The PM’s predicament

Editorial-December 14, 2013, 7:26 pm 

Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, a veteran politician, is a disarmingly simple man who does not attract enmity or hatred towards himself as some of his colleagues do. Few, therefore, would have taken pleasure at his current embarrassment over a senior official on his personal staff writing a letter to the customs calling for the release of a detained container which was subsequently found to contain what has been described as the biggest single consignment of heroin ever detected in this country. The leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, a constituent of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance coalition, has called for the prime minister’s arrest. Quite apart from arresting the prime minister, not even the official who wrote the letter calling for the release of the container in which the heroin had been concealed had been arrested. The police say that they will record the statement of this official who is now reported to have resigned as well as the consignee. It is obvious that there is a lot of pussy footing around this whole business. Who can blame ordinary people for losing faith in the whole system in which the rich and powerful are protected whatever their crime and the less fortunate are brutally crushed underfoot?

Prime Minister Jayaratne went public last week telling Parliament that he had sought the Speaker’s permission to make a statement on this matter. However, he says he had been advised by both members of the government and the opposition from saying anything and he had therefore remained silent. He admitted his coordinating secretary had done wrong in trying to secure the release of the detained container. But we have not seen any report of Friday’s parliamentary proceedings where Jayaratne has specifically denied that he had any hand in impugned letter and that it was not written under his instructions. If this was the case, the prime minister should say so without any misplaced sense of loyalty to his official. In fact the PM should make a statement about everything he knows about this whole business to the police. He, after all, is on public record saying that politicians are involved in drugs. The concerned official has in a newspaper interview admitted that he, at the request of a Gampola Urban Councillor (Gampola is the PM’s constituency), did write a letter to South Asia Gateway Terminals Ltd. in an effort to get the demurrage on the long-held suspect container reduced. The official, Keerthi Sri Weerasinghe, had denied any knowledge of the heroin concealed in the container. He had been told that it contained ceramic and plastic-ware. He did not think that Urban Councillor Tharanga Vittachi who asked him for the letter knew of the heroin. The prime minister knew nothing about the matter until the scandal surfaced and he told the premier about it, he has asserted.

A disturbing feature about what Weerasinghe has said in the interview that issuing letters to ``ordinary people’’ for various matters is a common practice in the prime minister’s office and he would have issued thousands of such letters. There was a time when then Prime Minister R. Premadasa loudly complained that the prime minister did not even have "a peon’s powers.’’ Although commonly perceived as being the number two slot in the country’s political hierarchy, the prime minister does not enjoy any executive powers. That is why Premadasa, when he was made prime minister by President J.R. Jayewardene, retained his ministerial responsibilities for local government, housing and construction under which he enjoyed substantial executive power. Unlike Premadasa, Jayaratne is not an aspirant for presidential office though one never knows how that particular papadam can crumble. Remember the case of President D.B. Wijetunga. Premadasa selected this un-ambitious politician for the prime ministry over the heads of high-flyers like Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. When Premadasa was assassinated, Wijetunge had the presidency thrust on him rather like W. Dahanayake who succeeded the assassinated S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike as prime minister in an earlier era.

The point that must be made is that politicians from the prime minister, to ministers, deputy ministers and ordinary MPs write letters on behalf of their supporters directing that all manners of favours be bestowed on them. They know very little about the matters on which they make directions and, very often, the people to whom they give letters. They do not care a jot that by ensuring privilege for their friends, relatives and supporters, they do injustice to the deserving who command no influence. Time was when those to whom such letters were sent took scant notice of them and hopefully did the right thing. But sycophancy rules the roost today and there are far too many officials looking for advantages for themselves by pandering to politicians who rush to do their bidding. The result is the abysmally bad governance that the country is loaded with. While there are occasions when political interference is motivated by the desire to help a supporter, too often venal reasons like gratifications or a share in the loot play their part. Narcotics are a dirty business and that is why countries like Singapore have prescribed the death penalty for drug offences. Drug pedlars make addicts of people inveigled into the habit ruining lives and families with the drug lords making huge fortunes out of human misery. This case, therefore, is much more serious than an attempt to smuggle sarees or cigarettes.

The investigations are not yet concluded. There are many matters that have to be followed-up. Have there been other letters written by Weerasinghe to influence the release of detained containers? How often do customs and other authorities receive such requests and, more importantly, do they ordinarily comply? Highly placed personalities, conscious of not leaving any paper or electronic trail to their doors, generally write no letters. A mere telephone call would do the trick given the availability of sycophants and careerists ever ready to do the bidding on their bosses. In this case the media and the opposition, the so-called watchdogs, have done their jobs. Let us hope that they will keep snapping at the heels of all concerned to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion. Perhaps Prime Minister Jayaratne, now well past his prime and not in the best of health, should consider whether the time is not right for him to bow out of office. Various aspirants have been queuing for that so-called `peon’s’ job!