Ramifications of Corruption and Their Impact on Human Rights
Full Text of Kanchana Abhayapala Memorial lecture
by JC Weliamuna
Venerable Sirs, Religious Dignitories of other faiths, Chairperson, Excellencies, Hon. Judges, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen
As you know, Kanchana Abhayapala Memorial lecture is held in honour of a distinguished young colleague who was senselessly assassinated during one of the darkest periods of our recent history.
Now, at a time when civil liberties are curtailed once again, in the name of patriotism, we are reminded of Kanchana’s quiet life, his courage and commitment to protect and realize human rights and dignity, even in the gloomy periods of our history. This evening, we commemorate his courage and commitment to abiding values – even though we realize that the collective conscience of a nation can collapse at any time unless each one of us take on to our shoulders the responsibility to protect values. This reminds me of the famous saying: "The moral leadership of the world has been entrusted to us; the fate of humanity is in our hands, the world looks to us for survival”.
When I was invited, quite suddenly, to deliver this memorial oration, I had the liberty to select any topic, relevant to human rights.
It is indeed a privilege to be with you today, not merely to deliver a lecture to commemorate a young human rights defender but to address you on a topic that would have, without doubt, been close to the heart of Kanchana. I know for sure, if Kanchana was among the living, he and I would be together in the fight against corruption and gross human rights abuses in Sri Lanka; probably the anti-corruption discourse would be much stronger.
Human rights, governance and corruption are topics that have now been fairly well researched. We no longer have the luxury of artificially separating the human rights from other social discourses; nor can we undervalue the multi-dimensional contributions that shaped the human rights discourse at large. Human rights regime does not operate in a vacuum and one cannot draw an assumption that human rights will find its legitimate space in a society because it is influenced by various other external factors such as corruption.
In that context you would no doubt agree with me that the topic I have chosen is a complex one and certainly not a topic that can be fully dealt with in one oration. [click here to read the full text of speech – Adobe format] – [MS Word format]
2 Comments
A very comprehensive analysis of the definition and ramifications of Corruption. It undermines the very soul of this nation and prevents its progress and development. Yet so insidious that it can hide behind expressions such as Patriotism and Nationalism. The difference is in only the intepretation of the word and what is good and bad for the nation.
Human rights must be at the very core of the governance, and it is a good time to look at the practices that have led to the sky high food prices making life unliveable to the poor right now.
The causes do not have entirely within state boundaries as we have seen in the climate debate, as carbon dioxide and other chemicals oozing out to the stratosphere is making earth unliveable in many parts.
We have gone through many decades of forced asterity measures by the esteemed and learned men of the IMF and world bank etc to make our economies viable making the food prices are no longer in the control of government.
Government assets have been sold off systematically and poor have been robbed of their livelihoods sustenance in the form of ration books etc. while bankers, privatisation advisers, hedge funds, Enron, World com, Bernard Madoff, Galleon and their equivalents here Sakvithi, Lalith, Riverside were making hay.
Newspapers owned by the same super rich manipulate and stifle the public opinion and terrorist attacks on small countries Equitorial New Gunea to Sri Lanka have been subjected to cold calculated attacks. The ramifications and the effects that are forced on poor countries, in their governance pattern, the enforced need to rely on a stronger and stronger armed forces to maintain even a very basic mode of living need a very detailed analysis by unbiased intellectuals in each country.