Ministers make statements without thinking about the need of the hour
Posted on January 9th, 2017
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Prime minister is quite upbeat about providing employment to one million youth .That may be the reason why government hand over lands and ports to private sector hurriedly to prove the point.
How can factories automate production in Sri Lanka ?We need to give jobs to youth ,who are lamenting about unemployment. Minister’s statement does not make any sense .What we need is a workforce who should be trained to increase efficiency and factory owners should offer extra bonus for increasing output .In our business of ship repair and building we offer the workers to increase output and we pay additional amounts for the increased productivity. In Building trade they do the same thing .
In the tea industry we pay additional amounts for additional output to the norm..In bricklaying we pay for the amount of bricks laid in multiple of thousands
What is to be advocated is we should improve management and train working class to work faster and more efficiently rather than encouraging factory owners to automate.
I expected better from a young learned minister who stands out talking sense !
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
January 9th, 2017 at 2:24 pm
I disagree.
Sri Lanka has a shortage of skilled labor. It is difficult to find masons, plumbers, electricians, welders etc etc ….. because they have all gone abroad to earn higher wages in other countries.
Importing foreign workers fro poorer countries to work at prevailing wages in Sri Lanka is NOT A SOLUTION; it is CURE that is WORSE than the DISEASE for it will eventually create a nation populated by foreign immigrants. If the national objective is to preserve Sri Lanka as the homeland of its current citizens, some other way of meeting the labor shortage must be found.
THAT SOLUTION MUST ENABLE THE CITIZEN LABOR TO EARN HIGHER WAGES.
The only way I know to do that is by INCREASING LABOR PRODUCTIVITY to support those HIGHER WAGES through INCREASED EARNINGS from their SERVICES!
A IMPORTANT PART of the solution is INDEED through TRAINING the workers to become MORE SKILLED at what they have done in the past.
But, there is a FINITE LIMIT to the increase in productivity that can be gained by training workers to do the same job with the same tools.
Therefore, we must provide them PRODUCTIVITY INCREASING TOOLS such as computers, data input and output devices, automated assembly lines, computer numericall controlled (CNC) manufacturing machinery, robotic welding machines, large earth excavating and moving machinery, intelligent vending and packaging machines and
so on.
The idea is to surround each worker with the tools, machinery and intelligent devices that would enable him to produce more of better quality goods and services. To be of benefit, the income derived from that increased productivity must more than offset the increased cost of providing those more capable tools and acess to data/information.
For example, even today I see govt depts and medical hospitals in Sri Lanka having roomsful of people sitting in front of ledgers transcribing and processing information. All of these kinds of work are best handled by a few wirkers using computers and advanced data input/output devices. Many of those workers are university graduates bored out of their skulls and stuck in dead end jobs, and that equates to a riminal waste of talent and low productivity.
Many electricians, masons, welders, and homebred workers such as seamstresses, knitters, and embroiderers for example use ancient outdated tools, machinery and diagnostics equipment, when much better equipment is cheaply available in Western countries and China. It is the responsibility of the employers to introduce better tools, train their workers in their use, and when the productivity increases, give their workers with a part of the profit through higher wages.
The Tea Industry in Sri Lanka is yet another sector that cannot survive by sticking to time-honored methods of growing and processing tea leaves. They cannot find the necessary labor now at the prices they are willing to pay. They must research different methods of planting, weeding, fertilising, watering, plucking, processing, and value added packaging of the tea leaves. That may require beginning now to automate the processes as far as possible, to grow the plants in ways that are more amenable to the use of portable and wheeled machinery. If the Tea Industry cannot do that, it must be allowed to die, and the land used for some other more productive purpose than to keep vast number of humans in perpetual poverty.
January 9th, 2017 at 3:46 pm
Our biggest industry is POLITICS.
Which country has
10 parliaments, 9 chief ministers , 9 governors, 250 odd wolves and 1 million dogs as their ass lickers ?
We should Automate this industry URGENLY.
January 9th, 2017 at 5:35 pm
One minister doesn’t know what another minister says.
President knows nothing.
Opposition leader is part of the govt.
According to a UNP Tamil MP, PIRAPAHARAN is the PM!
