Dr. Sudath Gunasekara President Senior Citizens Movement, Mahanuwara

Many a critique has been written in recent times on the problem of good governance and development in this country in the post ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”independent period. Therefore this is only another lonely attempt to look, may be desperately, at these issues from a new perspective in order to draw the attention of those who are seriously concerned about them since the subjects of good governance and development have become the high lights of the day as there is another election around the corner. Hope the following issues will draw the concerned attention of the candidates and the voters alike so that both parties will re-think about their respective responsibilities and obligations by the nation. I perceive these issues as the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Foundation and the Pillars of Good Governance and National Development.

1 The need for a strong, patriotic, prudent and virtuous Head of State wedded to the Asokan Principles of State craft. However he should not be above the Law as it is provided by the present Constitution.

2 A Trimmed, educated, honest and uncorrupted political machinery that puts ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”service to peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ before self interest.

3 An independent, efficient, pruned, well paid and professional Public Service

4 Complete de-politicization of Public Service including Corporations, Statutory Boards and Authorities

5 Enlightened apolitical National leadership

6 An independent Judiciary and a Police Service to implement law and order

7 A disciplined, efficient and patriotic armed service

8 Discipline, law and order in society

9 Patriotic, innovative, efficient, strong and vibrant private sector

10 An Independent National Planning Council that will formulates, monitors and evaluates the implementation of its National Plans

11 Installation of meritocracy in the seats of government both in Local and Foreign Services

12 Target oriented, regularly monitored and evaluated Public Service

13 Healthy, educated and motivated work force

14 A well developed infrastructure network such as roads and rails, air ports, harbours, irrigation tanks and canals, banks and communication etc

15 An effective system of public accountability

16 An annual national award scheme for all those who excel in service to the nation in all fields

17 Communal and religious harmony where all citizens of Sri Lanka think and act as one nation and one country and give up their allegiance to other countries. (This applies particularly to Tamils and Muslims who continue to treat other countries as their motherlands)

18 The need to put an end to misuse of public property and abuse of authority by politicians and public officials.

19 The need to convert Public Service back to true Public Service without allowing it o perpetuate as an avenue of unproductive employment for the supporters of political parties at elections.

20 Banning by law the appointment of defeated candidates at elections to public positions in government departments, public corporations and Foreign Service

21 A new Constitution replacing the 1978

22 Allow the people of respective electorates to select and elect their representatives from within the electorate without imposing outsiders by force by the party hierarchy in Colombo as it is done today.

23 Crossing over after elections should be banned by law. Because as people vote a person at elections for a political party it is immoral and undemocratic for a person elected on one card to change over to another. The vote was cast to a party and not to the person. There may be a rare case of an independent candidate getting elected. Such person may join any party he wishes after elections. But today such cases are very rare. In case some one wants to cross over then he should resign and re-contest under the new party symbol. And that would give a better meaning to both the candidate and democracy.

Obviously one can list many more. But this is only a selected few of the most critical issues which are appallingly lacking in our country and that have seriously affected the forward march of our nation, almost since Independence. I concede that there had been few individuals and some sporadic attempts made towards this goal. But my complain is that there had been no collective and sustained effort made jointly as a nation for a major national resurgence

Each of the above issues needs further elaboration at length. But for brevity I will limit myself to few salient aspects of each of them, leaving the door opened for further discussion by those interested.

Public Service to serve the Public and not politicians and political parties

1. King Dharmasoka has been hailed as the best ruler ever treaded this earth even by western historians like H.G.Wells. Most of our ancient Kings have emulated this model. Its motto was the wellbeing of the majority people. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”

Under this model the King treated his subjects as his own children (save purisa mama paja) and his greatest joy was service to people.

