The Importance of Positivity for Sri Lanka

When it comes to Sri Lanka, I’ve noticed that it’s common for many of us Sri Lankans to be very

negative about the state of affairs in the country. I understand that it stems from legitimate issues

and grievances, but I personally don’t agree with this very negative attitude. In this article, I will give

my thoughts on why I think positivity is important for Sri Lanka.

Unfortunate Quick Dismissals

When a new project has come to the country, some people say that it isn’t good, that it’s making no

difference or making it worse. Other comments along those lines said are “we don’t need this”. There

are of course some projects that will not be of value or make the situation worse. It’s my perception

that we often jump to these conclusions at the start. I think it’s best to think it through before jumping

to a conclusion.

Sometimes, a certain project may not be an ideal solution, a necessity or live up to what’s promised,

but it does bring about an improvement thus it’s good that it has been brought forward. It’s also worth

noting that a project’s value often won’t be seen immediately, as people have to get used to the

change. In those cases, the success and value of a project can be best judged after several months

of operation.

Legal Flaws Shouldn’t Diminish Achievements

One negative comment often said is “what a joke”. It’s often used when someone is prosecuted for a

crime, to point out the fact that someone who committed a lighter crime got a heavy sentence

compared with a lighter sentence given to an offender of a more serious crime. In instances like

these, the allegation is most probably true and is unfortunate, but I don’t think it diminishes the

achievement of the prosecution. Sometimes, though it may not be a very serious offence, it might be

a new trend to see someone prosecuted for it or the frequency of such a prosecution. I don’t think

achievements like that should go unrecognised.

People Getting Written off Too Easily

There is a trend to write off a person because of something questionable that they did, even if they

were individuals who were viewed very highly prior to that incident. I do think that some individual’s

actions can have gone too far to the point that being critical of them makes sense. However, there

are many cases where I agree with the criticism, but think it's taking it too far to write them off for it

as the individual's actions do not discredit his or her good qualities and achievements.

Politics Isn’t All Bad

When it comes to politics, I don’t like the political culture, but don’t think everything a politician says

or does is a lie, corrupt, bad etc. I think there are more good politicians than perceived. I also think

that some politicians can be mixed, i.e. corrupt but also having some good qualities. I think that the

good and decent aspects of politics often get sidelined due to the strong focus on the negative

aspect of politics. Even in cases when a politician is performing better than many of his or her

colleagues, we often paint them with the same brush.

Politicians, despite some of their bad reputations are an essential part of government, and if you did

away with them, society would be worse off. The way forward is to speak out against the negative

aspect of politics and to encourage its positive aspects. It’s also worth noting that politicians aren’t

solely responsible for the negative aspects of Sri Lankan society. These negative aspects also stem

from businesses, institutions and individuals. These factors in society play a role in enabling

corruption, bribery and other ills associated with politics as some politicians may have been

influenced by them prior to entering politics.   

Value of Hope

I don’t agree with the view of there being no hope for Sri Lanka. That is a very defeatist way of

looking at the country. Even at times when I was most displeased with the state of affairs in Sri

Lanka where I had serious concerns about the future, I did not believe that to be the case. An aspect

of hope is wanting the country to do well, where you look for positive opportunities for Sri Lanka.

Without hope, the country cannot progress.

I think Sri Lanka will have ups and downs, with both good and bad things frequently occurring. We

have our different political and ideological views, so we will differ in assessment of our country both

at present and throughout its various stages. We may be more pessimistic and more optimistic at

times, but I believe hope is essential as it helps drive the country forward, especially during its most

difficult times.

Excess Negativity Strengthens the Problems

I think that excess negativity adds fuel to the fire of the problems facing Sri Lanka. Saying these very

negative remarks makes it more likely to happen. If we didn’t have such negativity in the past over

several decades and instead focused constructively on how to improve the country we might have

been able to be in a better state now with stronger anti-corruption efforts and thus a more productive

political culture. We also could have worked towards a stronger economy.

Conclusion

I’m not advocating complacency with the state of affairs in the country. I know there are serious

problems which are in need of fixing. We are going to get disappointed, frustrated, annoyed and

saddened by things that occur in Sri Lanka. I’m suggesting what I think is a way to feel better in the

face of the problems facing Sri Lankan society. I think that these very negative attitudes lead to us

ignoring and not seeing positive occurrences in Sri Lanka.

