Monday 29th May, 2023

Sri Lankan politics has become such a lucrative pursuit that whenever one happens to go past the iconic House on the picturesque Diyawanna eyot, one remembers a popular saying associated with the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800: ‘There is gold in thar hills.” An Opposition MP who hoodwinked the people and struck a Faustian bargain with the current regime has come under heavy fire for a botched attempt to smuggle in three and a half kilos of gold and about 100 smartphones via the BIA VIP section. Many are those who are baying for his blood, as it were.

In what may be considered a rare moment of unity, some SLPP MPs have endorsed the Opposition’s demand that MP Ali Sabri Raheem be ousted from Parliament forthwith for his abortive smuggling bid, which caused him to be fined by the Customs, the other day. Declaring that Raheem has brought the entire Parliament into disrepute, and violated the MPs’ Code of Conduct, they have, in the same breath, urged the public not to tar all MPs with the same brush.

True, not all MPs are rogues, but those who actually do not deserve to be bracketed with the likes of Raheem are only a microscopic minority. There’s the rub. So, when politicians condemn their rivals for nefarious activities, which are legion, it is a case of sinners stoning sinners.

There are some educated, intelligent men and women of integrity among the MPs who are demanding that MP Raheem be made to walk the plank, but the fact remains that they have been members of corrupt regimes responsible for ruining the country; they also have a history of lionising corrupt political leaders as their ultimate heroes and heroines, and helping the latter gain legitimacy and take the public for a ride, and, therefore, the question is whether they themselves have any moral right to keelhaul the corrupt elements among politicians.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is reported to have ordered that hi-tech scanners be installed immediately at the BIA VIP terminal, which has functioned as a green channel for crooks in the garb of VIPs, all these years. Welcome as such technological measures may be, they will serve little purpose if smugglers happen to be powerful politicians and their kith and kin. Perhaps, MP Raheem would have been able to bring in the contraband gold and phones safely if he had been a Cabinet Minister or a trusted crony of the powers that be. The BIA VIP section represents, in microcosm, society at large, and the root cause of the problem of what may be called VIP corruption in this country is the existing culture of impunity.

Ironically, within the ranks of the SLPP, which has lent its voice to the Opposition’s campaign to have MP Raheem ousted, are some notorious lawbreakers, who should have been thrown behind bars long ago. In the US, a Trump supporter has been sentenced to four and a half years in jail for propping his legs on the Speaker’s desk during the Capitol riot (2021). But the Sri Lankan MPs who went on the rampage in Parliament, in 2018, tried to harm Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and damaged his desk and chair in a bid to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government, have got off scot-free. Interestingly, last year, those violent characters backed Wickremesinghe to the hilt when Parliament voted to elect a President, and have since been his die-hard supporters!

Impunity that politicians enjoy frustrates efforts to restore the rule of law and cleanse politics, as is public knowledge. If the main political parties and their leaders are serious about eliminating bribery and corruption, abuse of power, etc., they have to tackle the problem of crooks entering politics at source. They must end the practice of nominating disreputable characters to contest elections. If they field only decent men and women in electoral contests, the country will gain. The people, who take to the streets, condemning corrupt politicians and demanding a ‘system change’ are also responsible for the pollution of politics and the country’s bankruptcy, for it is they who elect crooks. Unless the political parties and electors get their act together, the corrupt will continue to dominate politics and go places at the expense of the country.

MP Raheem, we believe, must be sacked from Parliament. But he should not be singled out for punishment. The SLPP should take action against Chief Government Whip and Minster Prasanna Ranatunga, who has been given a suspended jail term and fined by the Colombo High Court for demanding money with menaces from a businessman. Action is also called for against the SLPP MPs who violated the MPs’ code of conduct by threatening the Speaker and damaging parliament property in 2018.