The Optics Of Anti-Corruption: Let’s End The Gimmick Politics
By Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon –October 23, 2016
Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon
The first 21 months of the ‘good governance’ government was an exercise in ‘gimmick politics’ (politics based on optics), which refused to deal with the ground realities that were increasingly becoming difficult to ignore. The 6.2 million people who voted for ‘change’ expected results and were increasingly getting tired of various reasons offered by the government for not punishing those guilty of vast financial irregularities. Apart from a few hundred thousands of people, most Sri Lankans are disillusioned with the ‘good governance’. Good governance has become a ‘bad word’.
“Chandi Shyama‘ of the anti-corruption campaign has returned to the AGs Department. And many people assume and perpetuate that the essence ofthe President’s speech was his critique of the independent commissions. Is that the truth? it is not.
It took two days for former Bribery Commission Director General Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe to become the chief target of the president’s speech. Dilrukshi had a lot of experience in tackling corruption, but she had little idea about political realities of Sri Lanka. Thus when the President was pointing his finger at the moon, she only looked at his pointing finger and sent him her resignation letter. As I have said earlier when President Sirisena was the face of our desire for good governance, Dilrukshi was the symbol of our hope against corruption.
It is after this episode that the people, who were hitherto blaming the President, the Prime Minister and the government for slow progress made in punishing the guilty, attempted to understand what’s going on. The people have realized that the so called ‘war on anti-corruption’ was only a gimmick. This is a truth that we had realized a long time ago, and attempting to tell the people. But some people who want to ‘protect’ the government, more than the President and the Prime Minister it seems, attempted to drown our voice by saying ‘Mahinda is coming back’.
We have always said that the speech made by the President should not have been made. It was bit of an angry speech, made by a man who was tired of the slow progress made on every front, which employed several bad examples. But conflict has always been a pre-requisite in progress and we are realizing that it is the same here.
Fight against corruption, flattened
