Ministers and ministers

Editorial-November 24, 2013, 8:31 pm 

Another member has been added to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Jumbo Cabinet. S. M. Chandrasena has been appointed Minister of Special Projects, whatever that means. He resigned last year as Minister of Agrarian Services and Wildlife to enable his brother, Ranjith, to be appointed the North Central Province (NCP) Chief minister in keeping with the government’s policy that two members of the same family could not function as a Cabinet minister and a chief minister. We pointed out in these columns at that time his resignation was a ruse and he would be reappointed to the Cabinet later. We also argued that it was ludicrous that in a country run by a single family the government didn’t allow a person to be appointed a chief minister simply because his brother was a Cabinet minister.

It is a mistake for a political party to field the family members of its elected representatives at elections in that the contestants benefit from its existing vote bank without delivering new votes as such. If Candidate A is a brother of Minister B, A usually wins with B’s votes.

Former NCP Chief Minister Bertie Premalal Dissanayake was disappointed that he was not reappointed CM after the UPFA’s victory last year and the government may have sought to prevent him from raising objections to Ranjith being appointed CM by getting Chandrasena to resign as a Cabinet minister. Dissanayake died a few weeks ago and Chandrasena must have got himself reappointed. There is no one to make an issue of his appointment to the Cabinet today. But, what has become of the government’s much-advertised policy that two brothers cannot hold ministerial posts? Logically, the NCP Chief Minister has to resign now. However, we are not so naïve as to expect him to do so.

The government, a wag says, hasn’t been fair by the handful of its parliamentarians who are not either Cabinet ministers or deputy ministers; it should go the whole hog and appoint all of them ministers. Now that we have a ministry for sugar, of all things, we should have separate ministries for rice, parippu, hominy, public conveniences, bullock carts and the like—we almost forgot the ideologically important kurakkan or finger millet, most of which is currently imported. If the number of government MPs is not enough for that purpose, let more Opposition members be lured into decamping and appointed ministers. (The new Cabinet, the wag says, could meet at the refurbished BMICH!)

Joking aside, it is regrettable that the government does not care two hoots about the colossal amount of public funds an ever expanding Cabinet gobbles up. Besides, we already have ministerial nitwits causing mayhem on public roads with their huge security contingents, and turning everything they lay their dirty hands on into a mess.

It may be that President Rajapaksa wants to assuage the resentment of party seniors who feel let down, by making them ministers, to prevent the disintegration of his government. The increasing size of Cabinets has also been blamed on coalition politics which has come to stay. All signs are that future governments will have to follow suit to remain in power. One way of overcoming this problem may be to amend the Constitution to prevent crossovers being appointed ministers and prescribe the number of ministers as in provincial councils. Political parties could formulate their own criteria for ministerial appointments with special emphasis on educational qualifications, efficiency, integrity etc so that dullards with king-sized egos could be left out. However, we know, that’s easier said than done!