Gambling on good governance
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Indi Samarajiva, Sri Lankan blogger and founder of the popular website yamu.lk, recently released a video that simplifies the Treasury bond scam in a most entertaining way. Titled ‘The Bond Game’ and featuring ‘Casino Centrale,’ the 007-themed video went viral, being the first simplified explanation in the public domain of a somewhat complex scandal that so far has been best understood mostly by the financial sector.
The popularity of the video underscores the interest in the ‘question of the Governor’ in the wider populace, even when comprehension of the controversy is vague. It is remarkable that tuk-tuk drivers and vegetable vendors are suddenly talking about the ‘bandumkara’ debacle and its connection to a top official in the ruling administration.
After 18 months in office, the alleged Treasury bond scam remains the single largest corruption scandal plaguing the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition Government. And not even the technical complexity of the controversy has prevented understanding on the street that something has gone terribly wrong at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
At 11:30 a.m. on Friday (17), a meeting had been scheduled between President Maithripala, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and 19 civil society representatives including trade unionists, academics and anti-corruption activists. Several of these groups had strongly backed the ‘common candidacy’ platform that propelled President Sirisena to the presidency in January 2015. Eighteen months down the road, these groups still wield influence over sections of the Government that believes civil society backing and mobilisation played a major role in its twin electoral successes of 2015.
In the absence of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, the spiritual leader of the movement that propelled the current political dispensation into power, civil society has become the Government’s conscience call. And the loudest calls for the removal of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran when his term ends next week have emerged from civil society and good governance watchers. Friday’s meeting was specifically convened to give civil society activists an opportunity to make their case with regard to the reappointment of the Central Bank Governor.
Professor Sarath Wijesuriya, of Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero’s National Movement for Social Justice, spoke first. In his quiet style, he explained how the new Government was reneging on some of its promises on good governance which was seriously eroding public confidence in the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. At the end of his 10-minute presentation, Prof. Wijesuriya said NMSJ and the wider civil society movement would not want to see Governor Mahendran reappointed for a further six-year term to head the Central Bank.
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Thursday, 23 June 2016
Indi Samarajiva, Sri Lankan blogger and founder of the popular website yamu.lk, recently released a video that simplifies the Treasury bond scam in a most entertaining way. Titled ‘The Bond Game’ and featuring ‘Casino Centrale,’ the 007-themed video went viral, being the first simplified explanation in the public domain of a somewhat complex scandal that so far has been best understood mostly by the financial sector.
The popularity of the video underscores the interest in the ‘question of the Governor’ in the wider populace, even when comprehension of the controversy is vague. It is remarkable that tuk-tuk drivers and vegetable vendors are suddenly talking about the ‘bandumkara’ debacle and its connection to a top official in the ruling administration.
After 18 months in office, the alleged Treasury bond scam remains the single largest corruption scandal plaguing the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition Government. And not even the technical complexity of the controversy has prevented understanding on the street that something has gone terribly wrong at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
At 11:30 a.m. on Friday (17), a meeting had been scheduled between President Maithripala, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and 19 civil society representatives including trade unionists, academics and anti-corruption activists. Several of these groups had strongly backed the ‘common candidacy’ platform that propelled President Sirisena to the presidency in January 2015. Eighteen months down the road, these groups still wield influence over sections of the Government that believes civil society backing and mobilisation played a major role in its twin electoral successes of 2015. In the absence of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, the spiritual leader of the movement that propelled the current political dispensation into power, civil society has become the Government’s conscience call. And the loudest calls for the removal of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran when his term ends next week have emerged from civil society and good governance watchers. Friday’s meeting was specifically convened to give civil society activists an opportunity to make their case with regard to the reappointment of the Central Bank Governor.
Professor Sarath Wijesuriya, of Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero’s National Movement for Social Justice, spoke first. In his quiet style, he explained how the new Government was reneging on some of its promises on good governance which was seriously eroding public confidence in the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. At the end of his 10-minute presentation, Prof. Wijesuriya said NMSJ and the wider civil society movement would not want to see Governor Mahendran reappointed for a further six-year term to head the Central Bank.
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