Foundations built on sand

Politicians are known for setting up charitable organisations in their name and often have them incorporated by Acts of Parliament to give them legal teeth.

The latest additions to this list are the Roshan Ranasinghe Jana Sahana Foundation, the Sisira Jayakody Siyapatha Foundation, the Arundika Fernando Relief Services, the Godfrey Fernando Memorial Foundation, the Hector Appuhamy Helping Hand Charity Foundation, and the Ananda Aluthgamage Development, Social Services and Charity Foundation.

While these are set up with the supposedly noble objective of serving charitable causes, it was probably the fervent hope of the people that these foundations are really for the noble causes they are said to support and not for the furtherance of their political activities and personal aggrandizement.