By Frederica Jansz –

Frederica Jansz

There is NO rape. There are NO abductions. There is NO corruption. There is NO fear psychosis. The media remain – independent – unbowed and unafraid. Editors are not coerced into submission over candlelit tete-a-tetes with the President.
Children as young as six and seven years old are NOT being raped. Certainly not by politicians.  Murder if committed are solved in record quick time – except for those that took place in broad daylight in high security zones, no less.  The authorities cannot be blamed. The police are calling for any and all leads/clues the public may care to come forward with. Very noble.
THIS is the miracle of Asia. The star in the Indian Ocean. We are nothing like our murderous, corrupt barbaric South Asian neighbours or the pillaging Western colonists. We had zero casualties in the final stages of the war – oops no sorry – we were later told that the figure did go up a wee bit from zero to 1,200 dead civilians. Perhaps. All those who have been abducted are rapists, murderers and underworld criminals! Even though NO abductions take place, on the off chance that one might happen, then it has definitely got to be a rapist, a murderer or an underworld criminal.

It is very unfortunate that the media reports and strives to project a white van theory – giving the impression that every abduction is carried out by the police or the army. The bad thing about that is the culprits use that as a cover-up! So any group can carry out these abductions and put the blame on the police or the army. The culprits are at large. The media does this to throw mud at the government – these abductions are either for personal reasons or it is carried out by the underworld?
The Police are sincere and committed to ensuring law and order. However, according to them, parents and their children must be held responsible for any rape or violation of minors. Surely, the public must understand that law enforcement is only a curative and not preventive in Sri Lanka. The Police are sincere and committed to ensuring law and order prevail. But constantly battle with a lack of information. A lack of leads – there are many murders they were fortunate to solve but at the same time there were others they could not solve. Not because of lack of effort on their part.
Sometimes people do not know how much effort the police are taking. For example take the robbery at the Museum. The police grapple daily trying to get a lead, but have still not got a single clue. But on the other hand there are cases they have solved. Like an old lady who was murdered in Kolonnawa, then a robbery in Colombo, then the first Kahawatte murder…which of course was a very difficult case.
Take Janaka Perera’s murder. People put the blame on the government. Finally it was proved otherwise. And the murder solved and the people who were responsible captured. So they are not totally ineffective. But at the same time there have been cases they could not solve.  Not because they are impotent. For example the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, despite all the effort put in by sleuths to resolve that horrific crime, police yet have been unable to get any lead into it.
Almost all those climbing into boats and trying to reach Christmas Island are former LTTE cadres.
There is no need now for search and cordon operations or having many road blocks, checkpoints or rounding up people for questioning. That is no longer necessary. There are other methods to keep vigilant. Especially on the intelligence side – military intelligence units have increased. They are being trained more in advanced methods so they can gather information on these affairs and have an early warning system. So they can keep an eye on certain people that the government is aware have been engaged in criminal activity. Healthy practices in a budding democracy. As long as Sri Lankans know that Big Brother is watching!
Mega projects built at tremendous cost are a boon to this country.  It is NOT true that Sri Lankan tax payers are made to pay for these visionary expenses enriching only selected vendors along the way.
It is not true that it is no longer 10% but a mega 50% commission off some projects. The Jaffna A9 being a case in point. And it is certainly not true that politicians make money hand over fist. By allowing short selling and borrowing millions for purchase of shares from state banks it is not true again that fund managers have made millions out of Ajith Nivard Cabraal’s inexperience and poor regulations.
It is not true that the Rajapksas are ego maniacs and or that the world’s stupidity is concentrated in one man’s mind. Or is it three? Four?
It is NOT true that the government is selling every piece of state land to businessmen without tender; using select companies to obtain lucrative government contracts; NOR are they selling approval signatures for a fee on the basis of ‘you pay I approve’. These politicians definitely do NOT have billions stashed overseas. NOR have hundreds of acres of land been given to one or two companies (Sampoor being a case in point) while thousands of poor people still live in cardboard makeshift homes; have no water and have to use the river as their loo. It is NOT true that Sri Lanka’s best students are sent overseas raising their standards while as in most countries the best are kept in local universities and the rejects sent overseas.
It is NOT true that Sri Lanka having been colonized by the British for so long cannot yet educate its own people. Look at Hong Kong or Singapore, less than 5% study overseas. But they are just stupid. Nit heads. Believing they save billions if every student overseas is recalled to a local university, and at the same time raising their own standards.
In China people have been shot for embezzling one thousand dollars. But nobody gets shot here. Not for embezzlement. Not unless they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Not even when the Chairman for SriLankan Airlines had his son smuggle in some twenty three thousand dollars evading the country’s exchange control laws.
This government is at the forefront of leading an anti-corruption campaign. Mirror images of one another they are all – one and all – icons of purity and good governance.
There are still people without shoes, without land to farm, without homes, bathing in rivers and having to use holes in the ground as makeshift toilets. But they are happy. They have no water, no electricity but are surrounded by concrete jungles springing up all around them. Soon the superhighways that run through their villages will be jammed with traffic. Hambantota is a case in point.
Every time SLAF choppers fly VVIPs and VIPs to watch the cricket – those barefoot villagers cheer. Loud and clear.
It is a fact that Sri Lanka signed and ratified the landmark UN Convention that outlaws bribery and corruption. What is false and untrue is that Sri Lankans have been robbed and thrown into poverty by a few greedy, crooked and power hungry politicians and public servants.
It is NOT true that corruption in Sri Lanka has reached herculean heights.
It is NOT true the government which abolished the independent Bribery and Corruption Commission, along with the independent Police, Elections, Public and Judicial Service Commissions, by bulldozing the 18th Amendment through Parliament, placed the country in a precarious position, since it was a signatory to UNCAC.
Transparency International, is lying when it states that Sri Lanka is among the most corrupt countries in the world, and Eran Wickramaratne is acting as expected of an opposition MP right on target that with the UN country review on corruption due next year, Sri Lanka could be subjected to international pressure, since its Bribery and Corruption Commission was not independent of the Executive.
It is a diabolical lie to point out that the most common forms of corruption in Sri Lanka today include bribery, secret commissions made on contracts, blatant abuse of public power and position for personal advantage, and tax evasion.
It is certainly NOT true that funds intended for development are stolen, therefore depriving a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeds inequality and injustice, and discourages foreign investment and aid.
It is an utter falsehood to state that three years after the war, the only thing thriving seems to be corruption and the most corrupt, apparently thrive the most.
Our politicians are absolutely right when they blame the United Nations, UNHCR, the United States, Western countries, and perhaps the whole world. They make no mistakes. Others do. People do not have to look too far to see the robber barons. Western sponsored INGOs and governments dominated by white men with checkered agendas.  Let THEM explain – the United Nations and its subsidiaries how THEY come to be in possession of abundant unexplained, unearned wealth – a visible sign of stolen funds, meant to uplift the poor of our country.

Sunday Leader