JVP Agitation against Corruption
Dilrook Kannangara
A wane but nevertheless a hot topic; we all know the cost of a huge
cabinet of Ministers. But is it all? Was the country any better when
a 35 member cabinet was in place? Surely the cost associated with the
Ministers was lower. However, this issue is deeper than the large cabinet,
perks of Ministers and the much howled transparency, etc. This is part
of the bribery-corruption-waste (BCW) vicious trio. However, let me
emphasise that, we got to find solutions for this in the new democratic/capitalist
world order. Therefore, although the JVP, for instance, genuinely harps
on socialist mechanisms to curb BCW (most of them are apparently follow
it – a good thing in any ideology), it cannot achieve anything
significant in the new world order.
Corruption equals approximately 20% of the total government revenue
(BOI/PERC employees have overtaken politicians recently) according to
a report published by a group headed by Hon Wijedasa Rajapakse. However,
this doesn’t include other types of BCW that can be identified
using a simple economic model; I suggest an economic model as a moral
classification often gives a wrong impression. The fact that most politicians,
etc. are corrupt makes no sense as it doesn’t show a way out. On
the other hand, a particular politician or a group of them account for
$2 million, for instance, makes perfect sense; it help quantify the
damage and helps in comparison so that lesser corrupt ones may be elected,
etc. A good example is the incident that involved an elephant and two
temples; a politician (a cleaner one) was involved in settling the dispute
and he was called ‘ali-hora’ by some media while the real
jumbo-crook was called Mr. Clean/Bean!
In terms of economic consequences, BCW is anything that burdens the
society in financial terms that doesn’t have a reciprocal contribution
to the society. This includes welfare schemes as well as they have no
corresponding return or a very meagre return overall.
Capitalism, the welfare state and BCW
The best remedy for BCW is capitalism. However, we need a phased move
towards capitalism. There is enough scope for governments to engage
in business activities contrary to what the promoters of ‘privatisation’
say. In fact many capitalist countries have very successful business
undertakings owned by the government.
Most Corrupt (by value)
I charge that the biggest corruption in this country is its welfare
schemes in terms of both the dollar value and the number of individuals
involved. These schemes include (among others) janasaviya, samurdi or
whatever it is named now, free education that doesn’t ensure societal
benefits in return, tax amnesties awarded from time to time to defaulters.
Welfare
The number of welfare aid recipients run into a few millions and a large
number of them do not deserve it. Most others intend to continue with
it for the rest of their lives without any attempt to stand on their
own feet. Then there is the enormous cost and BCWs of administering
such schemes; the great robbery of the janasaviya retention money (Rs.25,000)
is a classic example! A better way of doing this is to subsidise local
industries, here you are subsidising industries than consumption! Almost
all developed countries do this and apparently the daily earnings of
a cow in the US (in terms of subsidies it gets) is much higher than
the average daily earnings of a rural Indian.
The cost and effects of handouts is well known; how about our education
system? Especially the universities?
Free Education
A significant number of graduates do not contribute anything in return
and as the system of university admission is based on 1981 (26 years
old and pre-war) population data, there is no equitable distribution
of public money in educating the nation’s children across the 24
districts. This cross-subsidisation has spelt disaster for the nation
as only around 2% could make it to the university, each of them consumes
a colossal sum of money and some do not give anything in return. This
got to change, come what may. University admissions should be based
on the current number of candidates sitting the GCE A/L as a base; this
ensures an equitable distribution of opportunities, which in turn will
produce more graduates to give more in return for the society that educated
them than financing the LTTE!
Benefits that can be reaped on this in terms of national development,
general increase in the national education level and their ripple effects
far more outweigh many other anti-BCW initiatives. Many developed countries
have either a loan scheme or a community financing scheme that eliminates
‘cross-subsidisation’. It is ironical that a poor country
like ours being so ‘generous’ when even the developed countries
aren’t! Although it is morally good, we should count the economic
costs and benefits as economic resources are scarce and must be used
optimally.
Another requirement is the need to accommodate more students in disciplines
with higher demand in the job market and to reduce the intake for other
disciplines. We come across graduates whose area of specialisation has
little relevance to the local and international job markets. Unrest
and vandalism would die a natural death if such measures are taken.
Official Language
Then there is the essential requirement for improving English proficiency
among children. The government should give its top priority to this
over teaching Sinhala or Tamil as a second language. It is a fact that
language differences has little to do with the present conflict as the
call for Tamil Elam was made in 1924 and the ITAK (fancifully termed
‘federal party’ in English) was formed in 1949 to get the
TE by any means! If language was the cause of the conflict, there would
be hundreds if not thousands of similar conflicts around the world as
almost every democratic country has only one national language. The
socialist concepts of ‘one language two nations; two languages
one nation’ is the exact opposite of what democracy/capitalism
propagates. Therefore, whatever the OLC (official languages commission
headed by a socialist) dictates, we should emphasise teaching English
than teaching Tamil to Sinhalese and Sinhala to Tamils (a grand BCW
initiative!). This is a nice little trap laid by India to divert the
separatism cause from its territory to this country; therefore we should
at least wait till Tamil becomes a national language of India before
attempting OLC recommendations; Tamil Nadu deserves to be the Tamil
Nation and not this country or part of it. After all what is good for
India should be good for its little neighbour.
