Moral Responsibility And Our Politicians

(December 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lankans have a penchant for attempting to learn lessons from global events for themselves. The election of Barack Obama as the American president had those supporting ‘majoritarian’ rule in a democracy pointing out that Obama though a member of a minority had accepted the rights and values of the majority while those who believe in the ‘minoritarian’ concept pointed out how the majority had accepted a member of a minority group as president. The recent massacre in Mumbai had those advocating strong arm tactics to eliminate terrorism pointing to flaws in the soft Indian anti-terrorist strategies while there will be a group soon voicing about the need to get to the root causes of the current wave of terrorism in the sub-continent than use of military force.

This call for lessons to be learnt from global events is not actually attempted to be taught to the public and ends up in the usual blah-blah of chattering academics and the like. The most important lesson to be drawn from the Mumbai mayhem came out on Sunday when the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the powerful National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan offered their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepting "moral responsibility" for the catastrophe. Such resignations are in the finest of Westminster traditions where minister and officials who are servants of the public fail to live up to their expectations. Immediate post independence Indian politicians embraced this tradition as seen in the resignation of a minister of railways over a major train accident from which he was far removed. However Indian politicians developed thick skins over the past six decades but the recent terrorist attacks throughout India that have accounted for the deaths hundreds of civilians and maiming of thousands have shocked Indian leaders into a sense of moral responsibility.

A suppurating wound in Sri Lanka’s body politick has been the absence of this sense of moral responsibility among our politicians and officials occupying high and responsible posts in state institutions. It was only last week that the Supreme Court in an unprecedented move called upon President Mahinda Rajapakse to remove the Petroleum Minister, A.H.M. Fowzie from his ministry and the Chairman, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Asantha De Mel from his post on the issue of the oil hedging deals between the Petroleum Corporation and three international banks. Sri Lanka is set to lose up to US$ 400 million. Analysts have pointed out that this amount could be used to provide free fuel for the entire country for 45 days, fund the ongoing war for three months or provide the entire population a monthly subsidy of Rs. 2300 for one year.

Whether Fowzie and De Mel have had a ‘moral conscience’ as the Indian Minister and official, and have resigned or whether they have complied with the Supreme Court order and resigned or not is not known at the time of writing. It was not long ago that another disgraced public official, P.B. Jayasundera clung on to his office like a leech despite the Supreme Court ruling on his corrupt conduct on the LMSL deal. Finally he had to leave in disgrace after the Supreme Court warned of dire consequences if he remained in office. Such are the thick hides of the politicians and some public officials in Paradise.

This super-colossal loss to the country now reeling under severe economic hardships — purely due to mismanagement of the economy — would have gone unnoticed had not some public spirited citizens moved the Supreme Court to declare the hedging deal null and void and the Supreme Court had not acted on it. The country owes a great deal to the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva for this recent judicial activism that has stalled political leaders, common or garden politicians and the much ‘revered’ leaders of the private sector from sweeping away the financial resources of the country. The Supreme Court has proved to be the only bulwark preventing the country being bled to death by our pious political hypocrites in saintly white robes preaching inanities.

The constitutional evolution in this country has resulted in conferment of sovereignty not in the people but the sovereignty on the ruling party and the president. These politicians, together with their political appointees in high places and the private sector enjoying the freedom of the wild ass in a free economy, are now a powerful juggernaut riding over the laws of the land and looting the Treasury. All this has been made possible under the system of the executive presidency.

The 17th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted precisely to curb such abuse of power. But the all powerful Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse is not activating this 17th Amendment on the excuse of awaiting a report of a parliamentary select committee on the functioning of the Constitutional Council. Even a political babe will realise the advantages accruing to President Rajapakse because he is making appointments to key positions in the public, police and judicial services while the Elections Commission is also stymied. How long is this tragi-comedy to go on? Had the Supreme Court not taken this recent course of action, it would be open sesame to all the Ali Babas of Sri Lanka.

Now is the moment of truth for those 17 UNPers who crossed over to the government benches in the name of democracy. Are they to remain with President Rajapakse while the 17th Amendment remains dead as a dodo? The leader of the UNP rebels, Karu Jayasuriya who fathered the Amendment, has to answer to his electorate that elected him with a thumping majority notwithstanding his private pleadings with the President to implement the constitutional provision. He can like the Indian minister take a decision based on political morality and lead the way because the public still believe he has a conscience when it comes to issues of good governance though the same cannot be said of fellow defectors like G.L. Peiris whose intellectual elasticity to suit his political flavour of the day knows no bounds.

No democracy can function until and unless politicians and bureaucrats are held responsible for their actions. As Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil had said, they were "morally responsible" for their default. Their resignations were followed by those of the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra, R.R. Patil and his Deputy Deshmukh. If our politicians and bureaucrats do not believe in ‘moral responsibility’ the only option left is to sack them.

Sri Lanka has had only two examples of politicians with a moral conscience: Dudley Senanayake and Gamani Jayasuriya. Dudley quit after the 1953 harthal when a few demonstrators protesting against the 25 cents rice price hike were killed and Gamani Jayasuriya when he disagreed with President Jayewardene over the Indo-Lanka Agreement. Others are not willing to give up their jobs. For them it is not serving the people but serving themselves. Last week it was reported that the JHU did not want a snap election because their MPs would lose their pensions if elections are called before their five year term of ‘service’ is over. Public service today is self service.

Editorial, The Morning Leader, weekly paper based in Colombo.- Sri Lanka Guardian