The Story Of Successful Devolved Governance
By Mahesan Niranjan –September 10, 2015
Prof. Mahesan Niranjan
Fast forwarding to the Eighteenth of May 2016, we observe noisy scenes in the Sri Lankan Parliament. A few members insist that the Prime Minister should intervene and stop separation from happening. They are a noisy minority. The majority, however, agree with Prime Minster Wikramaathiththan’s stubborn stance: “The right to separation has already been subject to maximum devolution. The central government will not interfere.”
Gosh! Who is Prime Minister Wikramaathiththan, and how can he devolve the most sensitive topics in our politics – the right to separation?
The recently formed jumbo cabinet of ministers was a disappointment to several of you. “Have we gone back to the bad old days?” you worried. Distracted by that, you failed to notice an innovation, the appointment of a Minister for National Dialog.
*Photograph of King Wikramaathiththan capturing the ghost scanned from the author’s ampulimaamaa archives
“But we already have dialog no?” an aunt of mine remarked, thinking of the telephone company.
The new Ministry for National Dialog has, as a starting point of achieving their objectives, given new names, with minimal edits to their present ones, to the main characters in the governance of our country. The aim is to remind those in power that reconciliation starts by the thought experiment of putting yourself in the other man’s shoes.
“Let peace begin with me,” is the slogan written on the entrance to the new ministry.
Wikramaathiththan is one such name, the epistemology of which I will explain now, and leave others to your imaginations.
Regular readers of ampulimaamaa will know this character – a king whose job it was to catch a genie living in the banyan tree and bottle it. The genie was smart and each time he caught it, it would tell him a story to distract his attention and escape back the banyan tree. The king, however, was not someone to give up in the face of serial failures. He tried and tried, again and again, and in the most recent attempt had caught the genie. Will he be able to hold onto it, we are not sure yet.
