On enhancing and sustaining good governance
- Including a flashback to a pre-presidential election thought of 2005, with reflections on a statement made in Parliament by a former Finance Minister, 40 years ago
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Flashback 2005
“My question to all people’s representatives in the legislature and key public officials is this. Was the legislation referred to by the former Minister brought to Parliament? Was it passed? If not what statutory measures exist – through either the existing codes or specific statutes – which will act as a deterrent to the type of actions and resultant risks to the country? In lighter vein, the money wasted on this project could have funded millions of bags of free fertiliser and millions upon millions of glasses of free milk! However on a serious note, if that money was ploughed into rural roads, buses, access to safe drinking water, electricity, rural schools and hospitals – almost 30 years ago – which was even before we “opened the economy” or knew what “privatisation” meant – even to bash the bad ones around, we could have bridged income as well as digital divides and reduced the regional disparities about which there is so much natural concern today. Then the pledges of today’s political parties, about fertiliser or milk would have been relatively redundant.” – Ranel Wijesinha, November 2005.
