Sri Lanka’s Pipe Dream
M.H.M Faizer
When JRJ swept into power he had a vision for Sri Lanka – a liberalized economy. To a great extent this dream was converted into a reality. Similarly Premadasa’s ‘Village Awakening’ program was realized to a good extent too! MR‘s determination to Liberalize Sri Lanka was well accomplished! When MS took over there was no such proclamation – and hence no dramatic performance – fair enough since an impending general election was anticipated in the next three months to follow after his win. The subsequent general election was won by the ruling party and the ruling party have just announced its intention of governing the affairs of the Country through a so called National Government – an arrangement where the Government will join hand with the opposition parties in running the country.
Whether a National Government or any other form ,the Government must announce its core vision – like Economic Liberalization of JR, Village Awakening from Premadasa and Peace thru War by MR.
The second mistake has already happened – the Jumbo size Cabinet of almost 50 Ministers!! In addition there will be State/Junior Ministers as well! India with 1.2 billion population has only around 27 Union Cabinet Ministers , 13 Independent State Ministers and 26 State ministers (Junior Ministers).The ratio of Cabinet ministers to population in India is around 1:48 million – that is, there is one Union Cabinet Minister for every 48 million people. Given Sri Lanka’s population and already announced number of Cabinet Ministers the ratio is expected to be around 1:1/2 million, that is, there is one Cabinet Minister for every half a million people. Statistically speaking, our cabinet is 96 times oversize vis a vis India in terms of the population parameter. A critic may calculate these ratios for countries like Singapore ( 19 Cabinet Ministers for a population of 5.5 million) and Maldives ( 18 Cabinet Ministers for a population of just 4 lacs ) and argue that Sri Lanka is in a favorable situation. This is not an argument since any country will need a critical minimum number to cover the basic subjects such as Finance, Defence, Education etc. What should be avoided is to create Ministers and Ministries for the sake of keeping a member happy and under control. For example we have even had Ministers for Sugar and Botanical gardens in the recent past. Read More
