{"id":180912,"date":"2017-08-10T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T07:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=180912"},"modified":"2017-08-14T00:40:41","modified_gmt":"2017-08-13T19:10:41","slug":"sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s Fight Against Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Upali Cooray<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Upali Cooray<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAs good customs have need of laws for maintaining themselves, so the laws, to be observed, have need of good customs. In addition to this, the institutions and laws made in a Republic at its origin when men were good, are not afterward more suitable, when they [men] have become evil. And if laws vary according to circumstances and events in a City, its institutions rarely or never vary: which results in the fact that new laws are not enough, for the institutions that remain firm will corrupt it.” ~<\/i>\u00a0Nicolo Machiavelli<\/span><\/p>\n

This compilation is to explore and focus attention on the issues of political forthrightness and the fight against corruption<\/a> as essential components of the process of strengthening democratic institutions. It aims at contributing a set of initial contemplations on crucial\u00a0topics related to political integrity, such as the blueprint of conflicts of interest, the role of the press in monitoring the abuse of political office and, most of all, the control of the role of money in democratic elections. All these issues are built-in in democratic governance. As such, this compilation is both an attempt to identify some good and bad international practices to deal with these issues; a discussion that is domestic as much as it is international.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a justifiable desire to ascertain political corruption. The discussion is not about what corruption is, so much as about how one can arrive at a standard formula for analyzing the naturally flawless condition from which corrupt politicians veer. Political corruption echoes the political system in which it is based. As such, the different natures of the political ideology would modify the forms and range that political corruption takes. Thus, political corruption in a democratic body politic might take a very different form to that in a non-democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The perspective on politics from which the interpretation of corruption gives birth will play a major role in defining the political corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

Definitions of political corruption within restrictive boundaries fail to take into account everlasting factors, most importantly those dealing with standards of observable factors. Thus, without knowing what norms or standards of politics one should accept, it is not possible to solve problems in defining and analyzing political corruption. Another path uses the concept of \u2018public interest\u2019 to illustrate the crux of corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this definition focuses our attention on any act or set of acts that threaten to destroy a political system, one should determine what the public or common interest is before assessing whether a particular act is corrupt. Furthermore, this definition enables a person to justify almost any act by claiming that it is in the public interest. Then, if we agree that political corruption is what the public in any given society perceives as violations of the common interest, we will face even more difficulties with such an approach for two reasons. First, public opinion cannot be freely expressed on any given issue and it is debatable to use a term \u2018common interest\u2019. Moreover, studies of public opinion have depicted that in many cases public opinion about \u2018common interest\u2019 is either inconclusive or divided. Second, the reliance on a \u2018common interest\u2019 makes any equivalent analysis very difficult, since the definition of common interest would be culture-specific. What is corrupt in one country may not be corrupt in another. This leads to situations in which similar acts can be defined as infringements or not according to where they take place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another group of academics have developed market-centered definitions, primarily related to demand, supply, and exchange concepts derived from, in his article \u2018The Concept of Corruption\u2019, states that economic in theory, political corruption is viewed as a particular model of agency relationship. Jacob Van Klaveren states:-<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA corrupt government official regards his public office as a business, the income of which he will, seek to maximize. The size of his income then does not depend on an ethical evaluation of his usefulness for the common good but precisely upon the market situation finding the point of maximal gain\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Each government servant determines the reward for his services in every case, according to the well-known principle of the railways\u2019 rate policy, \u201ccharge what the traffic can bear.\u201d The civil servant will regard his public office as a business particularly if he does not obtain a salary or obtains symbolic payment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The market-centered approach, when compared to other approaches, to a greater extent emphasizes the mechanics of political corruption and circumstances under which it becomes possible. Moreover, the market-centered approach might be too simplistic to capture all aspects of the corruption phenomenon. Neither the politicians\u2019 decisions nor the corrupt bureaucrats can be treated as private entrepreneurs and thus the simplistic application of market analysis is not sufficient. To make progress, one must combine an economist\u2019s concern of modeling self-interested behavior with a political scientist\u2019s recognition\u00a0that political and bureaucratic institutions provide incentive structures far different from those presupposed by the competitive market paradigm.<\/span><\/p>\n

As illustrated above, multiple definitions of political corruption introduced by diverse groups of academics have been proposed. However, the complexity of the phenomenon and questions about how and why it occurs makes it difficult to find a single general, satisfactory definition. The number of different types of political corruption makes this challenging<\/span><\/p>\n

