“In this gloom and despair and sparks of integrity and good citizenship, we at TISL firmly believe that the human spirit is alive and there are many courageous people out there – invisible and unrecognized. We also believe that for courage to spark, ignite and spread we need role models who demonstrate by doing the seemingly impossible”, said TISL Executive Director, Dr Wijaya Jayatilaka in his welcome speech at the NIA 2011 presentation.
The full text reads:
“Our honoured and esteemed chief guest Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, our special guest Ms. Sithara Shreen our guest of honor Mr. J.C. Weliamuna, your excellencies, members of the TISL Board of Directors, founders and members of TISL, public officials, NIA winners from previous years, representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations, all invitees friends and my fellow team mates from TISL. The common thread that binds us all together is our concern and commitment to strengthen integrity at all levels of governance, all sectors that touch our lives and those of our fellow countrymen. A hearty welcome to the 8th TISL National Integrity Awards 2011, in commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day held annually on 9th December.
My task is twofold, while extending a very warm welcome to all of you, first, to briefly review the corruption landscape for the year 2011, under which TISL and other organizations focusing on Anti-Corruption and Integrity (ACI) have worked, second to place in perspective the National Integrity Awards program.
In retrospect the last 12 months, since we met here at Mihilaka Medura to celebrate the 7th NIA on 9th December 2010, 2011 has been another year of many disappointments where our leaders and those in political, economic and social power have not lived up to people’s expectations of “goodness”.
Our political leaders and those around them have continued to demonstrate scant regard to public opinion, logic and have neither respected nor safeguarded to the optimum the basic principles of democracy and decency, with few exemptions. However, thanks to the undying human spirit, we have had flickers of hope and inspiration too.
On 4th February we celebrated national independence with much pomp and ceremony. An opportunity that was lost again for reconciliation, inclusion and engaging the marginalized. Independence from dependency, corruption and the influence of power elites, one would wonder? We have a long way to go.
The year had three elections for local authorities – 17th March, 23rd July & 8th October. If the frequency of elections is an indicator of robustness of democracy, then we have reason to celebrate, but it is not the case. As expected the ruling party swept the boards in the “south”. We have seen the shameless use of the entire state apparatus and media in favour of the ruling regime (but not a new phenomenon at all, with each successive elected government the situation gets worst). However there were sounds of the nightingale in the middle of the darkness, so to say. The outcomes in the north and east, the women’s performance in the central province challenging police and the party elites, election of Muslim women in the Central and Eastern provinces are to be noted. The stories behind these seemingly small successes are outcomes of tenacity, perseverance, consistency and long term commitments. Things can be changed.
4th of March: A special day, the Jaffna Music festival commenced, a purely civil society initiative, in spite of the military trimmings it was truly a breath of fresh air in an otherwise parched landscape.
July – A bill was tabled in parliament to ensure the right to information, a basic frame condition that ensures democratic citizen engagement. However, our trusted parliamentarians thought we do not deserve a RTI law.
August – The government allowed the expiry of the state emergency laws which have been in place for most of the past 40 years.
Other noteworthy incidents – grease devils running amok, acquisition of underperforming companies, military inroads to civilian social and economic activities, continuity of the LLRC sittings, and of course much hyped bid for the Commonwealth Games at a cost of over Rs. 910. Mil. This is the cost of four pediatric cancer wards. A cynic will say – “you guys got your priorities right”.
From more overt coercion and direct violence we move to covert coercion, political might and bulldozing, imposed self censorship for self preservation as the norm of the day.
The National Integrity Systems Study (NIS) of Transparency International, for Sri Lanka, where 13 components of the governance system were reviewed, revealed a bleak situation. Capacity, governance and role were assessed and the assessments ranged from very weak to moderate.
After seven decades of Sri Lankans heading governance there is much to improve. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) quantifies Sri Lanka’s status of perceived corruption at 3.3 on a scale of 0 to 10 with the New Zealand, Finland, Denmark as the cleanest and North Korea & Somalia perceived as most corrupt. Sri Lanka having a score of less than 5 has reason to worry and take action. A lesson could be learnt from Malaysia which has a relatively better CPI, yet less than 5, where the prime minister has initiated a program to improve on their CPI.
On the Global Corruption Barometer where public perception is assessed, in Sri Lanka, nearly one fourth of the people are estimated to be paying bribes. The political parties and the police are perceived to be highly corrupt, bribes are paid mostly in transactions related to tax, land and dealing with the police, simply to expedite matters or as the commonly done thing.
However over 75 % felt that they could support another who may fight corruption and get personally involved or make a complaint, over 80% also had faith in government officials to change the situation. Now there is hope and with some inspiration and collective action the evidence shows that things can be moved around.
What could ignite this potential?
Ladies and gentlemen on 5th of July Kumar Sangakkara delivered the 2011 Cowdrey Lecture at Lords England. It was a spark of a moment in time that inspired and gave hope to people. Eloquent and bold, he brought out in a very balanced and diplomatic manner what was troubling in the sport that many millions love. To quote, he said,
“I strongly believe that we have reached a critical juncture in the game’s history and that unless we better sustain Test cricket, embrace technology enthusiastically, protect the game’s global governance from narrow self-interest, and more aggressively root out corruption then cricket will face an uncertain future”.
The reaction of those who are responsible for the sorry state of affairs is less than comical. But he demonstrated that one can be outspoken and show contempt to what we despise – corruption. He still plays good cricket, continues to be popular and is respected more.
To what Kumar Sangakkara gave as an insight, Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera, Chairman of the Parliamentary committee COPE has given an avalanche of disturbing evidence. Estimated at Rs. 3.3 million the sports authorities end up paying Rs. 7.18 billion to complete sports grounds. While not paying sports persons a sum of Rs 500 million the authority pays Rs. 100 million as legal fees. (They sure got their priorities right!!) The COPE report was placed in public domain on 1st December, it is good medicine for mass complacency.
Something wonderful happened when Sarinda Unambuwa, an employee of MAS Holdings from the south, decided to enact a pledge he made that “if Sri Lanka had peace, he would walk from Dondra to Jaffna” A noble social purpose added on a personal pledge evolved. Thus on 1st of July – a 27 day walk was initiated to raise $2 million (Rs. 220 million) towards the construction of a Pediatric Cancer Ward in the Jaffna General Hospital. As of today, close to half the money has been raised. A single mans initiative grew to a project where normal people hear and abroad supported, participated and contributed.
We have been fortunate to have issue based positions espoused on good governance by the Friday Forum facilitated by our chief guest, sharing with a wider audience concerns and propositions as solutions to pressing contemporary challenges the country faces, bold and enlightening.
Further, we have citizens websites and many engaged bloggers (perhaps the last frontier for social communication in Sri Lanka?) engaging, educating inspiring and provoking….
In this social landscape, keeping hope alive, hope of change for goodness of people in positions of power and influence, is what keeps us moving forward. Either the people who fall short of our expectations should change or new people must take over. Do we have a right to change things? Either way people deserve a better deal.
In this gloom and despair and sparks of integrity and good citizenship, we at TISL firmly believe that the human spirit is alive and there are many courageous people out there – invisible and unrecognized.
We also believe that for courage to spark, ignite and spread we need role models who demonstrate by doing the seemingly impossible.
We gather here to know the results of the 2011 NI Award process, to appreciate, to be inspired and to resolve to do better as persons promoting integrity and fighting corruption.
A very warm welcome to all, your presence inspires us at TISL and many thousands of others associated with the NIA program where we identify, recognize and appreciate the untiring and challenging efforts of our people fighting corruption and or strengthening integrity, a grave need of the hour.