We thought the best fairy tales came from Hans Andersen. But, now we know they are dull insipid stuff in comparison to politicians` tales. SLFP General Secretary and Minister Maithripala Sirisena has said punitive action would be taken against some SLFPers, including ministers, if complaints against them were proved. He has urged the public to report errant SLFP politicians to the party leadership. There are complaints against 18 SLFP politicians, he has told this newspaper promising to investigate them. The names of the politicians concerned will be divulged, we are told, after investigations begin.
Many a pair of shoes, it is said, is worn out between saying and doing. We can`t but be sceptical, if experience is anything to go by. Who dares complain against a government politician? He who does so should be given an armed guard. Who wants to lose his teeth or confine himself to a wheel chair or cross the great divide prematurely? Wasn`t it an SLFP politician who promised to remove any obstacle in his path either by breaking or blasting or shooting?
That the government doesn`t want to antagonise any of its politicians, especially MPs, at this juncture is only too well known. The rainbow coalition it has knocked up has only a razor thin majority in Parliament. The Opposition is all out to capture power. The government is so desperate for survival that it may even opt for a marriage with the devil.
The long-standing feud between the SLFP and the UNP has stood the scum of the earth in the garb of politicians in good stead. The Proportional Representation system that brings about weak governments has also become a blessing for them. However corrupt and violent they may be, they are indispensable to their parties. If they are shown the door by one party, the other one is ready to welcome them with open arms. So, the undesirables have no need to worry about party investigations or punitive action.
When a rogue in the UNP pole-vaults to the government, he becomes a hero to the SLFP and its coalition partners, upon landing. The same goes for the notorious SLFPers who cross over to the UNP.
Never mind the lesser minions! What a vilification campaign the UNP launched against President Chandrika Kumaratunga, when she was in power. She was accused of many things. Reams of newsprint and barrels of ink were expended to paint a raven black picture of hers. She wasn`t given a breather even in the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack, which nearly accounted for her in 1999. But, today she has become a heroine to those who tried to destroy her politically by levelling serious allegations against her. The reason? She has combined forces with her former detractors and political enemies who are campaigning against the government. Strange bedfellows!
How can the SLFP pretend that it is in a position to punish its politicians who have become a law unto themselves? It was only the other day that Minister Mervyn Silva pleaded guilty to a fraud in a court of law and walked away after settling the State cost! Can any other person do so? If a poor man yawns inside a courtroom in a way that offends a good judge, he runs the risk of being thrown behind bars or fined.
We are puzzled by the number of complaints against SLFP politicians, given by Minister Sirisena. How could it be just only 18? Did he make a mistake and give us the number of politicians against whom there were no complaints?
There is nothing stupider than expecting a political party to punish its own men and women. It is like, as a saying goes, `consulting a female crystal ball reader over a theft committed by her son`! A politician gets punished, if at all, only for crossing over or trying to destabilise a government. But, those are not the kind of offences for which the public wants politicians punished. It is for taking bribes, plunder of public property, killing, assault, intimidation etc., that they need to be penalised.
Before inviting the public to make complaints against its politicians, the SLFP ought to make all its parliamentarians, provincial councillors et al submit their asset declarations and update them as required by the law. And most of all, it must desist from interfering with the police or the judiciary to get its members off the hook, and take steps to strengthen the Commission to investigate Bribery and Corruption, which it was instrumental in castrating with the help of the JVP and the UNP. It must be given back the powers to initiate investigations without waiting for formal complaints.
The Constitutional Council is in jeopardy due to a political tug of war and its debilitation has become a blessing for the government desirous of reducing vital state institutions to mere appendages of the SLFP. As for the need to deal with errant politicians, the most effective way is to strengthen institutions like in the advanced democracies. If the government is genuinely interested in reining in unsavoury political elements both within its ranks and elsewhere, it should make a fresh stab at reviving the Constitutional Council and the Independent Commissions. But, the question is whether the government really wants to do so. It is apparently trying to put the public to sleep with bedtime stories.
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