The March 12 Movement urges all politicians not to miss the historic moment of declaring assets and liabilities and holding them accountable to the public.
In a statement, March 12 movement made this clear, explaining its position on the involvement of the names of several Sri Lankans in the Pandora papers.
The statement issued by the convener of the March 12 Movement, Rohana Hettiarachchi, further states:
Stories of various individuals who have amassed immense wealth by maintaining relationships with companies outside our country have resurfaced. That is through the Pandora papers, recently revealed by anti-corruption and anti-theft professionals in various parts of the world.
It is no exaggeration to say that the amount of information that has been made public on three previous occasions has increased the sadness and frustration of any citizen of any country. The March 12 movement is paying close attention to the mention of the names of Sri Lankan citizens in these papers, as well as to the just citizens of this country.
It is no secret that bribery and corruption as well as the accumulation of undisclosed wealth are common in this country with the introduction of the open economy in 1978. One of the most significant consequences was that in the face of that economic and social upheaval, some socially stigmatized people became the legislators and legislators of this country. The end result has been nothing but the displeasure of the citizens of this country with politics and politicians. At the same time, there is a growing tendency for individual political parties to make endless accusations against each other, not just the Pandora papers.
Although these allegations do not apply to all politicians, on the one hand they have seriously tarnished the social image of the country and politicians. On the other hand, public property is being plundered through the corrupt dealings of these politicians. While this situation cannot be changed by one course of action, there are several immediate steps that can be taken by the Hon. Members of Parliament to stop blaming each other if they oppose corruption and bribery.
- Public disclosure of their assets and liabilities. (We would like to thank several members of the Parliamentary Collective for Pure Politics who have already made this statement.)
- Legislation to make the declaration of assets and liabilities of the people’s representatives compulsory under the Election Commission.
- Establish an appropriate independent mechanism to check the accuracy of asset and liability statements and to analyze them annually.
- Legislation required to confiscate wealth earned through unproven sources of income.
As the March 12 movement, we strongly believe that without publicizing your assets, you cannot declare your sincerity as well as your inherent anti-corruption. We would like to emphasize that it is a good and exemplary democratic practice to declare those assets and liabilities and pass judgment on you to your constituents at a time when the golden path of becoming a true people’s representative is open to you in the face of such a formal mechanism.
Also, the relevant laws can be passed in Parliament through a private member’s motion related to the above matters. We appeal to you to be its pioneer. If you fail at that, you will neglect your responsibility as a Member of Parliament, even if you are a good person. Through those activities, you will be able to prove to the society that you are against corruption.
And the ultimate goal here is not to showcase your assets, but to expand the possibilities for them to choose the good public representative that the citizen aspires to through some comparative analysis of them. It is also our common belief that this will be a great opportunity to demonstrate that Members of Parliament are not merely distributors of resources but are useful legislators in the legislature.
The March 12 Movement would like to kindly appeal to all of you to come forward as a genuine public representative who has retained the responsibility of the people and to join this good practice.