A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, July 29, 2017
Preaching Good Governance From A Penthouse
In his famous
polemic on morality and its place in human society, Trotsky said that
morality is relative to each society, to each epoch, and is above all,
relative to the interests of the different social classes.
So,
the morals of our Prime Minister and the Minister of Lotteries and
Foreign Affairs are different from the morals of this writer.
We made a terrible mistake on 8th January 2015. We replaced a tyrannical autocracy with a shameless clique that delights in moral hypocrisy.
With Mahinda we only had to keep our mouths shut. With the new bunch, to retain our sanity, we have to keep our minds shut. They think we are imbeciles. Probably they are right!
A
Sirisena presidency with Mahinda as prime minister may not be a bad
idea after all. In a fortnight this writer will reach seventy five. It
is an age at which it is possible to forgive Mahinda for his undoubted
trespass on some of our freedoms. It is far easier than reconciling with
the brazen bamboozling we are subjected to by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who promised a million jobs and a Volkswagen plant.
The Bond fiasco commenced on 27th February 2015. Eighteen days later, on 17th March
2015 Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe addressed parliament on the
subject. Tanks to digital archives in this age, we can listen to him
whenever we need to refresh our memories of those promising days and
also to refresh his own recall.
Some
extracts are reproduced. They provide an insight in to the integrity of
the speaker at the time and in hindsight, an authentic measure of his
subsequent performance.
“I
must tell this House that there is something happening in Sri Lanka at
the grassroots level. Change is happening. Instead of poverty,
corruption and injustice people see hope of prosperity, good governance
and justice. For, a decade they have faced the darkest of demons and
impossible odds and as one people they have spoken in January for a
better way. I now speak in this House on their behalf.”
There
are no facts, only interpretations said Friedrich Nietzsche. The Prime
Minster eloquently demonstrated his confluence with Nietzsche.
“As
a result of past misdeeds, the Central Bank has now been forced to
embark on the task of re-building their credibility and standing as the
country’s most credible financial institution. This is no easy task,
since the spin masters have turned the institution into a wasteland.
They left behind a legacy of mismanagement and misrule. They have been
adopting a system of private placements of bonds. The criteria they
adopted allowed the Central Bank to cut deals with Primary Dealers.
Rebuilding international confidence and credibility has become an uphill
task. Who are the people who are responsible for this mess? We have may
be a half a Trillion to a Trillion Rupees worth of commitments made on
highway projects.”
It
is natural for a leader to defend his decisions. But if arrogance
prevents conceding error in the light of subsequent misery he forfeits
his right to lead. The Prime Minster unreservedly defended Arjun Mahendran.
“When the Governor of the Central Bank was
informed that over Rs.20 Billion bids have been received, he instructed
the Public Debt Tender Board to select bids up to Rs.10 Billion. He did
so in the presence of two Deputy Governors. The claim that the Governor
interfered with the work of the Tender Board is not true. Thereafter
the Tender Board submitted their recommendations, which were approved by
the Governor without any changes.”
The Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has remained studiedly tightlipped with Minister Ravi Karunanayake cavalierly dismissing the startling disclosures before the commission of inquiry in to the bond scam. A company called Walter and Rowe, a subsidiary of the holding company of Perpetual treasuries, now under investigation has paid the entire
lease amount close to Rs.9 Million for the Penthouse apartment that was
used by then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and his family.
The
silence of the Prime Minister and the defiance of the Foreign &
Lotteries Minister tells us that this government is far worse than the
one we had before.
Mahinda’s financial profligacy was terrible. Gota’s surveillance state was unnerving. True,
Mahinda appointed his brother in law the Chairman of the National
Carrier. May be he wanted to please his wife. But, he never claimed his
playboy brother in law to be a wizard in commercial aviation as is the
present case with the balderdash dished out about Suren Ratwatte, the
brother of the Prime Minister’s advisor turning around the airline.
Mahinda did many things wrong. He had many faults. He deserved to be voted out. That said, we must be honest enough to admit that he did not regard the citizenry with contempt. Mahinda Rajapaksa was many things but not a humbug.
Ranil
Wickremesinghe and Ravi Karunanayake should be held to account on what
they have pronounced publicly. When we match their promises available on
record, it is clear that they have embarked on a trajectory that will
alter the public framework of what is left in our moral values in public
life and public probity. Ranil and Ravi are in self-service and not in
public service.
On 29th January
2015, presenting the interim budget of the first hundred days of the
‘yahapalanya’ this is what the future tenant of the Penthouse atop the
Monarch Residencies told parliament. The ‘Yahapalana’ Finance Minister was the epitome of ethical propriety and probity in public life. This is what he said.
“The
system of “Crony Economics” created a segment of the society which was
ultra-rich enjoying a life of supreme luxury. They were flaunting not
only their ill-gotten wealth but their muscles too. A mere two per cent
of the entire population continued to prosper at the expense of others.
What of the balance 98%. They were requested to tighten their belts way
back in 2005 and they had to continue. Their families fell apart due to
economic hardships, jewelry pawned, family heirlooms sold to ensure that
home fires continued to burn. Some were facing abject poverty. Naval
guards had to be stationed at the Matara Mahanama Samaraweera Bridge and
at the Kaluthara Bridge to save our mothers and fathers, brothers and
sisters from jumping into river to end their lives, stricken with
unbearable poverty.”
The
Nilwala and Kaluganga continue to flow quietly to the Indian Ocean. The
Ocean view in the interim has been so mesmerizing that the tenant paid a
good one hundred and sixty million baksheesh to buy the damned
penthouse outright. Our
‘mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters no longer jump in to those
rivers as was alleged by the yahapalana financial wizard who promised a
mansion tax on the wealthy. Instead they beat their collective breasts in utter revulsion of those who swindled their franchise on 8th January 2015.
Their revulsion is authentic. This is how Ravi Karunanayake prefaced his homily on good governance and financial discipline.
“Honorable
Speaker, exactly 21 days ago, on 8 January 2015, the people of the
country voted for a change in favor of Honorable President Maithripala
Sirisena. They gave a clear mandate emphasizing that they desperately
need a change. A change that goes far beyond party politics and
individual aspirations to create a new political and economic culture in
the country.”