If you don’t feel comfortable thinking anything different about politics, I hope you’ll at least consider

thinking more positive about Sri Lanka. While one section of society (politicians) has been viewed

unfavourably due to a history of corruption, bribery, getting involved with violence etc, that doesn’t

mean that there aren’t good things done by other sectors of society. You can find good work done by

volunteers, civil society, NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations), entrepreneurs among others. I

encourage you to look out for for good things happening in Sri Lanka. Being more positive about the

country leads to us feeling better and can help take Sri Lanka further.

Tracking Sri Lankan Judicial Cases

The Sri Lankan judiciary isn’t known for being fast and effective, with major issues being the long delays of cases and lack of convictions. Many cases drag on for years. It is reported that the average time taken from committing a crime to its high court judgement is 10.2 years. As a result of these issues, I think there should be a trilingual website that holds the Sri Lankan judiciary to account using information in the public domain similar to Manthri.lk by Verité Research that holds Sri Lankan parliamentarians to account. Websites and web pages holding the Sri Lankan government to account, have been increasing this year. Examples of this include the page tracking Sri Lanka’s Open Government Partnership commitments by Transparency International Sri Lanka, the Food Tax Tracker by Advocata Institute, a page on Manthri.lk tracking parliamentary election promises and the website Budget Promises by Verité Research that tracks Sri Lanka’s annual budget promises. A similar website for the Sri Lankan judiciary would add to the growing trend of Sri Lankan websites holding the government to account. I’ll now go into my ideas of how the site could function.

This site would have pages to give details of public interest cases such as cases of bribery and corruption. These pages would give summaries of what has been happening on the case with a link to news articles on the Internet for each point. The summaries could be the accused summoned to an anti-corruption agency, arrested, released on bail, indicted, called to court etc. If it’s possible and not too expensive, there could be an artificial intelligence (AI) component that goes through news stories from a list of sites and then sends the links to the team behind the site. The AI component would send the site team the list of articles from news sites, and the team would go through those articles and put the article or articles that they think is best suited on the case page. The team could also not post a single story from the AI suggestions if they find the AI suggestions to not give valid stories and they also could add stories on their own account if important news about the case has been breaking, but the AI is not picking this information up.

In additional to pages on public interest cases, there would be pages that offer general statistics on Sri Lanka’s judicial system. Those interested in Sri Lanka’s judicial system who look at both pages on public interest cases and general statistics can see if there are improvements or if things are getting worse. This opens the possibility for a wide range of analysis and observations of Sri Lanka’s judicial system. Trends could be spotted such as if certain cases take longer or are less likely to secure a prosecution. This site could also show if a case is progressing at a faster pace than expected.

Those in the government may look at the site, especially people working on court cases, which could result in them making improvements to the judicial system from seeing problems of the system displayed in the site.

If you think you are capable of creating or being involved in such a website, I encourage you to work towards making this site a reality. It will give Sri Lankans important information on the state of the judiciary. People will be able to look up cases they have an interest in, find out important information about the state of the judiciary & draw conclusions and the site’s existence brings about the possibility of a better judicial system for Sri Lanka.

The Importance of Patience with Investigations

When Sri Lanka’s current President, Maithripala Sirisena was elected on the 8th of January 2015, one of the themes of his campaign was to stand against corruption. As a result, investigations into allegations of corruption and other criminal activities of the previous regime began shortly after he came in to power. I am aware that many Sri Lankans don’t have faith in these investigations. I too would have liked the investigations to be faster and more efficient, but I do notice progress and believe it is important to be patient in these investigations. I will explain why I believe they take time referring both to the complexity of the procedures and the obstacles that delay these investigations.

If anyone reading this isn't Sri Lankan or is unfamiliar with Sri Lankan politics, there is something I’d like to say about the previous government. I believe one of the problems of the previous government was nepotism. There were family members of Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa involved in government who include his brothers Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Defence Secretary), Basil Rajapaksa (Minister) & Chamal Rajapaksa (Minister and then Speaker) and his sons MP Namal Rajapaksa & former Navy officer Yoshitha Rajapaksa. I mention their names in order to inform readers of their connection to the Ex-President as they will be referred to in this post.

