{"id":91419,"date":"2019-07-15T22:41:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T04:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91419"},"modified":"2019-07-15T05:37:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T12:37:09","slug":"selecting-leaders-to-reclaim-our-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/15\/selecting-leaders-to-reclaim-our-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Selecting Leaders to Reclaim Our Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

During the last so many years we have\nagonized over the unsatisfactory state of affairs in our body politic and the\nhelplessness of its citizens. If we are to survive this madness, simply\nswitching off or merely ridiculing the current crop of Parliamentarians will\nnot deliver. We must actively canvass our good intentions to rectify the gross\nabuses of the so-called democracy that we are corralled into. Our reform agenda\nshould be known to those around us and thereby encourage a vigorous debate about\nhow we plan to see happen. After almost five years of disenfranchisement we\nmust seize the upcoming opportunity to educate the public. Mere bleating will\nnot give us the future we deserve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the famous words of the French\nlawyer and philosopher, Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) that every nation gets\nthe government it deserves. If we lose interest by giving lame excuses, or wash\nour hands off the whole enterprise of politics then we will get the sort of government\nthat we deserve. It is understandable that many people of good intellect are\ndisengaged right now because of the parlous state of politics but we are a\nresourceful people once and we can do better. The opportunity will come at the forthcoming\nelections and hence let us be prepared. To do nothing is to acquiesce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What then are the steps to recovery? First,\nwe need to understand current reality with clarity. It must be grasped that it is\nnot the time to support candidates who are unable to garner a winnable\nproportion of votes. We need a candidate who has earned credits through past\nperformance to be at the starting point. We will not find candidates who are\ntotally unblemished. Even with certain misgivings we are duty bound to go for a\ncandidate who has the potential to muster more than 50 precent of the votes,\nTherefore the mushrooming, inexperienced new faces have to be cleared out for\nthe moment so as not to spoil the chances of one who can win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, stated very briefly the need of\nthe hour is a courageous leader with reasonable intellect, who is willing to\nwork with professional opinion, who can work according to plans and policies,\nwith the interests of the suffering people of this nation at heart.  That is real democracy at work. We need no\nnew laws. Such claims are a chimera to dupe the masses. The country has all the\nlaws necessary for good governance. But you must let the institutions that are\nthere work without crass political interference. The bureaucracy must be made\nto work efficiently. Let not the legislators dictate terms to the bureaucrat. The\nheads of departments should set the example by not heeding the politician\u2019s\ndictates. If they resign in disgust the whole working population must down the\ntools. Let the high end of the professions take the lead. We have seen how the 17th\namendment made matters worse. The Parliament, the role of the Speaker, the\nprocedures, and the opposition deserve their due place. Do not make the Parliament\na sick joke by getting rejects through the back door. Killing off democratic\ninstitutions is one sure way for nations to fail and we are just standing at\nthe edge. A law is a law, which has come through correct passage in the\nParliament. Not one that has been crookedly altered half way through. We need a\ndemocracy in the spirit of the law and not in the form of the law. Do not allow\nour Nation to Fail <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, we need to broaden democracy. The\nmodern state is too complex and Parliament will not have the intelligence by\nitself to administer the nation. We cannot get experts to adorn the seats at\nDiyawanna Oya. We are not a successful democracy because we have not reached\nthe kind of economic development coupled with high education and maturity to\nhave a sizeable middle class. For sixty per cent of the people life is a fight\nfor basic survival and elections are won through taxpayer\u2019s money offered as bribes\nand the country is made poorer after every election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constitutional Councils and Police\nCommissions fail because they are manipulated to appoint cronies to important places\nto do the bidding of the corrupt politician. But broadening democracy means a\nsenate or council of public men and women, experts not orators, a Council assisting\nthe popularly elected President. It is given adequate powers to curb\nirresponsible talk and action. The one thing that our country, steeped in debt,\nneeds is financial management by specialists. Britain set an example and\nprecedent in 1997 when it transferred control over interest rates from\npoliticians to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) whose advice cannot be\nignored by the politicians. In that MPC are four from the Central bank, an economist,\nan academic and two others with specialized knowledge. Vital aspects of our\nnation must be given to such Council(s) of excellence. Others like power and\nenergy, environment, come to my mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fourth is in the area of Defence and\nForeign policy. A person who has the interest of the country is desperately\nneeded. We need a patriot who can communicate with the world even without an\ninterpreter standing in the middle. Sri Lanka’s location is becoming  a matter of concern but Sri Lanka need not\nbuild military alliances with new emerging powers. Without compromising our non-aligned\nstance we need to keep them all at arms length and stay neutral from a military\nperspective. Having the nation’s interest at heart let us pursue economic\ncooperation and technological collaboration and maintain multiple links for\nmilitary training and joint exercises and be an independent friend in the\nIndian Ocean and not a power pawn of any super power.  We need a strong\nwilled patriotic individual assisted by professionals to lead the nation at the\nforthcoming contest. Time is of the essence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna During the last so many years we have agonized over the unsatisfactory state of affairs in our body politic and the helplessness of its citizens. If we are to survive this madness, simply switching off or merely ridiculing the current crop of Parliamentarians will not deliver. We must actively canvass our good intentions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-donald-chandraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91419","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=91419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}