Is the NPP as clean as being claimed?

No party can accuse the JVP as an entity to be corrupt. However, the chest-thumping by leaders of the NPP that no member of their party has any tendency to involve in corruption and waste is only a boastful conviction

The United Republic Front (URF) led by former Minister Champika Ranawaka has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission on April 2, against President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, over a purported statement made by the latter at an election rally in Weligama.

The URF in its complaint quoted the President as having said in that rally that the funds from the central government would be released only to the local councils that are run by untainted groups of people and that only the groups led by the National People’s Power (NPP) could be deemed to be so high-minded.

Interpreting this purported statement, the URF Vice Chairman, Theekshana Gammanpila, has argued in his complaint that President was to decide as to which councils are to be provided with development aid from the central government which was an undue influence on the voters at a time when they are preparing to vote at the forthcoming local government elections on May 6. 

However, the said statement by the President in the relevant YouTube video is somewhat different where he states that issuing central government funds to the councils won by the NPP would not be a problem whereas funds would have to be released to the other councils after a thorough scrutiny. 

Gammanpila contends that the President by this statement has insinuated that except for those of the NPP, members yet to be elected to the councils at the upcoming elections would be corrupt. 

Yet, Dissanayake is not the first President to make such a statement on the eve of Provincial council elections or local government elections. Many past Presidents have threatened not to support the local councils run by the parties other than theirs. However, those statements have had no much bearing on the decisions of the voters as factors such as the bonds with the candidates and pre-determined party affiliations take precedence over such statements.   

Nevertheless, the statement made by the President clashes with another statement he made at the same rally. He explained how funding for the development projects planned by the local councils is made. Those plans have to be presented to the District Coordinating Committees where their validity and feasibility is studied before funding requests are made. In this process, there are no different approval criteria for the plans submitted by the councils run by the NPP and others. 

The president’s statement probably would not be an undue influence on the voter as he did not deny fund allocations for the councils run by the opposition parties. However, it indicates some sort of selectivity against those councils which only the election commission can rule on. 

The claims made by the President and the leaders of the NPP and its core party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) that the government has stopped corruption and waste at the highest level of the President and the Parliament is irrefutable, at least for now.  However, possible untainted independent groups contesting at the forthcoming election is also similarly possible. All other political parties that have ruled the country – directly or indirectly - in the past have either been involved in corrupt practices or defended them. 

Former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, though not in power now, is living with his wife in a 30,000 square feet state-owned house worth Rs. 3500 million, in an unassessed one-acre property in Colombo. When President Dissanayake publicly requested him to hand over that house and property to the state, all political parties, except a few, objected to it, indicating their attitude towards corruption and waste of public funds.  

Similarly, almost all parties except the JVP, NPP and the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) stood with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe when the Batalanda torture chamber issue, which he has been accused of came up last month. That is how those parties look at human rights issues. 

However, JVP or the NPP are not entities that have emerged out of nowhere. Most of the members of the JVP, more specifically the NPP have been the members or at least sympathisers of other parties in the past. If they can change themselves, there may be more members in those parties who tend to change. Such people might have tendered nominations as well for the May 6 elections. Therefore, the claim by the JVP and the NPP that all others except for them are tainted is not correct. 

No party can accuse the JVP as an entity to be corrupt. However, the chest-thumping by leaders of the NPP that no member of their party has any tendency to involve in corruption and waste is only a boastful conviction. For instance, Wimal Weerawansa who was the public face of the JVP before his defection to the Rajapaksa camp in 2008 was accused of various corrupt practices later. 

The best case in point the JVP leaders present to the country to validate their political righteousness is the incident involving former parliamentarian of their party, Anuruddha Polgampola. The MP who was elected to Parliament on UPFA ticket in 2004 had accompanied a man to Japan where the latter disappeared. Despite this being not known to outsiders, the JVP sacked the MP from the party. 

Similarly, in the recent episode involving Asoka Ranwala, the JVP made him resign as the Speaker when he failed to prove the doctorate he had tagged with his name. There are former JVP members who have never been accused of corruption before they were sacked or left the party over theoretical differences or behavioural issues, but they have now joined with corrupt leaders of other parties.  

The NPP government have failed so far to address many issues faced by the people, despite maintaining the stability of the economy that was gained by strict conditions of the IMF. They also failed to take to task former corrupt politicians whose names were read out in Parliament recently and those who were exposed during the deliberations of the COPE, COPA and COPF. Yet, the politicians of the NPP have managed to be politically untainted so far. Does it mean that NPP MPs at all levels will be high-minded forever, as the NPP leaders claim now?

Dissanayake played it safe when he addressed this issue during the recent elections. He said though they were an ethical party, if someone among them is exposed to be unethical, he or she would be sacked right away.