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| Sunday, 14 November 2004 |
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President gears to clean Augean stables Weekend Politics by Suraj In the week gone by, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga displayed her commitment to resume the peace process while she declared war on bribery and corruption.In her quest for peace, the President met the visiting high powered Norwegian delegation and conveyed her message on the need to resume the peace process. The President reiterated her stand to find a lasting solution within a united Sri Lanka and outlined the modalities that could help to resume talks.This message was carried by the Norwegians to the LTTE in the North. President Kumaratunga on Monday briefed the top brass of the police and high ranking defence officials. During her address she charged that both the police and the judiciary were corrupt and she had been informed of it by the Chief Justice and the Attorney General.She further claimed that there were some members in her government who were corrupt adding that 'big sharks' had already left her party and government. The President was obviously referring to some SLFP former ministers now in the UNP who face charges of bribery and corruption.The President did not look partisan in her statement as she noted that there were some yet within her government. Accusing the police of being corrupt, the President said she would leave no room for politicians to play around with the police and she would take stern action against such politicos. This was an indication that she was moving into action immediately. Hardly twenty four hours later, Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva announced his resignation from the post. Silva and his son were allegedly involved in a night club brawl with security officers last week. He has rejected his involvement claiming it was a canard to tarnish his image. Despite his denial, the police continue to probe his involvement in the case and the President had been disturbed on reading about his alleged involvement in the brawl. The Police and the Bribery Commission have been left independent to probe acts of corruption and intimidation and this assurance was reiterated by the President on Monday.On the war against bribery, the detectives arrested former UNP Minister S.B. Dissanayake this week on allegations of misappropriation of state funds and was released on bail. It is now apparent that the President is prepared to leave no stone unturned in her bid to wipe out bribery and corruption. A number of former UNP ministers are now on the mat on such charges. It is learnt that State funds have been released in huge amounts during the two-year UNP rule on directives given by former ministers where officials had been pressurised to execute such directives violating financial regulations of the Treasury. The Criminal Investigations Department(CID) probing allegations of bribery and corruption against former ministers have already recorded statements from officials who have been told by former ministers to release huge sums of money violating financial regulations of the state.These officials have named such ministers in their statements and in some cases there are brief notes issued by such ministers who have demanded the release of funds outside financial procedures governing the establishment. The President's war on bribery and corruption looks transparent and fair as former Deputy Defence Minister Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte too has been asked by the Bribery Commission to explain how he amassed wealth during the period he held office as Minister of Power and Deputy Defence Minister. On the other hand, the CID and the Police are freely continuing with the probe on the Udatalawinna murder case in December 2001 in which Ratwatte is an accused. According to reliable CID sources, files on another five former UNP ministers who have allegedly misappropriated state funds have now been completed. The CID awaits the green light from the relevant authorities to file indictment. Some of these former ministers have time and again pressurised officials to release money in millions, transfer insurance schemes to their 'favourite' insurance companies, pay their hotels bills for overseas travel, obtaining travellers cheques for millions for foreign travel and hire vehicles for their henchmen at exorbitant rates outside financial procedures. Meanwhile, the UNP which made a big hue and cry last week over the scheduled date of the next presidential election now seem to have realised that the incumbent President under the provisions of the constitution was empowered to proceed till the year 2006. UNP spokesman and the Professor of Law, G.L. Peiris is now silent after several leading lawyers who are pro-UNP voiced that there was provision for the incumbent President to continue and it could only be a matter of interest and debate if taken to court.The party however, nominated its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the next presidential candidate and this decision would be ratified at the party convention next month. Despite the decision to nominate Wickremesinghe as the presidential candidate,the UNP leader is yet unaware that there is a group within his party led by a former minister opposed to the executive presidential system.This minister and the group is of the view that the UNP should now accept the government's offer to scrap the executive Presidential system and return to an executive Prime Minister system as in the past. This group all stresses that the party should join the discussions on the National Council for Peace and Rehabilitation set up by President Kumaratunga to find a solution to the ethnic problem in the national interest.At a recent political affairs committee of the UNP, this former minister single handedly fought his way to stress the fact that the party should participate at the Council meeting chaired by the President if the UNP was genuinely committed towards finding a solution early by restarting the peace talks.But the UNP leader outrightly rejected this former minister's position. |
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