaining to the Citizenship Act including the falsification of passports, birth certificates and national identity cards. It is alleged that she is not a Sri Lankan citizen, not even a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and alleged to have forged documents to obtain identity documents to impersonate citizenship.

The accusations against the State Minister must be considered in all its seriousness. Until now the Attorney General has not initiated action against what is undoubtedly one of the most serious crimes committed against the Sri Lankan electorate. A member of the Government falsifying identity documents and becoming a member of parliament while not even being a citizen is nothing short of an extraordinary development. If proven this could be tantamount to treason against the Republic. Yet, in Sri Lanka, the situation and standards expected of elected officials are so low that this revelation has not even resulted in a demand of a resignation from the minister concerned. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has not requested the state minister to step down, at least until the legal proceedings are concluded. 

While one may argue that every person has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty there is also the principle of public trust which is supposedly held by those elected to office. Gamage was nominated through the national list of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party in 2020 only to immediately cross over to the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government after entering Parliament. As a member of parliament, Gamage and others are expected to uphold the public trust that has been temporarily entrusted to them through an electoral mandate. Clearly such principles are alien to Sri Lanka’s current political ethos.

Such lack of basic decency is not surprising when one takes a quick glance at the current executive branch of the State. Prasanna Ranatunga, a convicted fraudster, serves in the Cabinet without any qualms having been found guilty by the High Court of extortion and solicitation of bribes. Tiran Alles, the Minister for Public Security and the man in charge of the police department is accused of facilitating a money transaction between the Mahinda Rajapaksa political campaign and the LTTE, a designated terrorist organisation, to enact a boycott of the presidential elections in 2005. That boycott in the north and the east ensured the defeat of then opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. These are but a few examples of the appalling characters that occupy the highest levels of the executive branch these days. In such company State Minister Diana Gamage may not feel any compulsion or sense of decency to resign.

By continuing to provide immunity to such dubious characters within the highest strata of political authority, the current Wickremesinghe administration is undermining its own credibility in the eyes of the electorate. Irrespective of inspirational speeches given by President Wickremesinghe on the necessity for system changes in the political culture of the country he is clearly incapable of applying his own rhetoric even at the very basic level. Diana Gamage continues to be emblematic of the failures in applying the minimum standards of decency in politics and governance.