Honesty and Integrity is far too soon lost in the mad scramble to enter the ranks of the unpublished rich. At least that is apparent in Sri Lanka if not also in the region.
In the eyes of the public those holding positions of power – elected and some appointed – including Civil Servants appear to have an automatic legitimacy. It follows therefore that that very same legitimacy must be upheld for all to see.
Successive actions by several persons elected to represent the people and some appointed to so do, has damned that legitimacy to a point that being an elected representative is not now considered a fit and proper path of progression. The ethics of the past are no more. A former Justice Secretary used his government vehicle purely for official purposes. These days such perks have suffered ‘re-purposing’ and wife kids and others make free use of official vehicles without so much as a thought.
Political decisions and alliances usually also hinge on the government of the day permitting erstwhile ministers to hang on to their state-bungalows. President Sirisena must have hit the jackpot as after refusing to live at the established Presidential abode in Colombo, wanted to live simply in a house. That house is now nearly three houses – he has a large security detail – and will be his till death of both himself and his wife. Not bad for a chap who was hardly an effervescent President let alone Minister. We won’t be so crass and mention the cost to the public. All the time President’s House is stood empty.
Honesty and integrity are pre-requisites. But that suffers rapid evaporation in the euphoria of having obtained the votes of the majority. No one can successfully argue that President Gotha is corrupt. However, the President must at least be fully aware of what is going on.
The President and indeed this government are full of so-called professors and professionals. Yet are we to believe that it is this – now considered a motley lot – who advised President Gotha to achieve the patently unobtainable? Or was it a cloak and dagger to hide the lack of enough forex to pay for fertilizer imports?
The global use of organic fertiliser remains at a not to be sniffed at 1.6% approximately of the global use of agro fertilisers. Put another way chemical fertiliser takes up 98% of the global fertiliser usage.
Sri Lanka must be commended for reaching out to beyond the earth’s stratosphere. Sure, we are keen. However, to dive straight into the deep end is remarkable foolishness especially when one considers the impact on the agriculture sector where hundreds of thousands eke out a living. There will be a mad scramble to nullify the negativity by statements saying that the fertiliser is in place for the most immediate season and that organic fertiliser will be imported etc. Really? When there is a shortage of foreign exchange they are contemplating importing organic fertiliser? Is it worth the nationwide protests reported in the media?
Let us be completely honest. This country is sorely missing the USD 1,200 million that tourism brought in. We all know it. But then whilst we are coming to terms with a forex shortage, do we really need to be opening irrevocable confirmed letters of credit to purchase 227 vehicles for parliamentarians? Or do we need mobile / portable gymnasiums across the country? Really? Are these the priorities?
Let’s look at the attempt to import vaccinations into Sri Lanka. Anyone and everyone – probably plus their dogs too – jumped into the band wagon. Everyone could get the vaccine or so they thought.
In early days there was heightened confidence that these vaccines like any other traded commodity could be imported and a quick margin could be had by the promoters. Perhaps these people – some of whom were well connected to the political establishment – totally overlooked the potency which with the pandemic afflicted the world. Governments across the world rushed to place direct orders with the manufacturers.
Hope springs eternal in Sri Lanka. Our entrepreneurs were rushing to make a buck or more whilst others were focused on saving their staff and inter alia their businesses by securing vaccines where apart from the funding aspect other aspects like the efficacy, the quality and the vaccination programme itself would be handled by the state.
In the euphoria of the reality that the country would need millions of vaccines to control the spread, reduce the fatalities, control the unhappiness of forced cremation only policy, some gabbed openly and used their political network to secure the Astra Zeneca vaccine.
Eventually, when people who had humanity in their heads above the crassness of making money out of others’ misery, understood that this was and will be a government-led initiative, they caused an official response from Astra Zeneca themselves: confirming to the State Pharmaceutical entity that there was ‘no private sector supply sale or distribution of the vaccine’ warning in addition that if any trader or company other than Astra Zeneca themselves offers private vaccines it is likely counterfeit so should be both refused and reported to the relevant authorities.
The private sector, ever mindful of their staff and their finances and their commitments to the trade including their buyers in invaluable overseas markets, did their best in offering to fund vaccines if the government were to manage the rest of the process. Eventually, the terms were not as transparent as was hoped and the private sector lost interest in an initiative they themselves had started.
By then of course the country was ready for an influx of Chinese and Russian vaccines, agreeing in this time to mix and match Pfizer with the first dosage of AstraZeneca.
Honesty and integrity must be instilled only by getting rid of those blatantly corrupt, to whom the rule of law means nought lest it affects them. We have a Retired Naval Commander whose after years of distinguished service is still being questioned in some Court or other forced to sit side by side with lawbreakers of sorts whilst at least one member of the extended Rajapaksa family was given a special chair to sit as an accused. Perhaps his relationship warranted him not sitting on the benches provided by the Court. Needless to say, his cases have been dismissed but not those of a highly decorated officer whose only wrong would be his great love for his fellow countrymen and his country.
Where is the integrity when a failed politician like Ranil Wickremesinghe enters parliament having failed to be elected by the people of Sri Lanka? Where is the justice of it all when he lectures the President from the well of parliament that his choice of man to lead the battle against the spread of the pandemic is a departmental head? Has he forgotten the work done by those same members of the forces to ensure peace in Sri Lanka? So peaceful was the process that the Wickremesinghe government were engulfed in what we all know today as the Central Bank Bond Scam.
Too often now Honesty and Integrity are sacrificed at the altar of corruption and favouritism.
