Opinion
Rajapaksa regime- patriotism is their flag, corruption the badge, nepotism the vehicle
“Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.”
~Francis Bacon
Wrapped in the National Flag to cover all the sins that they commit without a break, the present regime and its chief ‘comrades-in-arms’ are not stopping their outlandish pillaging of the county’s coffers. Corruption has become a second nature in the case of most operators who otherwise were considered honest and candid. From the peon to the highest official of every government institution, almost everyone 
is soliciting and accepting bribes ranging from thousands of Sri Lankan rupees to millions of American dollars. Whether it’s a request for a government job or a transfer or even a promotion for a fellow voter and whether it’s a request for a small government contract in the Provincial Council or a Pradesheeya Sabha for the supply of stationery and toilet items or even perhaps for computers and fax machines in an unknown village center or even for the building of a culvert and tarring of a road for a kilometer or two in an urban thoroughfare, the ‘commission-collecting’ has been already provided for in the original financial estimates. This is prevalent in the engineering field and accounting, irrigation and agricultural sector, education or fisheries, health and highways and also in land development and banking, In fact in all sectors of the public service, corruption has set in and taken deep root.
Those from the lowest step of the political ladder- Pradesheeya Sabhas and Urban Councils- all the way up to the highest level of the Cabinet on the political side and on the non-elected levels, from the lowest paid government servant to the highest Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) officer, have got entangled in the strands of corruption and it is in the process of not only consuming those who engage in such corrupt practices, but debasing the whole system so that future entrants to government service too become ready and willing victims of this societal virus that has become increasingly infectious.
The corrective measures if contemplated by any honest person becomes almost impossible to implement as such measures are rooted in the very infant stages in the form of bogus inquiries and the time-tested methodology adopted by all evil-doers of trying to kill the messenger when they can’t put up with the message. What has originated at the political leadership level has seeped down to the administrative level- to the Grama Seva Niladhari and Samurdi Officer. At the topmost level the eyes and ears are turned the other way, for they are no less sinful than the original perpetrator. It is indeed a very sorry state of affairs.
When the body and mind are so corrupt and when the visible veins and fingernails are so dirty and stinking, then in order to shield and shelter that nauseating being, they look for the most saleable commodity that is in the market. In the wake of a tremendous military victory against their historical rival, the Tamils of Sri Lanka, their eyes focused on one slogan that has been used and abused by many tyrants and dictators, by many populist leaders and unpopular politicians, by many degenerates and psychopathic dealers who happened to dwell in high places. The slogan is ‘patriotism’ and the background music is supported by war-drums echoing from time immemorial down the ancient battlefields and exalted corridors of power and might.
The irony is that most of these ‘patriots’ who claim ownership to the land and people they govern, have not set one foot on a battlefield nor have they fired one single bullet. They hardly had held a gun in their delicate hands even to shoot at a running rabbit. They employ ‘mafia’ type soldiers to do their bidding and do their executions and threaten innocent businessmen and women with extortions and revenge. Their daily routine revolves around making a deal here and undoing a deal there. They sit in the cozy drawing rooms like ‘Godfathers’ of business and power and dictate to minions to carry out their distasteful tasks. In the evenings they get around their friends and cohorts and sip the most expensive whiskies and exotic cocktails while munching away caviar as ‘bites’. But when they mount the political platform, one cannot find a more dedicated patriot than these cowards who hide behind the garb of patriotism and devotion. This is the apparel that most of the current regime’s chief executioners are attired in. This apparel of patriotism is well embroidered and set in the finest of fine silks made of the Sinhalese language. Their references are to “The Great Chronicle”- Mahawansa- and the way in which they quote chapter and verse of this great literary masterpiece makes the average Siripala wonder: How educated and well-informed this man is?
All this corruption is now concealed by patriotism and the speaker has legitimacy among the listening public. He is ably assisted by the clergy and the middle-class Sinhalese-educated intelligentsia. The cloth that covered the nudity of the politician seems to fit into the average middleclass academic and executive and politician. Even more than covering the nudity, this ‘patriotism’ attire, all of a sudden renders a sense of pride and dignity which they have chosen to brandish in the presence of English-educated elites whose social and political demise is happening at a faster pace than it was fifty years ago. A new culture, totally based on ‘pseudo-patriotism’ has taken over the mindset of the average Sinhalese-Buddhist and instead of enriching it, is acting as a catalyst for invisible decay of age-old values such as fair-play, justice, equality, ahimsa, brotherliness and so on. That lack of camaraderie between the Sinhalese and Tamils is being greatly felt and experienced in every corner of the country.
When corruption is covered by patriotism what helps to move this all-powerful machinery along its prescribed path? For that to sustain itself, for it to be protected at all times, for it to be fed and corrected if deviating from the given route, it needs devoted loyalists. It needs unquestioning cohorts and henchmen whose obedience is unquestionable. Who else would fill this role other than your kith and kin? So in comes nepotism. Nepotism, instead of being a family-centered practice of wealth and power distribution, becomes an essential ingredient in the protection-wall that is being built around the corrupt practices. Kith and kin assert power by sheer accident of birth. Its sole qualification- accident of birth- assumes unholy proportions and the loyal servants of the power holders pay ‘puja’ to this concept without question and inquiry. In other words, the shield that the kith and kin provide to protect the unholy ventures of the power holders becomes an essential and critical armor in the efforts to preserve them.
The entrenchment is almost complete, but one needs a ‘Guardian Angel’ to guard against any unexpected calamities. The current regime has found one in Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition and the United National Party (UNP).
Each and every time that the Rajapaksa regime was confronted with an unprecedented situation, Ranil Wickremesinghe came to its recue. Ex-Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake’s-episode was the latest among many that such acts of betrayal were performed by Wickremesinghe for and on behalf of the Government. When the entirety of the legal profession in Sri Lanka protested in the most vehement fashion against the methods and means adopted by the regime to expel the ex-CJ, Ranil stood with the Government and stated inside the House of Parliament that the powers of Parliament are supreme and sovereign. He decided to prostitute his political powers for the sake of remaining in office as Leader of the Opposition and the UNP. The Government is equally guilty of reciprocating and looking after the interests of the Wickremesinghe clan in the UNP by employing government offices and institutions to derail the activities of those who wished to oust him from the UNP leadership. The “Guardian Angel” came to the rescue of the Government and the regime too made it a point to safeguard the “Angel’s” interests.
Thus the entire wherewithal is available to the regime to continue in its relentless drive towards a one-party rule in Sri Lanka: Image (Patriotism), Methodology (Corruption), Vehicle/Means (Nepotism) and Protector (Guardian Angel). The four musketeers of Sri Lanka’s politics are in place.Patriotism is their flag; corruption is the badge, nepotism the vehicle and Ranil, the Guardian Angel. What more can one ask for?