I refer to an article published in the Opinion section of a daily newspaper of June 18, 2018 on the above subject in which the author Edward Gunawardena raised the above question. Fortunately, in his article Mr. Gunawardena has kindly given the answers to the question from which it will be seen that it is not the voters but the political party fielding the candidates that prefer corrupt candidates ‘who have deep pockets’.
I quote below the relevant three sentences from Mr. Gunawardena’s article.
(a) “a key factor motivating parties to select candidates with serious criminal records comes down to cold, hard cash”.
(b) “Parties prefer self-financing candidates who do not drain on the party coffers, but instead contribute “rents” to the Party”.
(c) “Many parties are like personal fiefs run by dominant personalities, lacking inner-party democracy, conditions which help opportunistic candidates with deep pockets”.
From the above, it is obvious that the decision makers of political parties, are the people who select candidates, who have money. Now, what does that mean? It means, if you want to be a hot candidate for a party, you either accumulate wealth (by hook or by crook), or take loans to spend for the elections with an idea to recover the expenditure, again, (by hook or by crook), after the election.
So, either way in the political party system, the leaders are encouraging corruption in the front end (before the elections) or after they have been elected by robbing the State to pay off debts!
That is why I consider that if you are genuinely interested in eliminating corruption in politics, the time has come to introduce some minimum legislation such as:
(a) prior declaration of Assets and Liabilities of all candidates by Affidavit to gain eligibility to contest.
(b) minimum educational qualifications of at least three passes at the A/L to be elected as an M.P. or Provincial Councillor.
(c ) free of any convictions for crimes under the Penal Code, free of any conviction, subject to appeal in any Court of Law.
Now, let us turn to the dilemma that we as innocent voters would be faced with when it comes to the next General Elections in about 18 months or earlier.
It is almost certain that most of the 225 M.Ps in Parliament today will be contesting the forthcoming General Elections, because, being an MP, among other things guarantees a good source of both legal and illegal earnings, not to mention perks such as Duty Free Licences with freedom to sell the Licence overnight for millions of rupees.
The problem of the innocent voters is: shall we or shall we not vote for a present MP, who re-contests as they are, in addition to some of the MPs who have already confessed that they did receive funds from Perpetual Treasuries.
There are other MPs who declared that they have not received or taken any funds from Perpetuals - but no one has sworn an Affidavit though.
Up to this day not a single MP has forwarded a legally executed sworn Affidavit acceptable in a court of law declaring his innocence. Therefore, such a lapse would leave innocent voters with only one choice,i.e to assume that unless and until every MP submits that Affidavit, he will remain a suspect.
Also, any decent political party fielding such a candidate will also be suspect.
No doubt, parties such as the Citizens Movement, the Just Society and other social activists will get on the streets and appeal to the public to refrain from casting their votes when such ‘suspect” persons try to contest at future elections.
On the other hand, any one of the 225 present MPs who claims to be innocent should have no qualms about swearing his/her innocence in a legally valid Affidavit.
None in this country today would deny that corruption has become a way of life like a corrosive substance that is no longer confined to Parliament, the public sector, or the private sector, but its tentacles have quietly invaded our courts of law, prisons, hospitals, police stations, schools, universities, places of worship, Daham Pasalas, Sunday schools, Madrasas, and homes. Need I say more, except that isn’t it time that we take concrete steps to put a stop to this cancer and start cleaning the Augean Stables, beginning from Parliament and going downwards with a policy of Zero Tolerance?
I know this may be an optimistic endeavour, but, unless we start at some point, and that too without a compromise, we will never get anywhere, especially when there is a very strong incentive to join the corrupt.
R.T.De Costa