Transparency International defines political corruption as “the misuse of political power for private benefit, in particular the benefits of power, status and wealth”1. According to the definition, it takes two basic forms: corrupt accumulation and extraction and corruption for power preservation and expansion and includes situations where loopholes in national laws and regulations are deliberately side- stepped, ignored and custom-made. Notably, an idea survey conducted among a sample of the Sri Lankan public uncovered some common public perceptions on “ministers” in Sri Lanka, which while being predominantly pessimistic were significantly analogous to the TI definition with the use of terms such as “looter”,“liar, parliament, power, rich”, “crooks”, “big tummy-always shouting doing nothing”, “stupid”, “corruption”, “too many”, “bribery” etc.
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