The difference in Imran Khan & Ranil-Sirisena Good Governance government
Posted on August 20th, 2018

 

Sri Lanka saw a major shift in policy at all levels with a Western-Indian backed regime change in 2015. A wave of promises, a string of election campaigns, a powerful island-wide campaign that artfully covered sentiments of the general populace to want to get rid of the former government transpired into an euphoric assurance of good governance & end to former corruptions in Sri Lanka. What transpired was nothing near what was promised & to highlight this hypocrisy we look at the example of Imran Khan, a cricketer-turned politician with over 11 years of being in the political wilderness but emerging as Pakistan’s Prime Minister with a vision to create a New Pakistan. Thankfully Imran Khan has chosen not to follow Sri Lanka’s good governance government’.

 

Let us first take a look at what the Sirisena-Ranil combo promises to come to power.

 

Bewailing the jumbo government of Rajapakse & the corruption the people were assured a corruption-less Yahapalana good governance. Maithripala Sirisena quoting from Buddha promised a compassionate rule – he said he was going to work from Polonnaruwa, he said he would not contest another term and then immediately after his swearing in as President he made an unprecedented appointment – without removing the sitting Prime Minister he swore a minority party leader as the Prime Minister & became head of both the SLFP & UPFA created a bogus ‘national government’ that was in reality a means of bribing ministerial portfolios to build up a majority in parliament to remain in power.

President Sirisena on 11 January 2015 assured a 25-member cabinet for his 100 day program. However, on 12 January 2015 he appointed 27 Member Cabinet, 10 state ministers & 27 deputy ministers. With the 19a the 25-member cabinet was increased to 30. Thereafter, we have seen a steady increase with someone new being sworn in or new portfolios are being created often conflicting with the existing ministries.

 

As for ending corruption as promised – the yahapalana government stands accused of 2 Central Bank bond scams, legally questionable removal of CJ Mohan Peiris, the secrecy in signing trade agreements detrimental to the national security and welfare of the country, selling national assets without any safeguards & against the wishes of the people, drafting a new constitution without the people’s mandate, leniency to LTTE while imprisoning national army, co-sponsoring UNHRC resolutions & virtually accepting the national army to have committed war crimes & agreeable to tribunals against them – these are just a handful of key allegations against the present Sri Lankan government.

 

Here are some of the key promises made but never kept or were made to never keep except to come to power. After all, the President is on record to say he doesn’t know what was in the 100 day program & he never drafted it.

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/08/10/maithripala-sirisenas-election-promises/

 

Sri Lanka’s President when taking oath said he would not live in luxury but function from Polonnaruwa, to the contrary that never happened. In October 2015 just 10 months after coming to power a request was made for Rs. 180 million to renovate his official residence. In August media reported two Mercedes Benz S 600 (Customized Limited Edition) cars valued at Rs. 574,270,099 have been bought for the use of the President. http://www.lankatruth.com/en/2017/04/rs-600-million-cars-for-vehicle-crazy-prez/

 

Imran Khan however said he would not be living in the official residence of the Prime Minister & keeping to his word the new Pakistani Prime Minister is now staying at the military secretary’s three-bedroom house. https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/will-live-in-military-secretarys-residence-not-in-pm-house-says-pakistan-prime-minister-imran-khan/1285699/

 

Imran Khan’s promises https://www.geo.tv/latest/207816-promises-made-by-imran-khan-in-his-inaugural-address-as-pm-elect

 

Imran Khan created a Party for Justice, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured 176 votes out of 272 votes cast in the lower house of the Parliament – National Assembly.

 

Imran Khan’s Government comprises just 15 ministers & 5 advisors making 21 including himself. Three women are also included into the 20 member government.

 

Pakistan’s constitution (18th amendment) limits the size of the cabinet to be not more than 11% of the total strength of the National Assembly & Senate.

 

We can all recall Shah Mahmood Qureshi who defended Sri Lanka against the UNHRC resolutions & we are happy to know that he has been appointed as Pakistan’s foreign minister.

 

Ministers

  1. Law and Justice: Dr. Muhammad Farogh Naseem
  2. States and Frontier Regions: Chaudhary Tariq Bashir Cheema
  3. Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony: Noorul Haq Qadri
  4. Human Rights: Dr Shireen Mazari
  5. Petroleum Division: Ghulam Sarwar Khan
  6. Defence Production: Zubaida Jalal
  7. Information and Broadcasting Division: Fawad Chaudhry
  8. National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination: Aamir Mehmood Kiyani
  9. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Shah Mahmood Qureshi
  10. Ministry of Defence: Pervez Khattak
  11. Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs: Asad Umer
  12. Ministry of Railways: Sheikh Rashid Ahmed
  13. Inter-provincial Coordination: Fehmida Mirza
  14. Information Technology and Telecommunication: Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui
  15. Federal Education and Professional Training; National History and Literary Heritage Division: Shafqat Mahmood
  16. Water Resources Ministry: Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar

 

Advisers

  1. Establishment Division: Mohammad Shehzad Arbab
  2. Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment: Abdul Razak Dawood
  3. Institutional Reforms and Austerity: Ishrat Hussain
  4. Climate Change: Amin Aslam
  5. Parliamentary Affairs: Babar Awan

 

It is too early to tell whether Imran Khan will go back on his promises but he has certainly delivered on the promise made regarding the number of cabinet appointments unlike Sri Lanka’s yahapalana government. Pakistan which has 180m people more than Sri Lanka has just 15 Ministers and 5 Advisors whereas Sri Lanka with just 20m has as of 1 May 2018, 42 members – president, prime minister and 40 ministers, 24 state ministers and 21 deputy ministers.

