Saturday 2nd May, 2026
The government and some Opposition parties held big rallies purportedly to mark May Day yesterday. The JVP/NPP staged as many as 21 such events across the country, and the SJB rally took place in Colombo. Not to be outdone, the SLFP also held its May Day rally in Colombo. Those spectacles must have cost a fortune each. Where did the funds come from?
Both the government and the Opposition never miss an opportunity to declare their commitment to upholding transparency and other good governance principles. So, they should be able to disclose the costs of the aforementioned mega events, attended by thousands of their supporters, and how they raised funds. They must do so because anti-social elements use colossal amounts of black money to bankroll election campaigns and political events in return for favours from politicians. There is said to be no such thing as a free lunch in politics.
Following the assassination of upright High Court Judge Sarath Ambeypitiya in 2004, this newspaper reported that Kudu Nauffer, a notorious drug dealer, who ordered the killing, had sponsored food and beverages served at a judicial officers’ function. This shows how widespread the tentacles of the underworld are. Besides criminals, other moneybags also lavish funds on political parties and their leaders and leverage the quid pro quo to cut corrupt deals.
There have been instances where some political parties resorted to illegal operations to raise funds for elections, the 2015 Treasury bond scams being a case in point. The UNP could not pay its water and telephone bills at Sirikotha while it was out of power, but after the ouster of the Rajapaksa government in January 2015, its war chest overflowed, and the UNP candidates went on a spending spree during the 2015 general election campaign. A group of businessmen who financed the SLPP’s campaign events gained from the sugar tax scam in 2020. They made a killing at the expense of the state coffers. It is alleged that some financiers of the JVP/NPP benefited from the green-channelling of 323 red-flagged freight containers in the Colombo Port in January 2025. Another allegation is that the current government is beholden to the wealthy rice millers, known to shower funds on politicians, especially during elections.
Hence, the need for pressure to be ramped up on the government and the Opposition to reveal the costs of their political dog and pony shows on May Day and how funds were raised for them.
A large number of government politicians including President Anura Kumara Dissanayake attended the JVP/NPP’s main May Day rally in Nuwara Eliya yesterday. In doing so, they gave the lie to their claim that they had decided against holding a May Day rally in Colombo in view of the fuel crisis. Their supporters were bussed to Nuwara Eliya as well as other venues. VIP travel and security cost the public an arm and a leg. Will the government reveal the costs of transport, accommodation and security for the JVP/NPP leaders?
The government insists that it was wrong for Ranil Wickremesinghe to use state funds for a visit to a university in the UK, while he was the President. If so, it must be equally wrong for President Dissanayake to spend state funds on domestic travel to attend political events, from which no benefits accrue to the public.