Is Yahapaalanaya in the hands of one or two people?

The spectre of the bond fiasco still closely trails Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran

By Mahendra Fernando

It is now an indisputable, irrefutable, un-put-down-able fact that the Central Bank bond issue has blown a huge hole in the credibility, and possibly the liveability, of the Yahapaalanaya government which we, the citizens of this country, bravely and admirably, brought into power by simply and peacefully exercising our vote six months ago. 

We showed the world that we Sri Lankans stand tall, that we don’t need violent upheavals stretching over extended periods of time to throw out despots as in other similar situations around the world; that we do it our way, stylishly, inimitably. But our zeal and finesse has been tarnished, and may be doomed, by a single act which smacks, nay reeks, of dishonour, sheer arrogance and utter disregard for our opinion.

The bond issue, for four (or is it five?) months after it happened is still the hottest topic in the country with even the man on the street who doesn’t know a bond from a band now asking, “Maha bankuwey maara hora wadak karala neda? (The Central Bank is involved in a major scam, isn’t it?).” Such is the publicity which is constantly aroused by many interested parties to try and show the public that this lot is worse than the previous lot (if they were bad at all). And, emboldened by the growing outcry, those who can least afford to take the moral high ground or preach about the sanctity of the Central Bank, are tentatively stepping out, and passing sounds which sound just like what they in fact are: wind.

Whichever way this particular fruit is pared, the truth stares you in the face: The Central Bank Governor’s son-in-law made a killing in profits through an allegedly dubious deal with the Central Bank. Argue this way, that way, hum and haw, but that truth stays. There is enough debate in the public domain to evidence the outrage of those who value integrity, honour and accountability and the disgust of those who expected the Yahapaalanaya to abide by those time-honoured values. 

The public is yet to receive an acceptable explanation from the Government, even based on the report that was presented by a trio of their own lawyers (impartiality, due process and required probity be damned); and this particular pot remains boiling on the front burner. 

To us patriotic citizens who want nothing else from our motherland than to see her salvaged from the depths to which she has submerged in the past decade in a morass of deceit, dishonour, duplicity, murder and mayhem, and restored to her rightful place on the world stage as a nation which is respected and admired, it is utterly unacceptable that those who personify the ‘change’ which we brought about for this explicit purpose, do not consider it necessary that our opinions matter. 

While the President has yet to express any opinion on the bond issue, the Prime Minister keeps harking back to the previous goings-on at the Central Bank. His premise is obviously that two wrongs do make a right because nothing that he has said has assuaged the well-founded fears of the public but has only served to fan the flames. 

Clearly, if the bigger picture of the credibility of the Yahapaalanaya Government was heeded, this explosive issue should have been dealt with through one masterstroke, and it’s basic what that stroke should have been, regardless of the obligations of those who gave the job to those who got the job.

But no, in typical ‘I-know-best’ style, which has led to many a downfall many a time before (how many? I have lost count!), one or two who have got to where they are because we brought about “change”, are thumbing their noses at us, the public. 

How true is this imbroglio of George Bernard Shaw’s quotation:“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. (At the moment) all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” 

Well, as I said, the pot is boiling on the front burner and the goose is getting cooked.