The Great Betrayal – Anti Corruption Officials fired/depart/frustrated/unloved!

As if the Dilrukshi Dias Wickremasinghe saga is difficult to stomach and the media has already concluded upon the reasons, accurate or not, we must look into the insecurity, lack of certainty, pressures of office, lack of leadership, need for thorough investigation, lack of competent adequately compensated staff and resources, in prosecuting crimes, ON BEHALF THE PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA and not on a personal agenda of anyone in those various bodies entrusted with this task. 

An former anti-corruption public servant writing this, deserves close scrutiny, so that the ill informed reader is able to judge between public pronouncements, amplified or coated with the Media bias, and the likely scenario of what truly transpires inside an investigation, that is extremely difficult to conduct in a Country, where the truth was the first casualty for so long, and resurrecting something that was almost moribund is a herculean task.

The attached article in the FT by Lacille de Silva, who was the Secretary of PRESIFAC, and who was fired by the President with no explanation is worth reading to get a handle on the thankless task these Public Officials have been tasked with.

http://www.ft.lk/article/574064/Anti-corruption--A-winning-slogan--a-great-betrayal

It is quite clear that the President has NO clue on how investigations work, what information is needed, how they are corroborated and why some people seem to be summoned time and time again to give evidence, often sometimes to clear themselves, and NOT implicate them further. Reading the President's frustration, it is due to his lack of knowledge of how long drawn out proper investigations can take, and in his experience as PROPER investigations were never carried out, he thinks this is the same. ONLY when he is implicated with a crime, will he understand that the people investigating MUST be thorough, and for that it takes a long time.

It is to do with how the law of the land is carried out, which often may seem to the casual observer as being unfair or politically motivated, only because the high profile subjects are so high profile, that the investigators are more likely to be very careful in checking and double checking facts, thereby prolonging some, as compared with the average JOE who is hauled, charged convicted and jailed.

Doesn’t Ghotabaya Rajapakse realize that if he was GORA, the underworld thug in his administration, he would be arrested, white vanned, never heard of again, and later some part of his anatomy will discovered in a pit, and investigation suppressed. No wonder, when someone goes by the book, so that the evidence stands out in a Court of Law, one has to be thorough, a luxury HE NEVER EXTENDED TO HIS VICTIMS.

These Monday morning quarterbacks in the Media are actually part of the problem, and as they both don’t know the importance of the investigation, veracity with some information has to be acquired due to a culture of lies and obfuscation, it is difficult to carry on independent investigations, when the people who have actually given you the brief, end up questioning your very action! Its time for a MEDIA MEA CULPA to explain the procedures to the people in a YAHAPALANAYA, investigation  where one is innocent until proven guilty! 

Why is it so hard for them to do their job? Surely this is what the public expect. This is what the public demand, and in the end it is to safeguard democracy and UPHOLD the rule of law. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM.