Letters to the Editor

19th November 2000
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Inflated Cabinet clashes with devolution

The world record beating Sri Lankan Cabinet of 44 ministers and 35 deputy ministers, apart from being a heavy burden on the country's exchequer, raises the question whether the Government is serious about devolution of power under its proposed constitutional reforms.

According to the existing devolution of power under the provincial councils system, we have the chief minister and four ministers in each of seven provincial councils, making it another 35 ministers. The provincial ministries are performing much of the earlier functions of the central government. We have seen instances where functions of some ministries overlap those of the provincial ministries. Some cabinet ministers may not have much work to perform other than mere supervisory functions. Even under the current dispensation of the provincial councils system, a cabinet of 20 ministers would have sufficed.

However, if the draft constitution is implemented many such ministerial posts would become redundant because more powers and functions would be devolved to the proposed regional councils. 

The number of ministers of regional councils on the other hand would invariably increase with such ministers enjoying more power than the present cabinet ministers.

It is in this scenario that a big question mark hangs over the Government's devolution package.

Would the current ministers give up their positions if the new devolution package comes into force? Judging by the jockeying for ministerial posts, as we have seen recently, it is very unlikely they would do so.

There is no doubt that the appointment of such a large number of ministers and deputy ministers is grossly out of proportion to the population and size of the country. Certainly such a big cabinet is unwarranted even under the existing provincial councils system for which the Government is spending a colossal sum. And to add to that, the burden of incurring extra expenditure to maintain such a large number of cabinet ministers and deputy ministers is definitely going to be a big millstone round the neck of the country's economy.

It is apparent that the appointments of many ministers are 'rewards' for services rendered or a result of bargaining for such posts in return for their support to form the government. Thus it is apparent that these appointments were made not to meet the exigencies and requirements of the country. A few posts have been given to honour electoral agreements and to accommodate MPs who crossed over. Serious doubts are cast whether many of these appointments are given after looking into the capabilities of appointees.

Even the politicians who say they are seeking election to serve the people seem to be bent on seeking their pound of flesh from the party leader by demanding positions. And the President pressed as she is to keep the government going, no doubt, had to give in to these pressures resulting in the formation of an oversized cabinet. 

It casts serious doubts about good governance. We saw how portfolios changed like a game of musical chairs even after the ministers were sworn-in. Apart from that, we have seen in the recent past instances of deputy ministers and even ministers resigning to take up powerful chief minister posts. We also saw the very same chief ministers resigning to contest the general elections with the hope of getting cabinet posts. Few such MPs succeeded in getting ministerial posts. Those who failed have decided that they are better off reverting to their chief ministerial posts. 

While it is legally permissible for any chief minister to resign and regain his post if he finds his aspirations are not fulfilled, yet would they not be making a mockery of the system?

Such actions, on the other hand, raise a question whether they are genuinely committed to serving the people or serving themselves.

While the President has made the Government's intentions clear in assuring that the Constitution Bill embodying the devolution proposals would be placed before Parliament, the composition of the cabinet does not indicate that it would be coming sooner than later. 

It is similar to the argument adduced by the PA when asked in 1994 why it was contesting the Presidential Election if it did not approve of the Executive Presidential system. The stand taken by the PA was that the reason they were contesting was to abolish the presidential system. With the abolition of the Presidency yet a far cry, serious doubts are being entertained whether the devolution package would also go the same way.

There is no doubt that it is a power game of its own making that has put the PA in its present predicament, the nature of which the country is experiencing for the first time in its history.

Now that the size of the cabinet has risen to 44 ministers, the cabinet meetings no doubt would be like sittings of a mini-assembly somewhat like the former Upper House of Parliament, the Senate, which had around the same number of members as the present cabinet. 

S. J. Anthony Fernando
Ja-ela


Welcome changes

Hats off to the new Education Minister who is trying to overhaul the education system. 

It is a most welcome idea that English is once again to be introduced as a medium of instruction in our schools. I believe this all-important subject should be taught from Grade One onwards and made compulsory at Grade Eight or so. 

Today the standard of education has dropped. Thus there is a crying need for a sound education system.

J.M. Opatha 
Ekala


Who should get top posts?

In his guest column titled 'Politicising the administration at the highest levels' (The Sunday Times, November 5), Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association President S. Rannuge has presented a well argued case for the appointment of ministry secretaries from the SLAS.

The question that has to be asked is why more and more 'outsiders' are being appointed as ministry secretaries. The logical answer is that from 1963 onwards, heads of governments have found that some of the secretaries from the SLAS were not competent. This is what I also found when I was working in the public sector.

Mr. Rannuge says "the main problem is that there is no proper system" when it comes to the appointment of secretaries. That "for example if you want to appoint a secretary to the Ministry of Lands it should be someone who knows the particular subject". I agree. 

Today we have secretaries who are appointed to ministries about which they know very little. When they assume duties, they honestly say so. By the time they learn the subject they have to retire. 

