In September last year in a piece I titled “An Omnibus Cabinet & Outvoted Parliamentarians: Can the Economy Afford to Maintain This Colony of Prodigals?” (Colombo Telegraph,
September 7, 2015) I posed a question, “Can anyone tell the people the
estimated total cost of this colony of artificially elevated political
gentry?”. Ten months have passed since then, and the public auditors
should have some rough idea to answer my question.
I raise that question once again in the light of the recent request
for 1.1 billion rupees (equivalent to roughly US$ 2.5 million) allocation to import 42 “luxury cars” for some ministers
and their deputies. While the government policy of economic liberalism
is pushing down the throats of ordinary people the so called programs of
austerity what moral right have the rulers to indulge in financial
extravagance?
Sri Lanka is sinking in national debt and foreign lenders are having a
strangle hold in the economy’s assets. Isn’t there a national need to
economise expenditure without hurting the ordinary families? With the
decline in oil prices and economic downturn in the Arab countries
foreign remittances from Sri Lankan expatriates which tranquilised the
economic pain of many families is also disappearing fast. It is time the
country look for an alternative economic model to make ends meet and
protect its independence. The reform should start at the top with the
President, the Prime Minister and their coteries of political
functionaries.
It is in this context that I also want to raise the issue of the
economic viability of decentralised political administration in Sri
Lanka. What is the actual cost of maintaining all those provincial
councils, their chief ministers and their officialdom? What useful
service are these political parvenus performing to deserve their status?
The recent incident about the public behaviour of a provincial chief
minister has exposed the danger of having too many petty chiefs
consuming too much resources and power with too little knowledge about
public decorum and behaviour. The periodical elections conducted to
choose these chiefs and their lackeys on top of the cost of conducting
national elections to the parliament obviously impose unbearable strain
on the public purse with incommensurable return.
Whatever the criticisms that we may level against our former British
colonial masters we should be fair to admit that they left us with an
efficient public service with rules and regulations of accountability.
An efficient Government Agent system with a prudently structured
parliamentary cabinet will more than adequately compensate the loss of
all provincial councils and their mediocre administration. In the public
arena Sri Lanka is recklessly wasting too much precious financial
resources for too little return.
Unlike in many developing countries Sri Lanka, thanks to an
internationally competitive education system in recent past has produced
a politically literate constituency of a substantial size. It has no
doubt an enormous capacity and capability to initiate political reforms
which will eliminate some of the injustices and economic waste in the
current system. The thought provoking contributions by a wide range of
talented writers to this journal are just one index of this healthy
phenomenon. Unfortunately the system has given prominence to the
mediocre at the expense of the talented. It is time for rationalisation
of the country’s political structure and administration. Will this
constituency come forward to lead the agitation? (Ameer Ali)
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