By C. G. Ilangakoon –

Dr. Gamini Ilangakoon

If the present writer is to begin this text with its end, what is being suggested hereby is to legally validate a small margin of ten percent commission from the financial profits of Companies, which are entrusted to execute Government projects, in favor of politicians. At the first glance, it seems an ugly, unacceptable, imponderable of and unethical proposal, which should actually be cursed by God.

The proposal being furnished here is not what is really right. It is not wished by the present writer even in a dream. Yet, what is important is the final result. The Asian context has proved beyond doubt that no politician or a bureaucrat can be hundred percent ethical. Yet, the ethicality may constitute a lesser degree below hundred percent. In a manner of speaking, it can be stated that even the Wisdom Teacher like Buddha has failed in generating hundred percent ethicality in the absolute majority of people. Thus, the non-ethical greed is an inborn psychological trait of all unenlightened lay-men. Whether we like or hate it, it has to be rightly dealt with. It, the proposal, has to be read, understood and expounded, not fragmentally and not in isolated parts, but as a whole, in the intensity of its integrity. The fragmented comprehension would be conducive to misinterpretation, misapprehension, misrepresentation and misinformation.

This is a dangerous proposal. No one in Sri Lanka has ever dared to proclaim this proposal, though everyone talks about its validity clandestinely in dark corridors. Truth is not a lie. The proposal roots its basis in the inherent nature and in the inborn psychological traits of man, who has not gone from home to homelessness and who is not spiritually enlightened.

The practice and the life have empirically corroborated the fact that the absence of the legal validity of this proposal has smartly trapped many Asian countries in to the community-prosperity zero, totally ruining the nations and their posterity to come.

Positive Justifications

A politician devotes his whole life to politics. His monthly income is not really sufficient to manage personal family affairs, along with the cost to be incurred in the domain of politics. With his exit from politics, no one cares him and bothers about him, unless his name adds power to vote bank of the party. While being engaged in politics, his wife and children are, for the most part, neglected and the home atmosphere is pressurized. Hence, in the society, while being a proud and respected leader, at the home front, he becomes a coward husband and a disrespected father. The time and the life, a politician could devote for the wellbeing, wealth and prosperity of the family, is dedicated to politics, which renders the family in to destitution, unless indeed empirically engaged in corruption clandestinely. The engagement in pragmatic politics would deprive the wife, of husband’s love and bereave children, of their fatherly affection. There are much more to be said. This is the relativity of the positivity of proposal-negativity.

Negative Justifications

Buddha has successfully failed in ethicalizing the world and in dispelling the evil from the world. Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, when descended down to earth, in order to sacrifice himself by way of crucifixion, for the salvation of humanity from the original sin of Adam and Eve, was insulted, spat upon, burdened with the cross, and dragged along to the venue of nailing and killed. The greed continues. The hate dominates. The delusion pervades. Hence, the man is selfishly self-centered. Then, the law too has failed successfully. Why? The law makers are not a spiritually enlightened community. Their minds are trapped in greed, girded with hatred and defiled by delusion. If the Buddha and Christ, worshipped universally by billions of people daily, have failed, what to say about law, written by psycho-physical souls, deposited with overflowing greed, hatred and delusion?

Again, what matters is the final result. No one can pragmatically stop the political corruption. Helpless crying is useless. Agonizing lamentations would not help. The media publicity can create only an opinion. The mutual blamalogy may structure a perception of jealousy in some and anger in others. Nevertheless, the political corruption, the commission game, the plunder of wealth would continue forever, until people would be enlightened like Buddha or Jesus or determine to be decisive, resolute and resourceful to rise against and face death to defend themselves and their birth rights.

Then, if people are not mature enough to be so and to do so, the country must deal with the truth and the only alternative left is to allow politicians to get ten percent commission from projects, they implement. The politicians are benefited, the country is profited, no need to increase the margin to five hundred percent, in order to reach the anticipated target from the very first project and everyone can be happy.

Proposal violation

If the above proposal, suggested to be constitutionalized is violated, there must be a constitutional clause of the infliction of punishment, jurisprudentially clear and interpretatively precise that imposes the life time imprisonment to the perpetrator of the transgression and grants the foundation to confiscate all the illegally robbed wealth. The constitutional right, if any, of the President, to pardon the culprit must be repealed. A precise Juridical and Prosecutorial Time-frame must be fixed, so that the verdict procrastination is not transported to the land of never-never. The current writer’s suggestion is one year or less as the maximum.

Final Result

The ammunition blast in Salawa, the Meethotamulla garbage mountain catastrophe and many other life and wealth destroying disasters have been passed in to the pages of the history or even in to oblivion. The media will drop them and the people will forget them. The negligence, helplessness and defenselessness of people continue in all their power and domination.