What happens today when the post of a ministry secretary falls vacant? Usually an additional secretary from another ministry is brought in. Then he starts the learning process. Can this country or for that matter any country afford this?

Sometime ago, there was a proposal to recruit capable persons from the public and private sector to take up top government posts for a fixed period of time. Applications were called and a written examination was held in 1997. But this has changed now.

All who are interested in the proper management of the public service should advocate a structured scheme for the selection of ministry secretaries, department heads and chief executives of corporations and statutory bodies. The people selected should be competent and committed and have the necessary knowledge and skills to manage their jobs. 

Applications should be called for each post from persons with the relevant knowledge and skills both from the government and private sector. These persons should be appointed for at least three years so that they have a time-frame to accomplish some objectives. Once selected, they should be appraised regularly by independent people of calibre. If their performance is not satisfactory, they should be asked to go.

I understand that the Secretary General of the Public Service Management Development Authority, Dixon Nilaweera, has similar views. Hope he would be able to prevail upon President Chandrika Kumaratunga to do what is necessary to improve the calibre of the top management of the public service.

Dr. Lucian Jayasuriya
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health 1995-97


No blessings for Fowzie!

Schoolchildren, temple devotees and everyone else need God's blessings to survive. There cannot be any blessings coming your way Mr. Fowzie for making schoolchildren in difficult-to-launder white uniforms, white shoes and socks fall into muddy potholes.

Modera Street is in a terrible condition and the Madampitiya Road and some areas off Aluthmawathe Road are as bad, if not worse.

Thousands of children of Hindu College, Hamza College, De La Salle Maha Vidyalaya and devotees to kovils have to make the tortuous journey, perched precariously in overloaded three-wheelers. I am positive there will be media headlines one of these days saying, 'Baby falls off mother's lap into pot-hole', 'Motorcyclist kills pedestrian avoiding pot-holes' and 'Guns slung on policemen trigger-off as they leap-frog potholes'.

Lorna Wright,
Colombo 15


There's still hope in Lanka

After three weeks in Sri Lanka to rediscover our roots, heritage and friends, returning to Australia was a bit strange and bewildering, like waking up after a wonderful dream.

The call of the kookaburra, not the koha; temperatures in the lower teens, not the upper twenties; well-ordered traffic and an absence of pedestrians and tuk-tuks on the road from a friend's home to the Chirnside Shopping Centre in the adjoining suburb — where we went to send away some film for processing and to buy some fish for an experimental sandwich which I hoped, quite in vain, would bring back the flavours of thalapath or thora — told me quite clearly that I was no longer in Sri Lanka. This was both reassuring and saddening.

Reassuring, because here I was back in a society and a land far removed from theatres of war, back within a political system where respect for the other, even the opposing point of view, is the societal norm; where differences are sorted out through debate and the ballot, not the bomb and the bullet; where people are regarded as equal even if they are not; and where economic hardship is ameliorated thanks to access to a safety net of welfare.

Saddening, because we know only too well, that this is not the case in the land of our birth, in that beautiful island in the sun, where people are kindly, warm and hospitable, and deserve far, far better than what the system offers them.

Saddening, because this condition is not inevitable, nor was it ever the case, but is one that was brought about and kept in place by the ambition and the machinations of political upstarts and adventurers. Their self-interest, dishonesty, greed, corruption and lust for power bind the hands of a weak leadership, which believes that playing to the gallery is the only means for political survival and ascendancy. Saddening, because democracy which is the very breath of politically mature societies has in Sri Lanka been perverted into a parasitic political system, which squanders scarce resources, frustrates authentic development, and crushes ordinary citizens.

In such a system, false promises and rhetoric — and recourse to violence when these fail — are the perennial means used for duping the masses. Not surprisingly, many of the politicians themselves fall victim to their own devices and subterfuges at the next election or in the electioneering violence which precedes it.

Saddening because here is a society where most men and women are decent, self-giving, generous and patriotic; where the potential for innovation and creativity is immense; where work gets done despite the system, and where hope for tomorrow never dies whatever the burdens and disappointments of today may be.

Saddening because this is the land and these are people and friends whom I love and owe so much to. For here were my body, my mind and soul nurtured. Here was I educated, and here were my mentors. Here lived my parents and forefathers. Here was I married and our children born. And, here is ever present a depth of wisdom and faith and a spirit of openness and of independence, an optimism which flourishes despite and because of vicissitude and challenge, and which nothing and no one can extinguish, and which I continue to draw strength from.

About Sri Lanka and its people, I can never be cynical, because I know that beneath the noise and the confusion and the poverty and the material privation, and the posturing of politicians, so obvious to the outsider and the onlooker, perceptive realism combines with an abiding desire for that which is good and altruistic. Thanks to a rich spiritual heritage, there is patience, good humour, big-heartedness, hopefulness, unwavering determination, transparent honesty and nobility of spirit. I met and spoke to so many such as these. I know well that with them and others such as they, Sri Lanka will surely come to fullness. I pray that that day will dawn soon. May it be tomorrow.

Dr. Bernard Swan,
Australia

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