Sri Lanka’s Body-Politic Is Infested With A Contagion Of Corruption

By Vishwamithra1984 –November 24, 2016

“Virtues, like viruses, have their seasons of contagion. When catastrophe strikes, generosity spikes like a fever. Courage spreads in the face of tyranny.” ~ Nancy Gibbs

Another Rajapaksa was arrested. Once again, the charge is corruption. This time it’s an Ambassador, not just one to a third world country. He was our Ambassador to the United States of America. One time, a merchant of tea whose business involved, among others, export of Ceylon Tea to America, first gained limelight by virtue of his close relationship to then President Rajapaksa, when he was appointed as the Sri Lankan Consul General in Los Angeles- a training platform for the Ambassadorship in Washington D C. At the time, the seat of Foreign Affairs was in the hands, or more accurately stated as the ‘behind’, of G L Peiris and Sajin Vass Gunawardena, another close associate of the regime. What a country we had under the Rajapaksas?

Jaliya Wickramasuriya

Yet the latest Rajapaksa relative who was arrested seemed to have had an impeccable record of integrity and political-purity. Said to be well accepted by the Los Angeles Sri Lankan community, revered by the Buddhist Temples located in this glamorous city, Wickramasuriya, who is now facing allegations of corruption, when promoted to the esteemed position of our Ambassador to Washington D C is alleged to have accepted a USD 245,000 commission while serving his term in the US. We must be cautious. These are only allegations, yet to be proven. But after intense investigations conducted by the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID), for Wickramasuriya to have been arrested is a logical process of events that have occurred after the investigations. Rule of law may have taken its slow journey but surely it’s taking its victims with pain to the victims and relief to the country at large.

This is a clear and strong argument that the contagion of corruption has infested our body-politic. It seems to spare nobody, whether the alleged culprits are walking into the evening of their careers or leaving behind an evening of their careers. Whichever way one looks at it, it’s sad beyond words, these alleged culprits had been close friends and associates of a greater community that surrounded them; they are members of dignified families of the past and when the contagion took hold of the body, it ate into the flesh, bone and marrow, unmercifully destroying careers, families and may be even generation’s good name. Whoever is at the top must be accountable and one day, they have to face the music. They cannot run, nor can they hide from that stark and naked truth.

It is alleged, although not yet proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that unbelievable practices of corruption have been committed during the last regime and the FCID has not yet spared anyone close to the former First Family. But the burning question at the lips of many is what follows the investigations. The Government cannot just play soft after the vigorous these investigations. If they reveal any misdeeds on the part of any top leaders of the former government, whether they be some incalculable corrupt deals and unscrupulous favoritisms they must answer the call for justice. It seems that what started at the top has seeped down and the entire system; it seems to have been infested with the contagion. Each branch, the stalk, the roots and every leaf of the tree seems to be corrupt. That much is beyond dispute. What amazes the ordinary reasonable men and women is not the alleged addiction to corruption on the part of the former regime; it’s the acceptance by the rest of Sri Lankan society as the normal standard of government business is mind-boggling and infuriating.

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