Those who forget the past are destined to revisit it

SRI Lanka is a nation that remembers vividly — and forgets conveniently.

- By Faraz Shauketaly

We remember anniversaries. We remember betrayals. We remember the faces of leaders, the slogans of campaigns, the promises made beneath floodlights and temple flags.

But when it comes to institutional failure, when it comes to corruption allegations that shook the republic, when it comes to public money that evaporated into opaque transactions and grand announcements, our memory becomes selective.

The present administration under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake inherited not merely an economy in distress but a political culture fatigued by scandal. The people who voted for change were not only seeking price stability and debt restructuring. They were seeking moral correction. They were demanding that the era of impunity — whether perceived or proven — be confronted with clarity.

It is against that expectation that the present pace of accountability is being quietly measured.

The Central Bank Treasury Bond controversy remains a defining rupture in Sri Lanka's modern financial history. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry examined it extensively. It issued findings. It recommended action. Numbers were placed before the nation. Yet more than a decade on from the original events, the public still searches for unmistakable closure. Not commentary. Not press conferences. Closure.

Beyond that file lie others — heavier, older, politically complex. The long and costly trajectory of AirLanka and later SriLankan Airlines; the rise and collapse of Mihin Lanka; ambitious infrastructure projects such as Hambantota Port, Mattala Airport and the Uma Oya scheme; controversial procurement in oil, coal and power generation; vast state lands allocated under development narratives; defence and aviation acquisitions executed under successive administrations.