 

We know that the Sri Lankan government never gave promises to keep – its boasting of democracy fell flat in delaying elections in spite of boasting its popularity. Now all sorts of excuses are being used as delaying tactics.

 

In the case of Pakistan, Imran Khan will be mindful that the Pakistani military played a major role in bringing him to power the scenario is very different in Sri Lanka, where its government gives no prominence to the military & instead has been subtly weakening the national army & taking foreign bailouts giving assurances to prune the army & de-militarize it as well as even close down camps in strategic areas.

 

Thankfully, Imran Khan did not look to Sri Lanka to take an example of the ‘good governance’ Sri Lanka’s government is practicing since 2015. However, it is certainly too early to tell how Imran Khan & his Ministers will keep to the promises made however, they have started out on a better wicket of honesty than Sri Lanka.

 

Shenali D Waduge

 

 

5 Responses to “The difference in Imran Khan & Ranil-Sirisena Good Governance government”

  1. Christie Says:

    “We can all recall Shah Mahmood Qureshi who defended Sri Lanka against the UNHRC resolutions & we are happy to know that he has been appointed as Pakistan’s foreign minister.”

    Thanks Shenali for reminding us how Pakistan has helped us,

  2. Nihal Perera Says:

    When it comes to SL, Pakistan is a true friend, India is not… India doesn’t want any stable countries as their neighbours. India tried to mess up Sri Lanka by giving birth to LTTE and supporting Prabhakaran.

    We should NEVER ever trust India… Unfortunately our idiotic politicians worship those Indian gods, and believe they need Hindu Gods’ blessings to win the elections in SL…!

    I hope Imran Khan will do a better job than our dumb-ass politicians who are messing up SL.

  3. hela patriot Says:

    until death penalty is brought for corruption our jokers will continue their fraudulent activity. There is no hope for a just governance in sri lanka. all is just hype police commission,jsc, various speeches of reassurance Sri Lanka is on the way for a blood bath sooner or later.

  4. Hiranthe Says:

    Great work Shenali. Specially bringing up the matter of the Pakistan’s help to us. It is all history. Now we are in the Indian camp. We have two pimps in the driving seat, acting according to Indian wishes.

    I have a strong feeling that Imran will honestly develop Pakistan into a great country.

    He has the patience of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Imran waited for over 20 years to come to the top. But I don’t think that he will not tolerate corruption like MR. He has a vision for Pakistan similarly MR had a vision for SL.

    Unfortunately for SL, in the process, and due to his pride of popularity, MR has taken some bad decisions out of arrogance. I hope Imran will not be the same. Imran is a strong headed person so he also can take arrogant decision. Therefore he should learn from the mistakes of MR.

    We have a similar world cup winning captain came to politics, who honestly wanted to get rid of corruption in the country. But he did not have a drop of patience what Imran had. He was even prepared to go into marriage with the Mother Lanka’s worst damaging party with Run-nil, as a revenge and show off to MR. These are not qualities of a good national leader.

    If Arjuna Ranatunga waited patiently, he would have gathered a good momentum by this time since people hate both SLFP and UNP and corrupt politicians. He could have proven his mettle by this time. If that was the case, his party would have taken the place which Pohottuwa taken recently.

    Unfortunately, he has missed the opportunity for ever, by going into a marriage with UNP, the most unpatriotic party in SL.

    During the war with LieTTE, MR had to increase the cabinet to maintain the majority in the parliament since JVP and UNP were all out to topple the government and derail the war efforts. But in his second term, he did not reduce it and made his government efficient. After the war he could have dissolved the PC’s and amended the constitution. But with the aim not to offend India he did not do it. However, at the end of the day, India with the West, kicked him out of power under their Regime change project,

    Imran should learn a lesson from what happened to MR. He should make the country’s intelligence unit stronger to kerb Indian influence to topple his government because India will not like Pakistan to have a strong economy.

    Pakistan has a large working community in the Middle East and they can easily get loans and aids from the Islamic block for developing Pakistan.

    We wish good luck to Pakistan and Imran.

  5. Nihal Perera Says:

    I agree with Hiranthe…

    Imran Khan will be a strong leader. He has the patient and vision, the way MR started off. Unfortunately, as Hiranthe mentioned, MR let his cronies and family members to get away with corruptions and miss-management.

    There is a lesson for MR, if he ever comes to power again (I hope he will..), that if he truly cares for the country he should NOT make the same mistakes again. Such as looking the other way when his family members and cabinet members violate the rules of law. Punish them immediately, rather than trying to defend them. Loyalty to his supporters doesn’t mean he should keep quite when they use tax payers’ money and public properties for their personal use, etc.

    I have tremendous respect and gratitude for MR, at the same time I am, like many decent Lankans, very upset for ignoring the corruptions, and miss management by his loyalists – which led the country to present misery – caused by two idiots: Ranil and Sirisena.

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