Andra Praesh CHIEF MINISTER is the new governor of SL. Since all SL leaders worship at THIRUPATHY and Thirupathy is in Andra Pradesh, its CM is the all powerful governor of SL. IF SL leaders stop worshiping the Andra Praesh CHIEF MINISTER, they cannot visit Thirupathy!!
What a country!
A foreign ship coming to Trinco port sees a MASSIVE Siva statue and thinks SL is part of Endia. A foreign ship coming to Colombo port sees a MASSIVE Christmas tree and thinks SL is part of Italy. A foreign ship coming to H’tota port sees a MASSIVE Chinese colony and thinks SL is part of China.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:25 am
Andra Praesh CHIEF MINISTER is the new governor of SL. Since all SL leaders worship at THIRUPATHY and Thirupathy is in Andra Pradesh- At last now I can understand why AP CM in our Sinhala Lanka !
PM sorry CM Viggie when TN CM will be in our TE ???
January 10th, 2017 at 2:33 pm
Finally, the Kalawedda (Gon Gonsal) says something useful!
Indeed, there are altogether TOO MANY POLITICIANS and BUREAUCRATS in various levels of government in Sri Lanka!
That is PARTLY WHY I proposed ELIMINATING ALL SUB-NATIONAL governments in Sri Lanka and retaining only the National Government at the Centre, in the following way:
1. EXECUTIVE branch of government headed by the President, with a Vice President as backup, administering the country through a Cabinet of Ministers and a District System of Administration staffed by officials APPOINTED by the National Government. Each District will be headed by a District Governor APPOINTED by the President. The President and the VP nominated by him, will be elected by a majority of citizen voters in the nation for a 5 year term. There will be no limit on the number of terms he may run for election as president, but he may be impeached and dismissed from office if found guilty by the LEGISLATURE by a specified majority in eachieving of the tworld chambers.
There will be NO Provincial Governments, elected or otherwise, and the current PCs will be DISSOLVED. There will be NO SUB-NATIONAL governments of any kind empowered to enact laws, collect taxes, enforce the law or disposition of and real or other property. All security forces, including the Police, will be Nationsl organizations.
The number of Ministries will be limited to a MAXIMUM of 30 in the Constitution. The Ministers will be nominated by the President and must be approved by the LEGISLATURE.
2. A LEGISLATIVE branch consisting of a Bicameral Parliament with a House and a Senate. Elected Members of the House representing approximately equal numbers of citizens from electorates in each District, and 2 Senators elected from each District. There will be only ELECTED Members of the House; there will be NO UNELECTED National List Members as at present. Presidential and Legislative elections will be staggered in time for extra stability in governance. The House will initiate and enact laws and control the funding of the government through bills. Laws and Bills may be proposed by the Executive and the Senate to the House, but must be enacted by the House. The Senate must approve the Laws and Bills previously enacted by the House. The President must approve the Laws and Bills approved by both the House and the Senate or veto them and return to the latter. Two thirds majority in both chambers would be required to over-ride a Presidential veto.
The Vice President will preside over the Senate of 50 Senators from 25 Districts. Of those Districts 5 are in the Northern Province and 3 are in the Eastern Province. Therefore, the North snd East will have 16 Senators compared to 34 for the rest of the country.
3. A JUDICIARY consisting of a Supreme Court with an odd number (5, 7 or 9) of judges whose duty is to interpret the highest law in the land, the Constitution, and decide on the Constitutionality of laws an administrative procedures. The remaining courts and administrative offices of the legal system will report to the Ministry of Justice and it’s Attorney General under the Executive branch of government.
This new system of governance will have FAR FEWER ELECTED OFFICIALS (POLITICIANS) living off the taxed people of the country than the current system of government. The District System of Administration will have a PERMANENT CADRE of Professional Career Civil Servants who cannot be dismissed without legal cause by different governments. The District Governors appointed by the President are the only exceptions to this rule.
In this way, Sri Lanka can be endowed with a HIGHLY CENTRALIZED FORM OF GOVERNMENT that is STREAMLINED and LEAN, and is STABLE and RESISTENT to moves to divide and disintegrate the nation by SEPARATIST and FOREIGN forces.
All displaced government officials in the multiple layers of the present system of government would either have to apply for and secure jobs in the new District System of Administration, or find jobs in the private economy outside the government.