Defeat bid to protect the corrupt

The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government has proved once again that probity is anathema to it. Its leaders have engineered the exclusion of dissident SLPP MPs Prof. Charitha Herath and Prof. Tissa Vitharana from the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), and the COPA (Committee on Public Accounts), respectively. Never do they baulk at anything to cover up their corrupt deals, safeguard their interests, and protect crooks.

When President Ranil Wickremesinghe prorogued Parliament in July, causing the COPE, the COPA, and other parliamentary committees to be dissolved, it was clear that the government would get rid of Prof. Herath and Prof. Vitharana; they had got under the skins of the SLPP leaders by carrying out their duties and functions conscientiously and taking on the corrupt who had caused huge losses to the state coffers. They are among the few legislators who have striven to fight corruption and restore public faith in the national legislature. They were able to kindle some hope in the resentful people, who have turned against Parliament. Dissident SLPP MP Dullas Alahapperuma was spot on when he told Parliament yesterday that the people were so angry that they cursed all 225 MPs.

SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva deserves credit for having resigned from the COPE and asked the government to appoint Prof. Herath to the committee. This is a clever move on the part of the Opposition, and how the SLPP will seek to counter it remains to be seen. The SLPP has so much to cover up that it may not soften its stand.

President Wickremesinghe, in response to anti-government protesters’ demand for a system change, promised to usher in a new political culture, and introduce consensual governance. He also undertook to establish an all-party government to make the political parties represented in Parliament partners in governance. Maybe he was genuinely desirous of doing so, but what we are witnessing today is the very antithesis of his solemn pledge; perhaps, he has not been able to make good on his promise because the SLPP, on whose parliamentary majority he is dependent, does not allow him to do so. The SLPP wants the President to do as it says, and not the other way around. But this does not mean that the President can absolve himself of the blame for the exclusion of Prof. Herath and Prof. Vitharana from the parliamentary watchdog committees they headed in an exemplary manner.

SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam has, in a recent television interview, declared that the SLPP has retained its hold on power; it has a parliamentary majority and had the current President elected. He has told the truth. What he has left unsaid is that Basil Rajapaksa controls the SLPP and the government like ‘Big Brother.’

If the SLPP is allowed to appoint its MPs or its proxies as the Chairmen of the COPE and the COPA, Basil will be able to manipulate the two committees much to the benefit of the crooked elements responsible for ruining public institutions. The Rajapaksas may have expected to do so when they had SLPP MPs, Prof. Hearth and Prof. Vitharana, appointed as COPE and COPA heads, but the latter refused to give in to pressure from the Family, and exposed many corrupt deals. This is not something we can expect of other SLPP MPs who have chosen to shore up the Family rule under a new President, and continue to lick sandals. Hence the need for the reappointment of Prof. Herath and Prof. Vitharana as the Chairmen of the COPE and the COPA, respectively.

The Opposition should be thanked for condemning the government’s shameful action at issue, taking up the cudgels on behalf of the public and doing its utmost to prevent the Rajapaksa family from keeping the COPE and the COPA under its thumb. One hopes and prays that it will succeed in its endeavour. If the government manages to bulldoze its way through and install its stooges as COPE and COPA heads then the Opposition’s representation on the two committees will only help legitimise the SLPP’s sinister efforts to cover up corruption and safeguard the interests of the Family.