Wheels within wheels?

Wednesday, 28 March 2012 00:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Ceylon Workers Congress Leader and Minister Arumugam Thondaman threw a curveball at the Government when he suddenly decided to resign from his portfolio on Monday. Given that Sri Lankan ministers would rather deny their mistakes till they are blue in the face, sometimes with barefaced lies, rather than give up their ministerial post, this development came as a surprise to many.

According to reports, the Minister was in dispute over the reinstatement of the National Livestock Development Board Chairman, who he claimed had been removed due to charges of corruption. However, the official had appealed to other sympathetic political forces, which resulted in him being allowed to warm the same chair. Piqued over this violation of his power, Thondaman had written a resignation letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa but had demurred after discussions with the Government.

The end of this little drama was that the Minister agreed to return to his portfolio and thus all ended happily – or so the Government would have the public believe. What begs the question in this instance and many others is why the matter was not more transparently handled and why neither the Government nor the Minister sought to have a clear investigation regarding the allegations.

The Government functions on public money and as such is responsible to the people to outline how, why and when officials are accused to corruption. This complete lack of good governance and transparency is the main reason why there is such rampant corruption in every level of public service. Without a legal system that is actually implemented, serious corruption issues will always remain behind closed deals to be wheeled and dealt with by Government officials with no consideration for the public that appointed them in the first place.

Readers would remember the Postal Commissioner’s fracas that disintegrated into a countrywide strike and millions of letters and parcels being clogged up due to trade union action. Here again, despite the involvement of the unions, there were few clear indications of exactly what the monetary and moral implications were though the strike did force the Government to take action.

There were days when Sri Lanka’s public service used to be among the best in the world, but repeated incidents, many behind the scenes, have put that reputation six feet under. Public officials should not cover each other’s wrongdoings and find solutions that satisfy each other, but work to serve the public. So far they have excelled in self-service at the expense of the public.

Corruption needs to be exposed, but continued impunity has resulted in the most serious offences being brushed under the carpet by token self-serving gestures that do not take public interest into consideration. The quest for justice would be better served if matters were discussed openly and the law allowed to dispense justice rather than running from one corrupt politico to another.

Higher ideals of honesty, trust and integrity have been almost totally expunged from the public service, which is manipulated by powerful politicians. This is the direct cause of nearly all of Sri Lanka’s problems, but there is no interest in changing the dismal situation.