Lax Tax System
Our tax system needs an overhaul; not to mention that tax fraudsters,
corrupt tax officials and their henchmen should be behind bars. Also
it is not fair that when foreign companies are allowed tax concessions,
our own companies got to pay tax. Corporation tax rate should be reduced
drastically; this will amass financial capital that we need desperately.
Retained earnings in the hands of investors is much more productive
than it ending up elsewhere. Churning out government activities from
funds that would otherwise generate more capital is a crime, in my view,
especially at a time when we beg for FDIs.
Trains
Sri Lankan rail system is nothing but a disaster and a big BCW den.
A proper rail network can turnaround economic stagnation in parts of
the country. Many often blame the government for this. However, as long
as running a kilometre results in financial loss, the best thing is
to stop all trains! Innovative solutions are needed to make the SLR
run at a profit. Only continued profits will lead to the expansion of
the rail network.
Penalties and levies
Another BCW avenue is the ridiculously low penalties, etc. attached
to most offences. These got to increase by many folds in line with today’s
COL indices for the law to have a deterrent role. It will also help
finance crime reduction, a burden at present the law abiding citizenry
carries for the benefit of criminals!! What a joke?
Politicos
Then there comes politicos; apparently there are allegations against
114 politicos at the bribery commission in relation to past years. This
is the post mortem and little can be done to reverse the damage; there
is no point in terms of finance and economy in investigating them other
than limited deterrence it may provide. What should be done is to prevent
it in the first place. To use Japanese and South Korean judicial precedence
in this regard is most appropriate, we also need some real fool-proof
controls.
Barring businessmen from getting into politics; there should not be
any businessman in any political party/group, etc.
Barring all forms of business activity for politicians; politicians
shouldn’t involve in any business activity by themselves or by
proxy
No member of the business community should concert with politicians
for any adventure mutually beneficial or beneficial to either party
or a third party
Politicians should not concert with the business community/an entity
for any adventure mutually beneficial or beneficial to either party
or a third party
These four means cover most avenues available for BCW for politicos,
it will also end the war atmosphere during elections as the underworld,
etc. would find politics financially unattractive. Is it the desire
to serve the people that makes Ranil (and others) crave for power so
much that they can’t wait till the next election? Definitely not;
there is no sense in killing each other just to serve the public!! Money
in terms of BCW is the real driving force.
Implementation of the above four controls will reduce the number of
political parties from around 35 to a handful; only those who have a
genuine craving for the wellbeing of the people will remain. It will
also provide local businesses a level playing field which would in turn
encourage entrepreneurship.
Then there is the case of stealing, etc. by politicos that should attract
criminal procedures irrespective of rank. However, compared to pseudo
business like acts of BCW, the value involved in direct stealing, etc.
is insignificant. In turn, politicos should be handsomely compensated
so that national decision makers can lead a decent lifestyle devoid
of the risk of being bought over.
Overheads
Defunct provincial councils system, etc. should be abolished. Added
with elections, maintenance, accommodation costs, these white elephants
are such a burden on the country with no real output; a classic case
of BCWs. Any devolution proposal that harbours similar administrative
overheads would also be a BCW initiative. P-TOMS, CFA, transporting
terror personnel and men at public expense are few more such BCW efforts.
Terrorism
Terrorism menace should be eliminated as it draws a lot of resources
from the society without any return. War or surrender, as long as the
terrorists continue to live, we will always be in dire straits! Complete
extermination of terrorists and industrialisation of the North and the
East should happen; wasting very large extents of arable land and other
resources (water, fisheries, minerals) in the North and the East should
stop soon.
Constitutional amendments are required to effectuate these and it needs
to be done soon. As a measure of good governance, ministerial functions
and their coverage should be standardised and the number of ministries
should be defined in a policy which cannot be exceeded under any circumstances.
In the meantime, the least costly method to maintain political stability
is to maintain this large Cabinet of minsters; going for multiple elections
(at a cost of a few billion rupees each) to get a strong parliament
elected is a never ending process under the PR system, especially when
the JVP adopts a hardline approach on almost every issue and will eventually
end up in a larger and a worse Cabinet (possibly with a few LTTE agents
running the Finance ministry like Paskaralingam!). However, there are
possibly many corrupt politicos in the government, especially among
the UNP alternative group. If for reasons of political stability they
are not punished, this gives a very bad signal. After all it was the
corrupt elite of the PA that brought their government down in 2001.
Therefore, protecting the corrupt has its grave repercussions on the
government.
The need for immediate permanent solutions is grave. We have to get
rid of this socialist style set-up allowing BCW and replace it with
a capitalist structure where value for money rules.
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