The old adage ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has never been so evident than in the new regime and its race to make things better in a country where nepotism and family rule prevailed. Irrespective of whether President Maithripala Sirisena is seen as a simpleton or whether the efficiency of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Stumbling thro’ crises

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The old adage ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has never been so evident than in the new regime and its race to make things better in a country where nepotism and family rule prevailed.

Irrespective of whether President Maithripala Sirisena is seen as a simpleton or whether the efficiency of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is par excellence, things are not moving according to plan. The Government is banking on doing all the things it promised to do but also carefully, cautiously and following the due process of the law.

Therein lies the problems and the drawbacks. The biggest one is the slow and tedious process of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption where complaints have been flowing in against the high and mighty and giants of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. Unfortunately for many reasons, they aren’t ‘all falling down’ (to borrow lines from the ‘Ring-a-ring-a-roses’ nursery rhyme)!

Government-connected parties staged protests outside the anti-corruption commission this week but what could one expect from an institution that once did Rajapaksa’s biding and now says there are insufficient officers to carry out investigations?

Expectations are high and the public is running out of patience. Opinion polls conducted jointly by the Business Times and the Research and Consultancy Bureau in the past two weeks reflect a sense of concern and desperation from the public. Support for the Government may not be fully lost, but it’s slipping and people are getting weary of the progress to bring to book corrupt persons.

The polls conducted before and after the budget reveal that the level of patience – in waiting for the Government to deliver the promised goods as speedily as one expected – is wearing thin. This is notwithstanding the fact that a sizable number of the respondents also believe the Government needs more time to sort out the unwieldy mess created by the previous regime.

On the other hand being speedy and acting in haste could lead to rash decisions, one of which is probably the super tax which has been imposed on all and sundry earning a net profit of over Rs. 2 billion. It was meant to target new-rich companies and individuals that banked on ‘friends with benefits’ in the former regime.

Instead of being discriminatory and being accused of targeting individuals, the Finance Minister imposed a tax on all these top-end firms, impacting as many as 40 listed companies in the stock market. Most of these companies have been running a legitimate business, employing thousands of workers and also involved in programmes benefiting society (CSR).

The Colombo stock market was the first to react to the news of a tax that is set to become one of the biggest single revenue earner in a budget . Share prices fell with the trademark All Share Index recording its lowest fall in weeks.

The Government could have devised a better way to rope in the ‘favourites’ and corrupt businessmen of the past and raise its tax revenue rather than tax some of Sri Lanka’s most successful companies, who among many other positives, are also the country’s biggest tax payers.

This is not the only concern in the budget. Hundreds of mostly middle class government and private sector workers who invested their hard earned money on a hybrid car – which saves on fuel and benefits the environment – are now forced to cough out between Rs. 700,000 to Rs. 1 million extra because of a hike in tax on hybrids. Many of these salaried workers say it didn’t make any sense taxing vehicles that are environmentally friendly apart from being commercially viable and accessible to the not-so-rich class.

Among the positives however in the new regime and clearly endorsed in the BT-RCB surveys is the freedom to speak and air one thoughts without looking over the shoulder for the ‘white van’ – the instrument of power and intimidation in the past few years.

That air of freedom is also reflected in the manner in which industrial and trade chambers are coming out and boldly speaking out. This week’s statement asking for a Bill of Rights on account of independence by the joint chambers, a mechanism that became a powerful tool more than 10 years ago in campaigning for peace and reconciliation before disappearing after threats and intimidation, is a sign of the times that freedom of speech is quickly becoming the hallmark of this government.

While the new openness must be appreciated, valued and dealt with care and responsibility, the chambers and their members also have a responsibility and obligation to be transparent, honest and accountable in all dealings, particularly since some of the ‘big boys’ in the business community were not ethical or honest in their dealings.

Transacting with a Government where deal-making was the order of the day with ‘Mr. 10 %’ (as one powerful minister was then known as) and others who made much more wasn’t easy. Rather than lose out in the race to win contracts sans tenders, a lot of money exchanged hands under the table. In fact it created a new breed of business where the only way contracts were clinched was through bribes, commissions and even sleazy trade-offs. Such businesses, and many of them, may be alien to a new era where clean business overrides rotten business. The culture of doing business has hopefully changed to a more level playing field with processes, proper structures and governance.

In the meantime ministers, human rights defenders and good governance activists now firmly entrenched in the new regime are slowly realising that it is easier to be in opposition than govern.

When the searchlight turns inwards particularly by a probing media and civil society, ministers and advisors are become defensive in their response, little realising that their shouts and demands against the corrupt (earlier) are not easy to prove, as in many cases the paper trail by the guilty is missing. Having raised hell against corrupt individuals during the election campaign, ministers are finding these allegations hard to prove and are now under pressure to deliver on those campaign promises.

The same applies to human rights defenders now turned advisors who are defending the slow process, little realising that people are impatient and the business community, in particular, is watching.

Corruption scandals and nepotism during the last regime are bursting at the seams and being unearthed in major institutions dealing with defence, law and order, investments, tourism, housing, UDA, Central Bank, stock market and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), banking to name a few. Among the regulators, only the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka has not been accused of any misdeeds (so far at least) and that could be testimony to the integrity of its chairperson, Indrani Sugathadasa, who was earlier eased out of the SEC when she tried to take on mafia traders.

With corruption being the core issue on which the Government needs to move fast in the face of a painstaking process, it may be useful to examine the suitability of setting up a Special Commission to deal with all these cases with hand-picked staff to quickly dispense justice, recover stolen loot and jail corrupt persons. A few completed cases before April will lift the confidence of the people and confirm that their choice of Maithripala Sirisena was not in vain.

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