It is high time for Afro-Asian countries, to learn to do things, for the final result. Particularly in the affairs of Governance and the implementation of the socio-cultural and economic development projects, oriented towards the welfare of the people of these beautiful countries. Since, the 1948 independence of Sri Lanka, no economico-cultural project, executed by UNP or SLFP, as major political parties, have been able to cause, at least, some sort of discernible community prosperity as a whole, indeed, with some exceptions, ascribable to certain politicians and their cronies, who, with no financial solidity and no education, entered in to politics, without even a push bicycle, yet, ending up as wealth barons. This brutal culture of majority-community-zero- prosperity has to cease and those, who are entrusted with the duty and responsibility of engendering people’s welfare, must work in such a way, in order to deliver the aspired end results, setting a culture of final result attainment.

Pretextual Excuses

Catastrophes are caused by nature and by human activities, which transgress the laws of nature. The defiled psychologies of politics too, based on extreme avarice for money and on the greed for votes compel disasters. When such catastrophes happen, the Asian political context comprises a disgusting cult of lame pretextual excuses. (1) The ones in power, blame the previous regime, branding it as the culprit of catastrophe causation (2) Pointing the figure at some other ministerial or institutional figure as the offender, (3) The blame is baselessly ascribed to the general public themselves, proclaiming that it was they, who obstructed the action implementation of the Government, (4) Delayed declarations that the action agenda of the Government was paralyzed by commission demanding or by claiming 50% ownership of the contract executing enterprise, (5) The disobedience of the public to listen to the pre-warning of the Municipal Administration, (6) The Government was really in action to prevent the disaster, yet, before it could terminate the agenda, the disaster exploded. The number of pretexts is endless. The final result is zero.

Useless Blaming Habit

For all the injustice, being caused to people, in the form of wealth plunder, unjust tax increase, misappropriation of public funds to magnify the perks and comforts of politicians and certain politically appointed bureaucrats, the response of the general public is foolish tolerance, fruitless acceptance with an ever dry hope, waiting five to six years to vote against and verbal blaming in agonizing pain. This impractical response of imperfection has successfully failed, gaining no result at all, in a long period of sixty nine years. This is too much. It is time to stop this stupidity.

Facilitating Factors

They, among many, basically, are two in number: (1) Religious factors (2) Political factors. The religious factors, in the main, comprise Buddhist ethical principles and their flawed pedagogy. Its major component is the wrong teaching of the doctrine of Karma. According to Karma, the present life conditions of the man are determined by the past sinful or meritorious deeds, committed by him. Thus, if a poor and starving politician becomes suddenly rich, it is conditioned by his meritorious action, done in previous lives. The unjust social structure, the enacted laws, privileging a certain group of people, the abuse of law in order to misappropriate public funds, intentional unequal distribution of wealth, the disparity in awarding the opportunities have no relevance in the concept of Karma. Thus, it perpetuates the undeserved tolerance of spiritually uninstructed people in to ecclesiastical impotence. And this emasculation has been granted a false social respect. Thanks to unlimited respect for and love of Buddha, the majority of people does not break and cross this barrier of wrong knowledge, never taught by Buddha as such. And right here, their agony is eternalized. The political factor is the propagated, incorrect and illogical persuasion that the democracy is first and primary and all else is secondary. Hence, it is wrong and evil to contrast, contradict and violate democracy and if some injustice is caused, the right action is regime change, during the time of an election, subsequent to the total lapse of the prescribed by law, the period. Thus, the injustice continues, laws are violated, promises are broken, public funds are misappropriated, one limited circle of people enjoys the life and the frustrated and suffering majority should keep quiet. This nestles the courage and action of general public in the land of never-never.

Exception Examples

Yet, in the midst of such impractical ignorance, which dominates the entire Afro-Asian context, it is a pleasure to watch that there are communities, which differ from and are above and beyond such Karma domination and democracy deception. They are Europeans. Anyone can notice that when a European politician or a bureaucrat is leveled with an allegation of corruption, of a crime or of an infraction of law, the one in question resigns immediately. Why? Are they spiritually enlightened like Buddha or Christ? Indeed no. Then by what is their such deportment is governed? By fear. Fear of whom? Of the general public. Why? They know that if they do not resign, the people will come and chase the culprit away. The best recent example for this is, the intelligence, courage, right and timely action, intolerance of power abuse and the misappropriation of public funds exerted by the heroic Ukrainians. When their “elected” President rigged the election, jailed the opposition leader on false charges, began to abuse power and plunder the wealth of the Ukrainians, they mustered the courage, enhanced the unity, self-organized and stood before death. The Ukrainian heroes never stopped until their corrupt President ran away and the total capture of political power was achieved. Thanks God, there was no Karma doctrine, being indoctrinated in to Ukrainian minds. The democracy demagogy could not befool them, since the Ukrainians knew well that there was, is and will be a crucial question after the word “Democracy”. That is “Democracy For Whom? For the Ruler or the Ruled?”