The Rajapaksa State Barricades The NPC
By Kumar David -December 19, 2013 |
Prof Kumar David
Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran (CV) has enunciated a bitter testament of what it is like to run a provincial administration under the Rajapakse semi-dictatorship. I will quote from his statement anon. The seven UPFA Provincial Councils (PC) are phonies who stand up when told to, and squat when so instructed. The government treats them like spittoon bearers not administrations. Hence they are inept, riddled with scandal and incapable of regional development. Many dismiss the PC system as a monumental waste of money that delivers no useful output; this is true since they have zero autonomy and function as pliant instruments of Temple Trees. As long as PCs remained docile the problem was buried, but the birth of the Northern PC (NPC) upset the totalitarian apple cart. Anything that doesn’t cringe when the autocrat cracks his whip, obviously and by definition, is anathema. This is what has now come to pass in the North.
May I remind readers of what I said in this column on 11 August when election preparations were underway? My concern was an impending challenge, that is wilful obstruction by Centre, Governor, and a military accustomed to aggressive interference in civilian affairs. A second point I drew attention to was demilitarising the North and ending its de facto status as if occupied by an alien force. Third was recruiting talented people to build an energetic, able and efficient administration. CV has now bitterly complained of a deliberate and gigantic roadblock placed in his way by Centre and Governor in all three matters. A subculture of obedience to the military has so penetrated the sinews of serving provincial staff, he says, that his work programmes are obstructed. The implications are very far reaching; potentially catastrophic. Let me next offer you a few quotations from CV’s 10 December statement edited for length. (The full statement is on the Colombo Telegraph website).
