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7th June 1998

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Access to everything via bumper hampers

From the blue corner

By Paakshikaya

Viruddha Paakshikaya slipped up I thought last week when he conceded that even his UNP members accepted Christmas hampers last year by arms dealers who want "Access" into the UNP hierarchy as well.

In his earnest desire to portray his leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as "Mr Clean" who will, presumably at the right time cleanse his party of all these bad eggs, Viruddha Paakshikaya admitted that UNP big-shots enjoy the largesses of these arms - dealers.

Twosome : Wijepala Mendis with party leader Ranil wickremesinghe


Twosome : Wijepala Mendis with party leader Ranil wickremesinghe

He defended the UNP's Treasurer, an architect by profession of designing the new building of these arms dealers. He calls it a "strictly professional relationship" between a professional and a client.

We have no quarrel with the relationship between a professional and a client, but we are not too sure when the professional is the treasurer of the UNP whether the public perception of the UNP's otherwise deafening silence about these arms-dealers is that they have indeed got "Access" into the higher echelons of the UNP.

Then Viruddha Paakshikaya obviously knows who in their camp also got Christmas gifts. This must be the talk at "Sirikotha" in Kotte and at Cambridge Place in Colombo 07. One of them, a very senior office-bearer who talks a lot in Parliament about corruption under this Government even acknowledged the bumper hamper.

But there is a story that is one better still. It is the story of an advisor to none other than Mr Clean Ranil Wickremesignhe, one whose name appeared as the "brains" "the master-mind" behind the strategy of the UNP in the Airlanka debate who was sent two hampers by those who wanted "Access" to the UNP.

One must give credit and honour where credit and honour is due. This advisor was honest enough to return one hamper!.

I have read newspaper accounts of these arms dealers distributing Christmas hampers to the tune of some Rs. 26 million. The hampers don't come only in packets of egg-noodles, Heinz Baked Beans or Teachers Highland Cream Scotch Whisky but in airline tickets and pocket money as well.

These newspaper reports that have gone un-contradicted so far since publication refer to senior military officers being offered such "hampers" and if memory serves me right only four senior officers had the decency to return the hampers they received.

There is no need to beat about the bush. These "hampers" are nothing but downright bribes. They may sound like big money, but they are peanuts when converted from US dollars, the legal tender for such arms deals.

What Viruddha Paakshikaya does not, or certainly refuses to understand is the fantastic purchasing power these people have. The power to tantalise perfectly normal people by showing off their green bucks before their eyes.

This is what our Post and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera is obviously trying to get at. We are aware that these people have wormed their way into the cockles of the heart of our own PA men.

We at least have the courage of our convictions to admit that. We will not say this is a "professional relationship."

And we know that these overnight multimillionaires are also with you and your "advisors" to insure themselves from a future commission of inquiry if, and only if, the UNP comes into power and place.

So we will not wait that long. Yes, we will inquire into how these "unconscionable profits" are being made and who indeed has "Access" to them, whoever they may be, however high they may be, even if they may be within the ranks of Tuscany.

I am no apologist of the PA Administration much the same way Viruddha Paakshikaya is of the UNP. For I will agree with him that the PA has lost all its credibility of fighting bribery and corruption by first the "castration" of the Permanent Commission, and secondly, the almost complete impotency in either sacking the two remaining Commissioners through a motion of Parliament or the appointment of a third Commissioner, and the appointment of investigators and prosecutors, and getting on with the job.

Viruddha Paakshikaya suggests that US style special prosecutors be appointed to tackle bribery and corruption here. If he watched CNN he would see the criticisms special prosecutors in the US are coming under.

They are persecutors not prosecutors and it seems their own egos go on a major trip and that they lose not only sight of their mandate, but a lot of money as well chasing behind shadows at times.

What is funny if it was not so tragic however is the complete ineptitude of the UNP viz-a-viz its handling of the Wijeyapala Mendis affair.

Here is a senior UNP one-time Cabinet Minister whom the party's leadership clearly wants out of the way as being a total embarrassment, but hasn't got the what it takes, to just do it, as the popular shoe company Nike slogan says.

The UNP leadership is straining at every turn to get Mr Mendis to quit, but they still can't do it. So if this is the UNP in Opposition how much more difficult will it be for them in Government to take disciplinary action.

We now see how various economic advisors have crept into the UNP. Ranging from people who couldn't manage their Finance Companies and had to get the then UNP Government to bail them out through their one-time super secretary now exiled in London, to accountants who can be called compulsive litigants. God save the UNP from their advisors.

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