{"id":117351,"date":"2021-08-21T16:18:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T23:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117351"},"modified":"2021-08-21T16:18:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T23:18:31","slug":"shuffling-and-re-shuffling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/21\/shuffling-and-re-shuffling\/","title":{"rendered":"Shuffling and re-shuffling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Island editorial on 17\/08\/21 titled\n\u2018Puzzling reshuffle\u2019 amused me no ends as I was going through it. I somehow\nmanaged to look at it from another perspective, even with the gloom that is\nbrought on by a \u2018Viral cloud\u2019 hanging above us the governed, and perhaps not\nthe governors to the same extent.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nrefreshing change at least for me, away from what you see, hear and read these\ndays: wailing of the poor, many families suddenly finding themselves in the\nmiddle of never-before-experienced economic hardships, the mass gatherings to get\nthe vaccine standing in packed queues stretching for how long (only god will\nknow), at many a location, and the health professionals asking for island-wide\nlockdowns, increased testing and patient isolation, to mention a few, to avert\na disaster, of such ferocity and intensity never before seen. However, can the\ngovernments\u2019 shuffling strategy of several ministerial portfolios in the\nCabinet be considered even a reasonable attempt to support the fight against\nthe epidemic? And the editorial mentioned above raises a few points that are\nquite thought-provoking too in addition to being as puzzling as the \u2018Puzzling\nreshuffle\u2019, itself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now,\nabout the shuffle written by the editor: It brought to my mind some images of a\nkind: \u2018square holes\/round pegs and post-turtles\/fences\u2019 (As for the latter, two\nof my letters were published in the \u2018Opinion column\u2019 of the Island dated and\ntitled, \u2018The post turtle era\u2019, 19\/06\/18 and \u2018Post turtle revisited\u2019 22\/04\/21,\nrespectively).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nunfitting round pegs uncomfortably (?) sitting in those holes often come out\nwith sheer balderdash and the half-sleepy post-turtles suddenly awakened by the\ndeafening silence around them and not-to-be-outdone come out with their own\nversions of balderdash, all of them thinking that their proposals and\nsuggestions are innovative and ground-breaking (literally) ideas. However, in\nthe end, a vast majority of them turn out to be, but miserable failures, a\nfitting analogy to a blind fellow missing the target lock, stock and barrel\n(how much they get paid by the public for this drama and the trauma caused by\nthem to the country?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually,\nit will be back to square one, won\u2019t it? New pegs and new turtles, going into\nthe shuffle-cycle, and the and governments\u2019 policy of picking, plucking and\nplanting whomever it likes and wherever it likes them to be  preferring \u2018yes men\/women and not the\nno-nonsense and the competent personnel\u2019 (6P\u2019s of selection), resulting in\nmassive losses in both money and material, more harm done than any good, their\nindiscipline, disgusting work ethics coupled with their attitudes (not giving a\n\u2018tinkers cuss\u2019), interfering with matters that are beyond their ministerial\nresponsibilities and duties, and who also can say \u2018yes\u2019 to any bigwig that asks\nthem to do something even when it sounds not right, are able to bend down from\ntheir waists and ever-ready to raise their hands giving approval, whenever they\nare asked to, their mission of nation-building thus becoming more of a slavish\nsubmission to higher authority and nothing else.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nsome highly capable and educated people with proven track records in their\nfields of expertise, who continue to keep their dignity, honesty and integrity\nintact may stand a good chance of getting told \u2018take it or leave it\u2019 and few go\nfor the latter, with their heads holding high with pride.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nmany a government portfolio gets filled with such \u2018professionals of such\ncalibre\u2019, and the rest, needless to say its family members, and then their\nfamily members, on and on.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly,\nthe problem of \u2018having to shuffle and reshuffle\u2019 is one of their own making.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nthe government is genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the country, its\npeople and preserving its environment and natural resources, it should employ\nonly the capable regardless of their political affiliation They must be made to\nunderstand in no uncertain terms that they have been picked up based on pure\nmerit only and to leave their non-work-related loyalties at home. Unless the\ngovernment (and even the future ones too) follows this recruitment strategy,\nthese shuffles will continue to appear from time to time and they in the end\nwill again achieve next to nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laksiri\nWarnakula  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0 The Island editorial on 17\/08\/21 titled \u2018Puzzling reshuffle\u2019 amused me no ends as I was going through it. I somehow managed to look at it from another perspective, even with the gloom that is brought on by a \u2018Viral cloud\u2019 hanging above us the governed, and perhaps not the governors to the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}