Daily News
“Evidently an urgent need has arisen for us to join hands to combat corruption that is raging our society and stifling the development”, says Attorney General President’s Counsel Mohan Peiris. Addressing the Global Forum VI on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity, held in Doha, Qatar recently, he said that bribery and corruption are features that every government in history has had to take note of and treat with serious concern.
He emphasised that corruption is the use or abuse of entrusted power with the intent to obtain private gain or gratification, either for one’s self or for a friend or relative. This may include a failure or refusal to act when such action is necessary or appropriate, or including another party to take improper action. Corruption is not limited to bribery or other exchanges of value, but it forms a pivotal backbone upon which the whole concept of the abuse of power is made vehemently clear. The initiator is not the only guilty party, anyone who knowingly or willingly participates in a corrupt act is as guilty of corruption.
World literature is full of references to corruption raging from the ancient clay tablets of Assyria four thousand years ago to the most recent literature. As far back as 1400 BC, the Holy Bible states that Moses indicated. “You must not accept bribes for a bribe blinds the eye of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are right.” The dramatists Beaumont and Fletcher likened corruption to a tree. Once it takes root “its branches are an immeasurable length and spread everywhere”.
He stressed: “There is no doubt that bribery and corruption undermines human development and transition to stable democratic rule. It creates illegitimate regimes as corporations bid for contracts by bribing.”