CORRUPTION WATCH?

Strange, that no journalistic organizations, or normally exuberant media watchers have nothing to say about the excellent journalistic efforts of the media community – sections of which – fearlessly put out the word on the malpractice and integrity issues relating to the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Shirani Bandaranayake. Today, it’s settled that these are serious integrity problems, that struck at the core of the very legitimacy of judicial institutions.

Former head of the Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC), Nihal Sri Amarasekera, a corruption vigilante with a sterling and neutral record of exposes of graft and corruption, said that he will be proud that Sri Lanka, as per UN conventions on corruption, impeached her Chief Justice.

Correct, the impeachment is not yet a fait accompli, but he is speaking about the fact that the Parliamentary Select Committee which investigated charges against the CJ, found her guilty on three charges. She stands to be impeached, as a result, though this is eventually upto the Legislature.

It is the media, a miniscule section of it, however, which relentlessly pursued the issue, and put the charges against the CJ and the background and the ramifications in the public spotlight. It is this reportage which coupled with the reportage of independent analyses of knowledgeable people such as Nihal Sri Amaraskera, which enabled the public to understand that there have been legitimate concerns about the integrity of the apex judicial officer of the country.

It was extremely important that the people be in the know, so to say. In the face of a grossly partisan politically motivated campaign to sweep the integrity issues concerning the CJ under the carpet, it was the newspapers, sections of them of course, that relentlessly pursued the issue on blinking accounts, the Golden Key transactions while on the Bench, etc. etc., and fleshed out the details that constituted act of misbehaviour.

As Nihal Sri Amarasekera says, he will be proud to say at world anti-corruption forums that Sri Lanka impeached her Chief Justice. It is not easy to dislodge a person of the high stature of the Chief Justice of a country.

In simple terms, these are powerful people holding powerful office, and therefore, there was a need for relentless and fearless pursuit of the details of the charges.

Media, or sections of it, discharged this responsibility, amid warnings of being dragged to court, and amid continuing black-coat threats of being pilloried in court, for the ‘wrongdoing’ of acquainting the masses of the facts.

This should normally be award winning journalism, but what is curious is that watchdogs and journalism pundits have not made any observations about the pliant attitude of the majority of the local press, that said nothing about these charges.

Certainly, those who did put out the details of corruption and malpractice in the spotlight, need no special kudos. They do not need awards; they did what they did for the public good, so that matter can be laid to rest. But, what is curious is why the rest of the national media, which pays so much lip service to the notion of the watchdog function of exposing corruption, went numb and silent regarding one of the cases of malpractice about which people desperately needed to be informed.

When the President met newspaper editors at a breakfast meeting, his ministers divulged the fact that the Chief Justice had been given a whopping discount for a house that she purchased from the Ceylinco group of companies, whose case she was hearing. The President said this too.

There was absolutely no problem reporting this fact, and if the media felt it necessary, the needed fact-checks should have been carried out. Besides, if the President said it, the President having legal immunity, the press was beholden to report this fact, because here was the Executive President of the country, making a responsible charge and the people needed to know.

But strangely again, the media kept a studied radio silence, NOT ONE WORD, except from this and a few other newspapers that can be counted on half the fingers of one hand. The pathetic silence of the media, no matter what their political policy and political affiliations, on one of the significant malpractice and corruption cases involving a top official of the country, will go down in history as a blackmark against a pliant gutless and indeed hypocritical media, alas, that pays lip service to corruption busting, but has no gumption to do what it takes when it comes to the crunch.