Corruption comes in many shades and hues; no political party immune

FISHERIES, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar this week made some strong comments against corruption, stating that there will be no forgiveness for politicians who have engaged in bribery, fraud and looting of public assets.

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“They will never escape the clutches of the law,” Chandrasekar said while addressing the public during the inauguration ceremony of the Colombuthurai Jetty, Jaffna reconstruction project.

He added that the NPP is determined to eradicate bribery, corruption, and fraud in this country. “Those involved are now fearful. The judiciary has been granted full freedom, and there will be no political interference. There will be no escape for the corrupt,” he said.

The NPP came to power on a strong anti-corruption platform with promises to end corruption and punish wrongdoers. In the past year several former ministers, MPs as well as officials have been hauled up before courts over various allegations of corruption. There have been few indictments and convictions but in most of those cases the processes were started during the previous Governments. Words such as corruption and bribery can be easily thrown about but what constitutes corruption is not that straightforward. For many in the NPP, corruption only means the misappropriation of public funds and misuse of public resources but corruption runs much deeper and the JVP-led NPP is not immune from corruption.