Judicial backbone

Even though all of Southasia is blighted by official corruption, over the years corruption has reached pandemic proportions in Sri Lanka, when multi-million-dollar scandals regularly rock the society and economy. The private-public nexus seems to constantly be plundered for individual benefit, even while the governmental checks and balances that are supposed to work against excess have been weakened. It is thus a matter of relief that, in recent months, the Sri Lankan judiciary has begun to show signs of strength.

That the situation has evolved in this way does not surprise Victor Ivan, the editor of the Colombo newspaper Ravaya. Ivan argues that the very foundation of the country's political system is based on corruption. He particularly points an accusatory finger at Sri Lanka's courts, which he says has been broken for a long time, the recent rulings notwithstanding. "The system of institutions, including the judiciary, also functions according to that inherent ideology … giving the necessary protection to the corrupt practices of the ruling party," he says. "At the same time, implementation of the law against the corrupt practices of the opponents of the ruling party helps to give the government an anti-corruption appearance." Indeed, many feel that Sri Lanka's main corruption problem stems from the establishment of the executive presidency, in 1978. Since then, the power of this branch has steadily eclipsed that of the legislature as well as the judiciary, having increasingly manipulated these institutions for its own benefit.