2 Going by the present breed of majority of our politicians this is self explanatory

Trimming is called for in view of the present proliferation and duplication of political institutions and politicians. Look at the Parliament, Cabinet, Provincial Councils and the Pradsesiya Sabhas. We have nearly 115 Cabinet and non-Cabinet Ministers in the central government and 40 ministers in the Provinces. Within the Province all 115 ministries of the central government are divided among five ministers. We also have 9 Governors to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”governƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ this tiny Island when the State of California in USA which is six times bigger than Sri Lanka has only one Governor. Think of the enormous amount of public funds that is wasted to maintain this mega political machinery including the politicians, their salaries, staff, offices and other facilities like vehicles, security, office equipment, pension benefits, tax free vehicles every five years and other lavish perks. Sri Lanka today has the biggest cabinet in the world and highest number of politicians per man in the world. Even the Federal government at the centre in America (150 time bigger than Sri Lanka) which is supposed to be the richest country in the world, has only 16 Cabinet Minister level posts which are called Secretaries. So donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you think that we have to put and end to this nonsense as soon as possible?

This requires the immediate abolition of the Provincial Councils which serves only as a chronic political appendage to serve the interests of the politicians while they add to the cost by duplication and waste. For example the central Province alone has 59 Provincial councilors in addition to the 24 Members of Parliament. They only have bred overlapping, inordinate delay, waste, duplication, friction, confusion and increased cost to the government. For a small and poor country like ours this system is a super luxury imposed on the people by the power hungry politicians. Therefore the present number of politicians in this country should be reduced at least by two third.

I also suggest that Ministers and MPP in Parliament should work for at least three years without salaries if their intention is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”real service to peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and give up their pension rights forth with

3 Again I think we have the highest number of public servants per person any where in the world. It is said the strength of our public service is over 1.25 million where as the total population is less than 20 million. It is said that today there at least 25 officers to do what 1 officer could easily attend to under better management. That is for every 16 persons there is one public servant. Meanwhile the entire public service today is chronically politicized leading to nepotism, favouritism, inefficiency, corruption and wastage.

4 While the position in government departments is somewhat better all Corporations, Statutory Boards and Authorities, from the Chairmen to the scavenging labourer, are packed with defeated politicians and political appointees, very often who know next to nothing in running these institutions. These positions are given to them as a reward either for a closer relationship they have with the Head of the State or the Minister in charge of the subject, contribution to party funds directly or through Father-in-laws, helping the politicians in their shady deals or some other strictly private reason. The age limits set by the Establishment Code for public servants also do not apply to such people. Educational qualifications, just like in the case of politicians, are never required.

Corporations were invented in late 1950 as an instrument of expediting development alleging that the government departments failed to deliver the goods as they were bound by AR and FR. But with very few exceptions they are always manned by political appointees. As a result none of these institutions operate as viable economic venture that contribute to the national economy. Instead they serve only as avenues of employment to politicians and their supporters at public cost.

5 This is a must for good governance as it acts as a controlling factor against the activities of politicians and also as a system of checks and balances

6 The Judiciary is not so bad as the Police. But both have to be made fully independent of politics in order to guarantee the rule of law

7 This again is not so questionable except at the top rungs.

8 Discipline, law and order today are the rarest commodities in this country. This is a chronic malady that has embraced the whole nation, whether in the Parliament, Public Service or on the public highway there is hardly any difference. The law is there but it is always observed only in the breach. Therefore this is one of the first things that have to be rectified in this country. It does not cost any money either.

9 This should serve as the engine of growth and development. Providing the environment conducive for such growth is the responsibility of the government.

10 India is a good example that has adopted this policy for sustained national development. It insulates the national policies against petty political consideration and enables to formulate broad rational and sustainable development policies that do not change with change of government.

11 This will improve the quality of the Public Service and it will change over to an efficient, effective and impartial instrument of implementation of public policies and programmes. At present, with very rare exceptions, it has completely turned out to be a mere arm of the political party in power for the time being.

12ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In the days of colonial administration every employee had to perform a given duty in return to the pay he got. For example each clerk in a government office had to report the quantum of work he did during that day on a General form to the chief clerk of his branch before he leaves office for the day. Everybody had to live within a three mile radius from the place of work and report for duty at the given time and no one was allowed to leave office or station without prior permission. Absence without leave was not permitted. If any one does he will be served with a vacation of post notice that ends his job. Public servants were also not allowed to mix up their private life with official duty. Rajakariya those days was a devakariya. That is why I think the British, from a far-off Island in the north Atlantic could turned out to be the largest Empire in world history where the sun never set. Even in present day USA every public servant is given a daily target. The officials are evaluated for promotion purely on their performance.

I too adopted this technique in Yatikinda DRO office (Badulla) on my first appointment in 1966 with great success.

13&14 I donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t think I need to elaborate on these two items.

15 This again is an area that has to be restored immediately as there is no such

accountability any where in the country.

16 This will give recognition to people who actually work hard for nation

Building and motivate men and women to work.

18 This reminds me of the old saying ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”wetath niyarath goyam ka nam kata

pawasami amaruwaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ So if we are to develop this has to be curbed forthwith and

those who violate has to be meted out with the highest form of punishment in

the country. At the moment his is jointly done by the politicians and the public servants in collaboration for mutual gain. Few classic examples are the five year tax free vehicles to public servants and politicians, the pension scheme for politicians, use and abuse of public property and resources for political work and the political interference with all government contracts by politicians.

19 Positions in Public service must be filed by persons who are professionally suited to hold such responsibilities and who can deliver the services and not by unqualified political henchmen and relations of politicians. Today nepotism and cronyism have ruined most of the public institutions both in the Home Services and Foreign Service. All governments are guilty of this offence. All these people are paid by the public. Therefore they should serve the public and not the politicians who temporally put them there. If these guidelines are followed then all these institutions could be made economically and socially viable and profitable.

20 Today this practice has become one of the most serious problems in governance in this country and it is the main reason why they are run at a loss. Firstly they are run at a loss because they are manned by people who are not competent to run them. Secondly all the resources of these organizations are diverted to promote party activities or build up their own political images and power base to win the next elections. If these institutions cannot be manned by professionals then it is much better to close them down without draining colossal amounts of public funds.

21 The 1978 Constitution is the worst of all we had. Therefore it has to be replaced with a new one, perhaps more comprehensive like the 1948. But that should enshrine clauses that guarantee fundamental characteristics of a good Constitution like good governance, rule of law, freedom of the press, human rights, representative democracy, checks and balances to prevent the executive taking arbitrary decisions like having early elections. We must have fixed dates enshrined in the Constitution for elections like in USA.

22 At present the party leadership in Colombo decides as to who the candidate for a particular electorate should be. Once he is imposed from the top people have no choice but to vote as the party man. We have MPP and organizers from far away places like Hambantota in Colombo and Colombo in Udadumbara. This practice should stop forthwith and people of the area should be allowed to select end elect their representatives, if representative democracy is to mean anything.

23 Crossing over after elections should be banned by law. Because as people vote a person at elections for a political party it is immoral and undemocratic for a person elected on one card to change over to another. The vote was cast to a party and not to the person. There may be a rare case of an independent candidate getting elected. Such person may join any party he wishes after elections. But today such cases are very rare. In case some one wants to cross over then he should resign and re-contest under the new party symbol. And that would give a better meaning to both the candidate and democracy

This indeed is only the tip of the ice burg. It is left for the general public to explore in to the details if they want to know the actual magnitude of the problem. This requires every citizen to remove his/her coloured glasses they want to know the truth. I emphasize and reiterate for the need to rectify this appalling situation before the nation comes to a no return situation.

An election time is the best time for the candidates to tell their stand on these issues to the people. The people with whom the power (sovereignty) to decide their fate lies also have a duty by the country to demand and compel the candidates to do so before they decide to cast their vote. Because an election time is the only time the people have their sovereignty in their hands.