First of all, I’d like to point out that investigations of this nature take time. You can’t just use Presidential Powers to throw people that you suspect in jail. If you do that, you are resorting to the same tactics that the previous administration used, such as when they imprisoned 2010 Presidential Candidate Sarath Fonseka after his defeat. Doing that goes against the rules of justice. The work of these investigations is to be carried out by the organisations conducting them. Human rights lawyer and former executive director of Transparency International Sri Lanka J.C. Weliamuna spoke of this in the Sunday Observer: “There should not be any difference between the previous government and this government. They should not only take the last government to task but I am sure once this institution is well established, which is still happening, they will go into the complaints against this government, also financial investigations are not like investigating murders or any other crimes. It takes sometimes months and years. It is a very complex diligent procedure and they are taking that fairly seriously and I am satisfied of the way they are working and CID and FCID are functioning.” It’s interesting to note that he mentioned that the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) is still being established. That institution was founded a year ago. Further, Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne mentioned in a recent interview (dailymirror.lk) that he thinks “that nothing can be rushed and whatever the action that is needed to be taken should after conducting thorough investigations. Innocent people should be protected and only those who have infringed the law should be taken to task.”

We don’t know how true the government is to their word about these investigations being independent, but Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne stated in a YouTube excerpt of a speech he made last March that people ask him about the investigations, elaborating “I’ve always wondered why people are actually asking a politician that question because this is not the role of the politician, this is the role of law enforcement and then subsequently the role of the judiciary. But the fact that they walk up to you and ask that question is because of our long history of politicisation of institutions of government in this country and that’s precisely what we want to depoliticise so law enforcement authorities are free to act and also that the judiciary will be free to act in the way they see fit”.

I will now list two reasons why these investigations take time. Firstly, persons of the previous administration, especially those at the very top have been taking measures to cover themselves and also the work of their lawyers can prevent their arrests. I believe that the files had been destroyed in government offices last year just as the transition of power occurred. Secondly, a problem with Sri Lanka’s legal system is that issues are known to move quite slowly.  

One obstruction last year was Justice Jagath Balapatabendi who was appointed by the previous President as Chairman of the Bribery Commission. The then speaker Chamal Rajapaksa was reported to have invited and met with Justice Balapatabendi in the first half of 2015. It is possible that this meeting was for Chamal to uncover information about the investigations against members of his family & political party and/or influence the investigations in their favour. A few days after this incident a commissioner resigned for “personal reasons” implying it was due to Justice Balapatabendi. This information was obtained from an article by Dr. A.C. Visvalingam. Justice Balapatabendi did eventually leave his office likely by resignation as he was replaced last October by Justice Titus Bodhipala Weerasuriya. His replacement should hopefully have improved these investigations. Like Justice Balapatabendi, the previous Attorney General Yuwanjana Wijayathilaka was appointed by the Ex-President and appears to still be loyal to him. He finished his term in January and the new Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya was appointed this month. I hope Jayantha will improve the efficiency of the Attorney General’s department.

There have been several incidents of politicians and their associates being summoned (often repeatedly) to record statements over their allegations. People being summed include Mahinda Rajapaksa, his wife Shiranthi Rajapaksa, their son MP Namal Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Ex-Minister Wimal Weerawansa, former Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, former Provincial Minister Udaya Gammanpila, previous Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal among others. I know these persons have not been charged yet, but the fact that many people have been summoned and some of them repeatedly shows those behind the investigations are working hard at it.  

I have seen some progress on the investigations and will now list some arrests that occurred last year.

• In March, MP and former Deputy Minister Sarana Gunawardana was arrested over a breach of trust & a financial fraud.
• In April, Ex-Minister Basil Rajapaksa was arrested along with two other personnel relating to the ‘Public Property Act’.
• In May, former MP Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was arrested on allegations of misusing vehicles that were property of the Presidential Secretariat & also Former Minister Johnston Fernando was arrested on allegations of misappropriations he conducted at Government owned business Sathosa.
• In December, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nalaka Godahewa was arrested along with two others over an allegation of a financial irregularity said to have taken place at SEC. 

Fast forward to 2016, where last month Yoshitha Rajapaksa was arrested over alleged financial irregularities conducted at his television station Carlton Sports Network (CSN).

I am aware that almost all of these persons have got bail soon after and released, but these are the first steps taken in the justice process. It’s important to note that in December, Basil and Kingsley Ranawaka (one of the other two arrested with him last April) were called to appear in the Colombo High Court on the 10th of March which is less than a month away.  

This is my take on the situation. It is true that matters have proceeded slowly, but there have been some arrests, which I see as an important step in the process. I hope that the trials for those arrested won’t take a long time to begin and that those guilty of offences will be brought to justice.