Interim regime making a mockery of groundswell of public opinion

Prasanna Ranatunga became the latest convicted criminal to sit in Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers. The Minister of Urban Development was convicted this week for extorting money from a businessman over a land deal. The rare conviction came the same week former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Thirukumar Nadesan of Pandora Papers fame were acquitted of a separate corruption charge concerning an ownerless mansion at Malwana.

Prasanna Ranatunga who recently served as the Minister for Public Security in charge of the department of police was given a five-year suspended sentence. The High Court found that he had intimidated a businessman and demanded a bribe of Rs. 64 million in 2015. Ranatunga who is now a convicted criminal, and a fraudster continues in Cabinet making decisions on billions of taxpayers’ money.

Ranatunga is not the only individual who lacks integrity among the current crop of Cabinet Ministers.  Minister of Trade, Nalin Fernando was arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) of the Police in 2018 at the Bandaranaike International Airport while attempting to flee the country. Ironically the FCID was established by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe during the Yahapalana administration to investigate grave financial crimes committed by those in positions of political and administrative authority. Fernando was accused of misappropriating Rs. 39 million while serving as the Chairman of State-owned Sathosa.

Tiran Alles, the Minister now in charge of the department of Police as the Minister for Public Security had himself claimed that he acted as an intermediary in providing hundreds of millions of rupees to the LTTE in 2005 to ensure a boycott of the presidential election in the areas dominated by the terrorist organisation. He by his own admission not only funded a terrorist group that was waging war against the State of Sri Lanka but was monumental in distorting the people’s mandate at a crucial presidential election. Due to his actions current prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe lost the presidency to Mahinda Rajapaksa in the closest ever presidential race in the history of our country.

This then is the executive branch of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe which is supposed to deliver Sri Lanka from its worst ever economic crisis. Clearly the top two leaders are deaf to the demands of the people who have been clamouring on the streets to remove the corrupt from positions of power and reform the administrative system of the country. Instead, the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime has made a mockery of that groundswell of public opinion and given a green light to all sorts of deal makers and crooks to make money while the country suffers from a crisis that was created by these same individuals.

At a time when the country’s economy is in dire conditions, having convicted fraudsters and numerous other criminals within the ranks of the Cabinet will not augur well with any efforts to draw investments and confidence to the Sri Lankan financial system. Bilateral and multilateral partners, international organisations and private sector investors should be cautious when dealing with such a corrupt administration. 

If convicted Cabinet Ministers are incapable of resigning, at least President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe should have the courage to sack them from office. By refusing to do so they have endorsed criminality and given a clear message that under this administration such criminals are celebrated and rewarded rather than punished. This is yet another proof that the much-touted stability and economic recovery promised by the newly formed Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe administration is an illusion that will leave Sri Lanka in an even worse situation than it is today.