Rajapaksa’s crocodile tears

These public servants themselves are aware how they were dragged onto the streets by their employers to campaign on behalf of the Government of the day.

by Lalith Alahakoon

( July 17, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken up cudgels on behalf of public servants. Speaking to the media after visiting the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy on Tuesday Rajapaksa said the Good Governance Government has scared public servants, from the Presidential Secretariat down to the lowest ranks by interrogating them. He said the present Government has questioned about 500 public servants so far during a short period.”Public servants who served honestly are harassed by this Government. They (public servants) should have the background to work freely and independently. The Government has to protect public servants who work in good faith”.

We would like to jog the memory of the former President, because he says “the Government has to protect public servants who worked in good faith”. Has he forgotten how he, donned in track suit marched in procession with a band of supporters of a UPFA Provincial Minister to the home of the latter to secure the release of the politician whose house was searched for narcotics. Needless to say the STF team who conducted the raid received punishment transfers for their trouble. So much for protecting public servants who work in ‘good faith’. Rajapaksa waxes eloquent on the independence of public servants. Has he forgotten how he denied promotion to the former President of the Appeal Court who declared the Parliament Select Committee inquisition against former Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake null and void? Not long after, this senior most judicial officer passed away, perhaps a broken man. Did not this open the floodgates for judgments in favour of the Government by favourites appointed to the Supreme Court?

How free and independent were public servants under the Rajapaksa Government could be gauged from the fact that no less a personage than the country’s Chief Justice was seen in the company of MR and his inner circle on the night the results of the Presidential Election were out. Is this the conduct of the country’s Chief Justice whom the public expect to be independent and not an appendage of the rulers? Wasn’t it because he (ex CJ) had been at the beck and call of the Rajapaksas that he was where he was on that day? As this incident amply portrays it was the Rajapaksa cronies who occupied top positions in the judiciary and the public service and was obliged to do their bidding. It was only too obvious that top officials in the public service were in cahoots with the all the misdemenours of the Rajapaksas which is evidenced by the summoning of the former Secretary of the President before the FCID.

To ask them, not to be investigated for their role in the mega corrupt deals is akin to the betrayal of the general public whom these officers are obliged to serve with honesty and dedication. Besides it is public money that is being involved in the swindles. Needless to say these officials were mere ciphers of the Rajapaksas doing their bidding servilely. They did not have the spine to stand up against illegal orders with a rare exception being a former Bank of Ceylon Chairman and a relative of the Rajapaksas to boot, who refused to play ball and quit his job with his honour intact .And MR has the gall to say that “public servants must have the background to work freely and independently”. Certainly yes. But not indulge in illegal acts at the instance of their political masters. Public servants under the last regime were not only not allowed to act independently but also made pawns in the political projects of the Rajapaksas. They were deployed to do political work against their will on pain of dismissal. To use Rajapaksas own description, the public servants were ‘scared’ indeed.

These public servants themselves are aware how they were dragged onto the streets by their employers to campaign on behalf of the Government of the day. An example was when UN sounded off the Government about the war crimes probe. On that occasion the entire army of public servants was brought onto the streets to express solidarity with Mahinda Rajapaksa on pain of dismissal if they refused to do so. Is this the independence with which the public servants were allowed to function under the Rajapaksa rule? When the former President says that public servants from the Presidential Secretary to the lowest rank should not be interrogated in the face glaring evidence of wrong doing is he not encouraging the continuation of the status quo? Is he asking the law of land to be suspended to permit the offenders to get off scot free? It is only too obvious that public officials are sometimes the main link in the chain of corruption reaching to the top. That is why the Rajapaksas took good care to appoint relatives and lackeys to the top positions in the State institutions and corporations. Now when they are exposed and are being questioned Rajapaksa is crying foul. Is he demanding that the laws of the land remain silent to allow rogue State officials off the hook?

( The writer is the chief editor of the Daily News, a daily newspaper based in Colombo)