{"id":103974,"date":"2013-09-06T13:36:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T08:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=103974"},"modified":"2013-09-09T12:57:56","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T07:27:56","slug":"due-diligence-on-all-fronts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/due-diligence-on-all-fronts\/","title":{"rendered":"Due Diligence On All Fronts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

There are rules forced on countries through covenants signed or arm-twisted into signing. There are rules forced on rulers through constitutions.\u00a0 There are rules forced on people by laws enacted by representative bodies.\u00a0 Then there are customs or sirith, those handed from generation to generation by way of cultural ethos that speak of propriety not necessarily right and wrong in the eyes of the law.<\/p>\n

Laws, if they are to work, need to be comprehensive and clear with attendant mechanisms that obtain compliance. Sirith are less robust but given that they are the product of many centuries and are embedded in life practices, customs, belief systems, language and metaphor, must be counted as necessary and useful support systems for legal frameworks that are not out of tune with culture, heritage and relevant philosophical predilections of a given society.<\/p>\n

In the first instance, then, we are hampered by a disjuncture between law and sirith.\u00a0 Be that as it may, one thing is clear, sirith tend to look after themselves and the relevant society, but greater diligence is required in the case of laws.<\/p>\n

About ten years ago, Dr. Sasanka Perera<\/a><\/span>, Sociologist, wrote about various Christian organizations with dubious agenda entering the country by using the Companies Act.\u00a0 Some even had BoI status at the time.\u00a0 If \u2018god\u2019 is business, then of course we are at \u2018Anything Goes\u2019.\u00a0 What is pertinent is the larger issue of loopholes.\u00a0 Put another way, we are talking about inadequacy and flaw leaving room for all manner of racketeers, local and multinational, to bypass screening mechanisms or worse purchasing of the approvers directly and indirectly.<\/p>\n

We saw this in the controversy surrounding contaminated milk powder.\u00a0 Fonterra was deliberately dragging its feet in clearing the shelves and that\u2019s bad.\u00a0 What\u2019s worse is that the health authorities seemed intent on outdoing Fonterra<\/a><\/span> in efforts to a) keep people in the dark, and b) taking prompt and precautionary action.<\/p>\n

The protests over contaminated water in Rathupaswala<\/a><\/span> and other places make people wonder if the relevant authorities have the will and the resources to make sure people are safe from industrial pollution.<\/p>\n

Is the mad rush to woo investment making relevant authorities turn a blind eye to the environmental costs which, in the final instance, the people have to pay by way of disease and death?<\/p>\n

We can safely say that diligence was at zero when policy makers of an earlier era placed bets on the Green Revolution and chemical inputs.\u00a0 The WHO report on arsenic was scandalously suppressed and when it did come out, results were found to have been averaged out so that permissible levels do not appear to have been exceeded, even though a distribution would probably show that certain communities are at severe risk.\u00a0 We know that Fonterra has indulged in unethical advertising and has \u2018placed\u2019 representatives in approving\/disapproving bodies such as the Nutrition Society of Sri Lanka, \u2018purchasing\u2019 support by way of sponsorships and other payments both to individuals and organization.\u00a0 We know that hundreds of doctors double up as drug-peddlers and product promoters.\u00a0 We know that policy makers, scientists, state authorities, academics, advertising agents and sections of the media have colluded time and again to cover up gross violations of environmental safety standards by fly-by-night multinationals and even established corporates.<\/p>\n

We lack the laws, we lack the vigilance.\u00a0 And it is a problem that plagues all spheres.\u00a0 For example, we don\u2019t screen those who seek our vote.\u00a0 We don\u2019t demand that the elected stick to mandate.\u00a0 We don\u2019t punish those who err.\u00a0\u00a0 We don\u2019t question the approvers, we don\u2019t watch them and examine credentials.\u00a0 This goes for approving agencies as well as the self-appointed grandmasters of \u2018civil society\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where is the diligence? There\u2019s not much of that.\u00a0 Who is diligent? There\u2019s not too many of those.\u00a0 The most alarming fact is that those who are required to be diligent also warrant exercising diligence over, media included.<\/p>\n

It boils down to the citizen.\u00a0 If the citizen doesn\u2019t make a person decision to be vigilant, to educate him\/herself, raise questions, exercise caution and so on, then it is guaranteed that he\/she will be the knowing or unknowing recipient of poisons, the unnecessary, bad policy and other kinds of violence.<\/p>\n

An alert citizen will recognize other alert citizens.\u00a0 An alert citizenry will trump and arrest the errant official, pernicious corporate, unethical advertiser and greedy product endorser and brand ambassador.\u00a0 Our systems are flawed and our officials lacking in integrity.\u00a0 We have been negligent and therefore complicity in the debacle.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way around it though. We have just one option: diligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":93503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nDue Diligence On All Fronts - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/due-diligence-on-all-fronts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Due Diligence On All Fronts - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/due-diligence-on-all-fronts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-06T08:06:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-09T07:27:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"329\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"367\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/due-diligence-on-all-fronts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/due-diligence-on-all-fronts\/\",\"name\":\"Due Diligence On All Fronts - 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