Accountability is not petty: Response to Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Dayan claims that Ranil’s stabilisation of the economy outweighs the Rs. 16.6 million misuse. But this inverts ethics. If those who “saved” the nation are free to encroach on public funds, accountability is meaningless. Proportionality requires the opposite: that leaders embody restraint, modelling the very discipline they ask of citizens. Service cannot be turned into a shield against scrutiny

- By Dr. Jayalath Bandara Adikarige

Dayan accuses the NPP of hypocrisy: continuing Ranil’s IMF program while prosecuting Ranil himself. Yet the greater hypocrisy lies in excusing elite misconduct on grounds of past contribution. Service to the nation cannot be a licence to plunder it. This mindset entrenched Sri Lanka’s political decay.

Global standards of accountability

Dayan warns that Ranil’s prosecution is Caesar crossing the Rubicon — the end of a republic. Yet history suggests the opposite: it is refusal to prosecute elites that corrodes republics.

Consider the United Kingdom. Boris Johnson worked hard during the pandemic, yet his flouting of COVID rules made him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office. He paid a fine and resigned under pressure². His downfall was not petty but principled: rules applied at the top.

In Hong Kong, senior officials were forced to resign for attending a birthday banquet that violated pandemic restrictions³. In Scotland, MP Margaret Ferrier was criminally convicted and suspended for breaching travel rules⁴. These were not vindictive excesses but essential signals that public trust requires accountability.

Ethics and proportionality

Dayan claims that Ranil’s stabilisation of the economy outweighs the Rs. 16.6 million misuse. But this inverts ethics. If those who “saved” the nation are free to encroach on public funds, accountability is meaningless. Proportionality requires the opposite: that leaders embody restraint, modeling the very discipline they ask of citizens. Service cannot be turned into a shield against scrutiny.

Courtesy without justice