Wigneswaran’s Seven Precepts And The Missing One
By Hema Senanayake -October 19, 2013
Hema Senanayake
The word precept means ‘a general rule intended to guide or regulates behavior or thought.’ In his inaugural speech, the Honorable Chief Minister Mr.Wigneswaran has set seven precepts for the elected officials of the NPC. He said “At this juncture, I consider it appropriate to put forward Seven Principles that are emphasized in public life.”
Those are (1) Selflessness, (2) Integrity, (3) Objectivity, (4) Accountability, (5) Openness, (6) Honesty and (7) Leadership.
He also gave the reference where he took them. He explained “When John Major was Prime Minister of Britain, he appointed a Committee headed by Nolan to examine and to report to him about principles that those engaged in public life should adhere to. The Committee studied the issues and submitted its First Report in 1996. The above principles were the unanimous conclusions and recommendations of that Committee.” By citing the reference he tried to intimate that those principles are well accepted in the West.
I agree that those principles or precepts are good. However when comes to governance at provincial or at national level there is one more essential precept. I name it as the “collective intelligence.” Democracy and governance usually fail due to lack of it.
French Philosopher Pierre Lévy defines collective intelligence as, “It is a form of universally distributed intelligence, constantly enhanced, coordinated in real time, and resulting in the effective mobilization of skills. I’ll add the following indispensable characteristic to this definition: The basis and goal of collective intelligence is mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals (knowledge).”Read More
Hema Senanayake
Wigneswaran’s Framework
Malinda Seneviratne
Ex-judge C.V. Wigneswarn is now a politician. These are early days of his political career. Early days are typically made of words. Time will tell us more of ‘deed’ and the distance these have to rhetoric. We are not talking of the campaign rhetoric, which typically tends to gravitate to vote-getting imperatives. It is well known that manifestos are junked after election and mandates re-worded to match ambitions and justify decisions. Even in this sense we are still in ‘early days’ as far as Wigneswaran and the Northern Provincial Council are concerned.
Considering all this, it is important to give the man breathing space, to overlook tendentious utterance and in general accord him the benefit of the doubt. In these ‘early days’, Wigneswaran, even his most vocal detractors must admit, has succeeded in painting himself as a different kind of politician; time will tell whether he warrants the tag ‘Statesman’, for this requires a lot of deed to go with the lot-of-word the man is made of. He has nevertheless made some pertinent and refreshing pronouncements.
His outcome-preferences notwithstanding (one never known ‘true intent’ and he cannot do worse than other politicians, seasoned or otherwise, belonging to whatever community, whatever party), Wigneswaran has clearly spelled out the parameters of democratic and civilized process as the non-negotiables. In other words, if preferred outcomes are not yielded by the processes permitted by this operational frame, Wigneswaran would say ‘hard luck!’.
What is this frame? Read More
