An article “Sri Lanka one of the most corrupt nations in the world:” (http://www.lankastandard. com/2011/10), ends with the following light hearted story, which will undoubtedly resonate in various ways with Guyanese. It tells of a retired Sri Lankan government official who is sent to hell, most likely for bribery and corruption, and finds that there is a different hell for each country.
He goes to the German hell and asks, “What do they do here?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day.” The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on. He checks out the USA hell, the Russian hell and many more but discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell. Then he comes to the Sri Lankan hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Sri Lankan devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day.” “But that is exactly the same as all the other hells – why are there so many people waiting to get in?” “Because maintenance is so bad that the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails from the bed, and the devil is a former Government servant, so he comes in, signs the register and then goes to the canteen!”
The moral of the story, we are told, is that one has to be in hell to appreciate the value of the Sri Lankan way of doing things!
But perhaps Guyanese should put the writer’s contention that Sri Lanka is among the most corrupt countries in the world into some kind of perspective. Of 175 countries in Transparency International 2014 Corruption Index, Sri Lanka is rated 85th and the population has an average life expectancy of 74.57 years. Guyana is rated 124th with an average life expectancy of 69.2 years, and for regional comparison, Barbados, the best in the region, is rated 17th and has an average life expectancy of 76.4 years.
In 2014 Sri Lanka had a population of about 21.9 million: Sinhalese 73.8; Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%; Indian Tamil 4.6%; Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%; other 0.5%; unspecified 10%. In terms of political allegiance, perhaps language offers a better guide. Sinhala, the official and national language, is used by 74% and Tamil, also a national language, by 18% (CIA Factbook).
Like Guyana, Sri Lanka has been classed a bi-communal society, but with some 74% of the population and also because the Tamil population are largely localized in the north and east of the country, the Sinhalese have much less reason to feel ethnic insecurity than, for example, the East Indians of Guyana, where, according to the 2002 census, the population breakdown is as follows: East Indian 43.5%; African 30.2%; mixed 16.7%; Amerindian 9.1%; other 0.5% (ibid).
I have argued (“Sri Lanka/Guyana tenacious ethnic problems:” SN: 27/11/2013) that the Tamil’s quarrel with the Sri Lankan government is complex and, not unlike ours, has its roots in ethnic suspicions. Apart from accusations of corruption, there is nothing that the regime in Sri Lanka has been accused of over the last decade or so that the Guyana government has not been similarly accused of.
Like its Guyanese counterpart, the Sri Lankan regime has been accused of marginalization of the Tamils. In 2009, the civil war ended with total defeat of the Tamil Tigers, who lost some 20,000 fighters, and United Nations estimated that some 100,000 people lost their lives in the course of debacle. Many persons still cannot be accounted for and the regime refused to allow a proper international inquiry into the human rights abuses that took place or to put in place adequate reconciliation measures that will help to demilitarize and give greater autonomy to Tamil areas.
The regime has also been accused of using the police for its own purposes, suppressing information and media abuse, particularly of using the state media for its own political ends. Nepotism has also been said to be rife: the former president had three brothers who were ministers in the government and his son and heir apparent, is a member of parliament who formed and runs a powerful youth group. Former president Mahinda Rajapakse even changed the constitution so that he could run for a third term.
All the above factors contributed to the defeat of Mahinda Rajapakse in last Thursday’s presidential elections but, notwithstanding this environment, when he called the elections in November 2014, two years before they were constitutionally due, it appeared that he and his party would win easily.
But then his health minister, Maithripala Sirisena , also a Sinhala and former general secretary of his party and an acting defense minister in the final days of the civil war with the Tamils, left the ruling party and was able to form a broad alliance, the New Democratic Front, that gained the overwhelming support of the minorities, including the Tamils, and so won the elections.
In my view an important pillar of Sirisena’s victory was the nature of his campaign strategy, which presented him as the special purpose mechanism to deal quickly with what the population viewed as the more severe abuses of the regime and to return to parliamentary elections in three months.
The details of “Maithri’s 100 days Sprint,” is as follows: 11 January – national government, new cabinet and appointment of prime minister; 12 January – national advisory council on constitutional reform to be established; 19 January – repeal of 18th amendment to the constitution (which allowed the president to run for a third term); 19th amendment to restore independent commissions enacted; 28 January – new interim budget to be presented: 18 February – appointments made to independent commissions; 20 February – Right to Information Bill to be presented and passed in 3 weeks; 20 April – constitutional changes; parliamentary system to replace presidential system; 23 April – parliamentary elections held under caretaker government.
Guyanese are committed to a process of constitutional change that does not allow for such a quick fix, and conditions here will certainly require different remedies. But one lesson from the Sri Lankan experience is that if the political opposition is able to present the electorate with a sensible political alliance and leadership and a properly crafted programme, seemingly impossible odds can be turned to victory.
henryjeffrey@yahoo.com