Political corruption\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Political corruption, i.e. the abuse of assigned power by political leaders carry off personal reaps, with the objective of increasing power or wealth! This is one of the realities of our age. Hardly a day goes by without a regime being rocked by the uncovering of corrupt political practices by power-holders. While the gravity\u00a0of the problem may vary across countries and regions, no political system seems to be immune to corruption. From the toppling of presidents in Venezuela and Brazil to the emergence of the new oligarchs in Russia, from Watergate in the United States to the startling revelations of the\u00a0Tangentopoli\u00a0<\/i>affair in Italy, from the cash for peerages scandal in the United Kingdom to the streak of scandals that\u00a0have long plagued Japanese politics, the list of corruption and abuse that have put democratic institutions under stress is endless. The latest casualty is Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He resigned from his position after court decision found him guilty. And this is only democracies, where a measure of checks and balances is in place. In the other regimes, where transparency may be as scarce as freedom, fare much worse, as Lord Acton\u2019s famous saying reminds us that\u00a0\u201cpower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely\u201d.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Countries with very low standards of living are especially vulnerable to systemic political corruption, which is a relatively common problem for many developing democracies. Patronage politics target the poor, the unemployed, the dispossessed and the socially dependent. Vote-buying schemes, for example, would presumably be less successful if aimed at the rich or educated. If politicians can secure votes by giving voters small gifts, they will have absolutely no reason to be accountable\u2014after the elections are over. Jayalalithaa of India used this practice very successfully. Thus, vote buying and poverty reinforce each, given the costs of mounting political campaigns, high levels of poverty also mean that only wealthy citizens can afford to run for office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s corruption index in relation to other countries since 2006 is given below (Transparency International)<\/span><\/p>\n

Year \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rank<\/span><\/p>\n

2006\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 94<\/span><\/p>\n

2008\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 92<\/span><\/p>\n

2009\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 97<\/span><\/p>\n

2010\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 91<\/span><\/p>\n

2011\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 86<\/span><\/p>\n

2012 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a079<\/span><\/p>\n

2013 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a091<\/span><\/p>\n

2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a085<\/span><\/p>\n

2015 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a083<\/span><\/p>\n

2016 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a095<\/span><\/p>\n

It is an irony that a government which came to power with optimistic looking promises out of which “yahapalanaya<\/a>” (good governance) was the guiding word of honor, has failed miserably to fulfill the people’s expectations. No government since the independence, 69 years ago have had corruption scandals of the magnitude happening now. As it is, by the end of the year; the ranking is likely to be over 100. Highest, since independence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The electoral system does not permit the educated and the candidates short of money to run for elections. Once elected the members of Parliament excluding a handful make amends for funds spent on elections. Luxurious houses; rather penthouses, luxury cars, higher salaries and other remuneration are customary. The word “people’s representative” become a misnomer.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is fortunate that media could not be gagged in recent times as in the past. As such, scandals have been exposed. This freedom is unlikely to last long.<\/span><\/p>\n

The judiciary was manipulated and its independence lost. Once there was a Chief Justice who promised a President that he would give verdicts according to President’s choice. There are methods and systems whereby filibustering happens at every level of the judiciary. Leaders of major political parties have understandings and scratch each other’s back. Thus the common man is deceived.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bureaucracy is totally subservient to the politician. They have a price for whatever they carry out as public service. Every decision has a value in money in different tiers. From the lowest office Peon to the Head of the Department in most instances have monetary value without which things will not move.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police and\u00a0Customs are two notorious Departments for corruption. It is only recently the IGP in public view showed his subservience to the Minister in charge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly the clergy is no second to any other corrupt segment. Only the other day the minister of education revealed the Dambulla cave temple ticket sales are 2 to 8 million rupees a day for which accounts have not been maintained. The offerings in the form of gifts are resold. Some priests are spreading racial hatred among different communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering all these facts Sri Lanka is one of the worst counties in the international perspective. It will not come out of the rut in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":157732,"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-180912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nSri Lanka's Fight Against Corruption - 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\/sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lanka's Fight Against Corruption - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-10T07:24:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-13T19:10:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Upali-Cooray.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Upali Cooray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Upali Cooray\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 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\/sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-fight-against-corruption\/\",\"name\":\"Sri Lanka's Fight Against Corruption - 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