{"id":66421,"date":"2017-05-25T15:44:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T22:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66421"},"modified":"2017-05-25T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T22:44:47","slug":"cabinet-re-shuffle-the-cards-that-keep-floating-to-the-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/25\/cabinet-re-shuffle-the-cards-that-keep-floating-to-the-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet re-shuffle: the cards that keep floating to the top"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
President Maithripala Sirisena was hopeful.\u00a0 He said the Cabinet reshuffle will provide a new impetus to Sri Lanka’s development.\u00a0 Prof G.L. Peiris was generous.\u00a0 He said that it is unfair to blame Ravi Karunanayake for the economic failures and fiscal shortcomings of the government since he operated with clipped wings considering that the Treasury was under the Prime MInister and the banks with Kabir Hashim.<\/div>\n
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Dullas Alahapperuma was cute.\u00a0 He wonders why the government shifted Karunanayake after he had been named the best in the business of ministering finance just a few months ago. He also asked why Mangala Samaraweera who was showered with praise for his diplomacy was removed from the Ministry of External Affairs.\u00a0 Valid points, these. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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While we wait on the relevant gazette notification there\u2019s speculation about demands being made for control of various state institutions.\u00a0 The Development Lotteries Board, SriLankan Airlines, the Colombo Stock Exchange and some sections of the Plantations Ministry have been mentioned in pound-of-flesh terms.\u00a0 Apparently Karunanayake wants these.\u00a0 Of course it would look utterly silly for such institutions to come under the purview of the Ministry of External Affairs and therefore there\u2019s talk of an additional tag being conferred on Karunanayake.\u00a0 It could very well come to pass because all it takes is to come up with some economy-related name and a \u2018state minister\u2019 label.\u00a0 Job done. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Let\u2019s leave speculation aside. Let\u2019s go with the real. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Dullas has a point.\u00a0 Prof Peiris has a point.\u00a0 The President cannot but utter something optimistic.\u00a0 However, as has been pointed out and not too kindly, booru kuttama mona vidihakata anuvath booruwomai enne.\u00a0 \u2018Booruwa\u2019 <\/i>is Sinhala for donkey (and booru <\/i>would be donkeys) but in the context of the kuttama<\/i> (deck of cards) it refers to the Jack.\u00a0 The proper transliteration would have \u2018joker\u2019 instead ofbooruwa.<\/i>\u00a0 Well then, this is how it would go: whichever way one shuffles a pack of\u00a0 jokers, jokers are what you would get. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s a tad harsh but if it points to a certain dilemma.\u00a0 There can be many reasons for a cabinet reshuffle.\u00a0 If there was a loyalty-shift in Parliament and some ministers crossed lines, then of course empty portfolios would need filling.\u00a0 Death also necessitates shift, depending on the size and importance of the particular ministry.\u00a0 In this instance, the only possible reason is incompetence.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Is the government telling us that Karunanayake did a bad job, as did Samaraweera?\u00a0 What guarantee is there that either would handle a different subject better?\u00a0 If removal from one ministry indicates inability, inefficiency, corruption etc., then shouldn\u2019t the wise course of action be to appoint better people to these positions?\u00a0 If Karunanayake cannot handle money, why is there talk of offering him some bucks-related institutions?\u00a0 Weren\u2019t there better people?\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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From the point of view of the political project of this government it is hard to find fault with Samaraweera.\u00a0 One may find the project itself to be sophomoric and even disastrous in terms of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, but if portfolios are about briefs and delivery, he has got a pass mark.\u00a0 Not so Karunanayake.\u00a0 All the indicators add up to an F, even if one were to give some compensatory brownie points for \u2018inheritance\u2019 (i.e. from the previous regime \u2014 provided of course that all the horror stories told over and over again are defensible). \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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If the Finance Manager of a corporate is found to be incompetent would he or she be moved into HR and the HR head be made Finance Manager?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 The Finance Manager would be hoofed out, with or without compensation, depending on whether his \u2018incompetence\u2019 included hanky-panky.\u00a0 In this instance, incompetence seems to have been established, but Karunanayake is still a member of the cabinet and the portfolio he now holds is as important as the one he lost, one can argue.\u00a0 It\u2019s not even a punishment transfer then!<\/div>\n
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There seems to be the mistaken notion that party seniority or political clout is cause enough to demand portfolios and control of institutions\/sectors.\u00a0 We seem to have developed a political culture where the decision-makers have to make sure that every district, every ethnicity, every religious community, every constituent party in the case of a coalition government and even certain castes have to be represented in Cabinet.\u00a0 Add to this the need for some gender-balance cosmetics and a bit of youthfulness and one cannot envy the task of the President and Prime Minister, especially since they have their own party-problems to sort out at least in part through portfolio-offer.<\/div>\n
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They cannot complain though.\u00a0 The President and Prime Minister did themselves in when they came up with the 19th Amendment which included a neat escape clause for them to go around the size-limit pertaining to the cabinet.\u00a0 The kind of horseplay we have witnessed over the past few weeks could have been effectively prevented had they played statesman instead of politician, especially given theyahapalana<\/i> rhetoric they indulged in and the political momentum they had. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Make no mistake, this side of radical constitutional reform, we will continue to see these kinds of reshuffles by this and subsequent regimes.\u00a0 Whichever way the reshuffling is done, it will smack of pound-of-flesh demands, trying to balance necessity with the need to retain political stability by the purchase of loyalty, and ultimately a musical chairs game among the incompetent, greedy and corrupt except that the number of chairs will be a constant. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Things can be done differently.\u00a0 While conceding that different political formations with different histories and predilections produce different systems, the Swiss example does have some lessons which unfortunately our constitution-makers either ignored or were ignorant of.\u00a0 Switzerland, since 1948, has had just seven ministries which together are broad enough to cover all subjects.\u00a0 The titles of the ministries themselves are enshrined in the constitution. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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There are no escape clauses such as those embedded in the 19th Amendment.\u00a0 There are no ministerial goodies to be offered in return for switching political loyalty.\u00a0 The incompetent and corrupt cannot hide, if such be the case.\u00a0 There\u2019s no frenzied shuffling.\u00a0 The competent are known and are appointed.\u00a0 They have to work hard.\u00a0 They can\u2019t pass the buck.\u00a0 They can\u2019t say \u2018I couldn\u2019t do it because such and such institutions were not under my control.\u2019\u00a0 And, if anyone is found to be out of order, he or she will not be accorded the out of switching ministries with a colleague. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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We are not Switzerland.\u00a0 However, since there\u2019s a lot of talk about reforms and constitutional amendment, and since the entire cabinet reshuffle has taken the appearance of a circus, the sober thing to do would be for the President and the Prime Minister to revisit the clauses pertaining to the cabinet.\u00a0 Numbers matter, of course.\u00a0 Subjects however are more important.\u00a0 The reshuffling exercise has established this beyond a shadow of doubt. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer.\u00a0 malindasenevi@gmail.com<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Twitter: malindasene<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE President Maithripala Sirisena was hopeful.\u00a0 He said the Cabinet reshuffle will provide a new impetus to Sri Lanka’s development.\u00a0 Prof G.L. Peiris was generous.\u00a0 He said that it is unfair to blame Ravi Karunanayake for the economic failures and fiscal shortcomings of the government since he operated with clipped wings considering that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66421","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=66421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}