Sunday Times 2
Those who manage finances of nations
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It is nice once more to know that the war against the coronavirus is back on track and that we are not as restricted as we had been during the last two months.
Being myself over eighty (and despite my age being able to use a mobile phone), I received an SMS towards the end of last month and was called up for my second Astra-Zeneca vaccination. Two weeks have passed since I received my jab – and my doctor friends tell me that I am now as fully protected as I can be (for the moment) against COVID.
Last month, however, I kept myself “confined to quarters”, not wanting to risk catching the deadly virus that overseas visitors have brought into our land. I spent my time musing about the qualifications required by applicants to be selected for jobs.
Lawyers (like former attorneys Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe) have to go to the Law College, doctors (like Ramesh Pathirana and Sudarshini Fernandopulle) have to study at a medical school, policemen (like one time sub inspector Chamal Rajapaksa) have to graduate from the Police Training College, military officers (like our president Gotabaya Rajapaksa) have to pass out from the Military Academy – and even journalists like myself used to need a degree in a language. We all had to have some sort of training and qualification before we could apply and be appointed to responsible jobs.
But I realised after much musing that ministers do not really need any qualifications to become ministers. The prime qualification they appear to need is loyalty and usefulness to the head of government who has the power to appoint them.
In some countries, of course, the head of government (hereinafter referred to as the HoG) has a short list of qualified people from whom he or she can make a selection – even though that short list is limited to people who have managed to get themselves elected to parliament. Sometimes, an astute HoG can appoint to parliament a suitably qualified and capable person from outside via the national list (as was K. N. Choksy PC by Ranil Wickremesinghe when the latter was Prime Minister) to undertake an important ministry. Sadly Ranil’s astuteness waned with age – and his next two finance ministers (a small businessman and a fashion designer) let him down badly, being nothing in comparison to Mr Choksy.
In the United States, the president does not have to select his ministers from the elected representatives in their parliament. A good example of this is Joe Biden’s choice of Janet Yellen to be his finance minister (known as the Secretary to the Treasury in that country). Yellen is a brilliant and experienced economist with a PhD from Yale University, who had served as an associate professor at Harvard University and also as chair of the American Federal Reserve.
France has had as its Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire — a graduate of the elite École Nationale d’administration (ÉNA) in Strasbourg. He is a former diplomat and author who is fluent in French, German, Italian and English. Australia’s minister of Finance (known as the Federal Treasurer) is Josh Frydenberg — a lawyer with degrees in law and economics from Monash University and a Master’s degree in International Relations from Oxford University.
In Great Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (as the finance minister is known over there) is Rishi Sunak – an Oxford graduate and Stanford post-graduate who was born in England to Indian Punjabi parents. Prior to taking to politics, Sunak worked for the leading multinational investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs. Clearly he is a man who knows something about money.
And it is not only in the so-called First World that HoGs select experienced tertiary educated people with qualifications and training to run their finance ministries. Closer to home we have India — where the finance minister is Nirmala Sitharaman. She had her initial schooling in Chennai, obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in Tiruchirapalli and then went on to obtain an MA and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Pakistan’s finance minister Shaukat Tarin is a successful banker with an MBA. He was educated at the University of the Punjab.
In Japan, the Minister of Finance is Taro Aso, a graduate of the prestigious Gakushuin University in Tokyo as well as the London School of Economics. In China, the minister of finance is Kun Liu. A native of Guandong, he majored in finance and monetary economics and graduated from Fujian’s Xiamen University — which has consistently been ranked as one of the top academic institutions in Southern China.
I realised that not all these folks in charge of their countries’ finances belong to that nation’s politically predominant ethnic group. Yellen and Frydenberg are Jewish, Tarin is a Pashtun (a group making up only about 15% of Pakistan’ population), Shunak comes from what the British euphemistically refer to as the BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethnic) group and Aso is a Catholic (belonging to a group that makes up less than 1% of Japan’s population).
Judging from these selections, it would appear that the HoGs in these countries have known that it is vital to appoint capable and qualified folk to head their finance ministries.
What matters to these HoGs is not that these appointees belong to the correct family or loyalty group, but that they are educated and knowledgeable enough to do the job entrusted to them – which is managing the country’s finances so as to provide a better life for the people rather than for just their loyalty group or family.