Never before in the annals of the history of our land right here on the isle of serendipity have the people been lied and let down as in the tenure of this government. It must be initially understood and appreciated that Maithripala Sirisena was fully backed by many others and of course he enjoyed the might of the United National Party.
The primary theme of the campaign which was led by the United National Party was one of identifying, prosecuting, and eventually eradicating corruption and graft.
To be fully equitable, let us acknowledge that the way they (The Good Governance Team) spoke during the campaign, the people could be forgiven for thinking that the then opposition were fully in possession of the evidence of corruption and graft as conducted by the Rajapaksa Administrators.
Enter the dawn of 9th January 2015 and the ascendancy to the top job in all of Sri Lanka, of one Maithripala Sirisena. He arrived from the dusty paddy fields of Polonnaruwa famed also for its ancient history and archaeological past. A town that lives to this day partly on the reflected glory of its history.
They promised us many things but not quite the description that appointments to the Cabinet and non-cabinet portfolios were done in a ‘scientific’ manner.
Nevertheless thanks to our collective knowledge on politics – which would put any student of politics anywhere, Yale, Harvard, Lee Kuan Yew, LSE wherever indeed to permanent shame – we the people of this land like no other, understood that what this ‘scientific methodology’ meant was that positions will be awarded according to ones level of experience if not expertise in the particular field you are being appointed to.” We guessed right when the Minister of Health was from the field of medicine, even if his professional expertise was in the field of dentistry.
Indeed – so we understood that the word ‘scientific’ was used metaphorically. That we simply cannot have – from the appointment of a close confidante of the Prime Minister as a Cabinet Minister in charge of International Trade and complex bi-lateral treaties to the all-important Minister of Law and Order – complementary experienced hands for these jobs. Much depends we know on the political situation as well as the confidence in the leadership in their ability to have ‘staying power’.
That confidence is instilled only with a comfortable majority in parliament. To gain the confidence of the people it is important for all legislators to be able to better demonstrate to the people that they are committed and have a passion for serving the needs of the people. Not that they are acting in self-interest or in the interest of their political party.
Instead what we have witnessed in Sri Lanka is utter contempt of the people by their mainly elected legislators.
It is almost as though they are doing us a favor. A big one at that. Even listening to balanced people like Chief Minister Vigneswaran is becoming tiresome. He spoke of virtual genocide and delivered words that seemed as though he has proof positive on the political claims he makes.
Yes neither Vigneswaran, Sumanthiran, Devananda or any Tamil politician worth his salt have done anything concrete (an unfortunate and unintentional pun) in terms of providing housing for the vast number of families left homeless thanks to a ‘war’ that was started by a power hungry Prabhakaran and sustained by successive leaders in Colombo where the effect was to permit a few close mates of governments to become millionaires out of the suffering that was the so-called fight for independence.
To top it all – the icing on the cake as it were – was the assurances and virtual undertakings given to the masses that they – the government – were aware precisely of what went on and they indicated that the way forward was to make ‘scientific’ appointments when selecting ministerial roles for example or even when making senior civil service appointments.
There is nothing scientific about the appointments to most of the Ministries and there certainly was nothing scientific about the Mahendran push by Wickremesinghe.
The Mahendran selection cost the people of this country losses calculated by some experts as reaching upwards of Rs 600 Billion over the next fifteen years. His son in law’s companies reported profits that could also be described as ‘whirlwind profits’ that totaled more than Rs 18 billion plus or minus a billion here and there.
There are some who are now changing their tune and moving to protect the Prime Minister by seeking to remove the PM from the long list of persons who by their actions and also inaction, are at least morally responsible for the raping of the Central Bank and the systematic abuse of the procurement process when it came to the Central Expressway project.
That systematic abuse of process and procedure has led to vast corruption and to whirlwind financial gains for several political hosts.
There is nothing scientific about the insensitive appointments to religious ministries of ministers from different faiths to represent religious affairs not of their own faith. Yes it was laughable and it was a splendid idea to laugh at the immature clowns who dish out these ideas to the people.
The only thing of scientific value now would be for both the President and the Prime Minister to call it quits and jointly engage all parliamentarians to reach a minimum two thirds majority in parliament in order that fresh election could be called now as opposed to almost two years away.
