Opinion:

The death of good governance

by Dr. Vinoth Ramachandra

While several Third World nations have been on a political trajectory from 'banana republics' to pluralist democracies, Sri Lanka has, in recent decades, been moving in the opposite direction. The Presidential Election of January 8 promised a reversal of this trend. However, political manoeuvres since the August 17 General Election threaten to undermine even the incremental progress made in the first half of the year.

Most of the incompetent, dishonest and corrupt politicians of previous regimes (whether the United People's Freedom Alliance or the United National Party) have been returned to Parliament, and many of them given prominent ministerial positions. It is clear that this is no 'new political culture' as proclaimed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, but the entrenching of the same old political culture.

Politics in this country remains, like the medical and legal professions, largely a means to making personal fortunes, not an opportunity for serving the public good. Ministerial portfolios are given, not to the intellectually able, but to those who show personal loyalty to the Prime Minister and the President.

Not only have ministers been abusing their positions to amass private wealth, but business tycoons are now being given ministerial positions.

What makes all this doubly disturbing is the way these manoeuvres (including the setting up of a so-called national government) are sold to the public as 'yahapalanaya' - as if the merging of two rival gangs of criminals will bring an end to crime. Indeed, since January 2015, 'yahapalanya' has become a slogan with little or no content.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and others have complained about the size of the new Cabinet. But, surely, more worrying than the number is the incompetence of the people who have been appointed to these posts, as well as the overlapping nature of many of the new ministries created. When greater efficiency and the coordination of policy is what is required, rivalry and meaningless fragmentation are being promoted.

Here are some straightforward 'yahapalanaya' questions that the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must answer:

(1) Why is there not a single economist in the Prime Minister's 'Economic Team'?

(2) What qualifications does Ravi Karunanayake carry to be the Finance Minister?

(3) Aren't you creating serious conflicts of interests in placing economic decision-making in the hands of powerful businessmen? If not, why not?

(4) Sujeewa Senasinghe has shown utter contempt for due legal process by failing to show up three times at a Magistrate's Court. By giving him a State ministerial post, is not the Prime Minister undermining the rule of law and discouraging every law enforcement officer?

(5) Will the Central Bank Governor and the Treasury Secretary be chosen by the Constitutional Council, or will Ranil Wickremesinghe's appointees remain in these powerful positions?

It is extremely unlikely that the present government will meet the aspirations of those young voters who desire a genuinely new political culture. The danger, then, is that the latter will give up on political change entirely and conform to the self-seeking power games that have come to define politics in Sri Lanka today.