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by Geoff Wijesinghe

The Oxford Dictionary defines bribe as to dishonestly persuade someone to act in one's favour by a payment or other inducements.

An extortionist is a person who obtains by force, threats or other unfair means. Bribe takers and extortionists are very common in this country, so common that society has come to accept them as part of our normal lives. Having read the Oxford definition of "bribe" and "extortion", I find that very often we mistakenly describe extortionists as bribe takers.

The expression that such and such a place is full of "bribe takers" is not quite accurate. Most of them come within the definition of extortionists.

I have been the victim of many an extortionist. When I was working as a reporter in the "Ceylon Daily Mirror" in the 1960s where I began my career as a journalist. I found that my features cheque was getting unusually delayed. When I mentioned this to some of my colleagues, they enlightened me with the fact that I had to give 15 per cent of the value of my cheque to the clerk handling payments.

I then went upto him and said, "Look, Mr. .... I was not aware of the system. How should I make your payment?" The man who was pushing around fifty replied, "my right hand drawer is always open. Just drop the money into it and go. I will see your cheque comes in time." And so it did.

It never occurred to him that he was committing an unpardonable crime. This was a clear case of extortion.

He sought and received about more than three times his salary by way of extortion of journalists from both the "Daily Mirror" and the "Evening Times". When I was doing the press liaison for the CWE in the early 1970s and receiving a monthly retainer of Rs. 500, I ran into a den of extortionists. At the outset, I had to give only the peon a payment. But, later this was forcibly extended to the payment clerk and the chief clerk.

On occasions I had even to stand them a booze at the Hotel De Universe at the Darley Road and Union Place Junction, which is now known as Hotel Galaxy. I finally found that I was spending around Rs. 200 of the CWE payment on these unscrupulous sharks.

When we were living in an upstairs flat at Mount Lavinia, the flow of water was so weak that it did not reach the water tank above. So I had to go to the NWS and DB office next to the Zoo at Dehiwela and make a payment of Rs. 200 for a bowzer of water, for which I was given a receipt.

When the bowzer arrived, there were usually from six to 10 men perched on it. And they refused to pump water into the tank without my paying them sums ranging from Rs. 400 to 600, depending on the size of the gang. This was blatant extortion.

Then, when I had my telephone installed, it was very often out of order due to my line operating on a "spey", a shared service with my neighbour due to a paucity of telephone lines. After recording the breakdown in the Complaint Register at the Mt. Lavinia Regional Manager's Office at the top of Hotel Road. I had to plead with the labour supervisor to send some men to repair the telephone line.

Here too, the size of the "repair gang" increased progressively and each time I had to cough up money and sometimes had to give them a bottle of arrack. They knew they were on to a good thing and I had a strong suspicion that they had a linesman and his cohorts had a hand in the increasing number of breakdowns. So deciding that the matter was getting well out of control, I hit upon a solution. I got the linesman responsible for the area and said that I would pay him Rs. 200 regularly to maintain my line.

When I began my career as editor-in-chief of the National News Agency Lankapuvath in 1985, I was paid by the ministry by cheque. It was the same old story here and the line of extortion kept extending until the news agency began paying my salary direct.

I found that a few personnel had formed a ring and the funds for the evening booze at a popular Fort pub was obtained through extortion and even the theft of miscellaneous items such as photocopy paper.

In another glaring instance of extortion of which I was the victim, one morning I got the shock of my life when I found I had been over billed by as much as Rs. 13,000 by the Ceylon Electricity Board. After being sent from pillar to post for a couple of weeks. I finally located the unit responsible for handling my bills.

After an investigation, the clerk who was responsible for the over billing traced the error. To add insult to injury, he demanded that he be compensated adequately for the great effort he made in tracing his own error, which caused me heartburns and inconvenience. Think of the cheek of it. However, fearing that the chap would tinker with my future bills, I gave him a shirt, which cost Rs. 350.

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