Transforming The Political Culture: Illusion To Reality
Asanga Abeygoonasekera
“Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.” ~ Voltaire
A singular significant achievement of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration was the passing of the Right to Information Bill few days ago, a decade overdue. This is the scaffolding to preserve people’s democratic values and build the tower of democracy. With this in full operation the citizen will soon wake up to a nation that is transparent in its actions- to a greater extent than before. An ordinary individual could now question and ask the details of the brand and what kind of vehicle each MP imported from their permits, you could question the Ministries on what happens to the allocated funds for a project, you could strengthen crowd sourced website against corruption such as ipaidabribe and you could question a politician who has spent lavishly at an election. This is a great achievement for the entire media industry particularly for the investigative journalist. If late Lasantha Wickrematunge was alive he would have celebrated this moment. RTI is the modern day Magna Carta which channels out the power from authoritarian centered rule and pass it to ordinary individuals. RTI would have been an impossible task during the previous Rajapaksa regime who believed in a different set of values, particularly in the post war years.
Auditor General and State Institutes
With RTI, it is important also to strengthen and question the misappropriations of the state institutions that are running at major losses in this country. For this process one of the most important departments is the Auditor Generals Department. A nation with a weak political culture where the Minister’s could fire officers at their own will ,use state resources the way they want, a story common in the last few decades in our political history. The new government should focus to strengthen the auditor general’s department. In many government institutions’ financial abuse, waste and fraud are revealed by Auditor General and examined further by COPE and PAC. During a debate at SLBC with the former auditor general Mayadunne with vast experience I understood the integrity and value of this individual and the role he could play in Parliament. More than debating we agreed on most points such as importance of strengthening state institutions a core area we have neglected for many years. After the debate I wished him that he would enter Parliament as we need people of this caliber to formulate policy for our nation, but unfortunately I learned he was appointed as a Member of Parliament from national list from JVP but resigned soon after due to a party decision to accommodate another.
