{"id":86590,"date":"2013-05-12T00:11:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T18:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=86590"},"modified":"2013-05-16T13:26:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T07:56:06","slug":"gota-backbone-mahindas-ability-and-gemunus-pragmatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gota-backbone-mahindas-ability-and-gemunus-pragmatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Gota’s ‘Backbone’, Mahinda’s ‘Ability’ And Gemunu’s Pragmatism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The President of the Private Bus Owner\u2019s Association, Gemunu Wijeratne, has demanded that the Ministry of Private Transport Services be taken off C.B. Ratnayake.\u00a0 He wants President Rajapaksa to handle it himself.\u00a0 Wijeratne, moreover, has opined that only the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urband Development, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> has the backbone to resist political interference and vanquish what he calls \u2018transport terrorism\u2019 .\u00a0 He was prompted, he said, by the prevalence of corruption, mismanagement and numerous other problems that beset this sector.<\/p>\n

With that request, Gemunu Wijeratne has offered a nutshell description of all things political in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Let us elaborate.<\/p>\n

First of all it indicates a notion of where power really resides.\u00a0 If, for example, all power is concentrated in a particular individual, position or administrative apparatus, and if those individuals or institutions so endowed are not in the practice of delegating authority, then it would be a rank waste of time to address grievance or proposal to lesser entities.\u00a0 One has to query only those who can or will answer, those who have decision and directive.<\/p>\n

Thus, in this instance, Wijeratne\u2019s is not just a no-confidence motion on the relevant subject minister, C.B. Ratnayake but a pragmatic recommendation consequent to an honest appraisal of prevailing political realities.<\/p>\n

In an earlier instance, when several students of Jaffna University had been arrested on suspicion of trying to resurrect the LTTE<\/a><\/span>, President Rajapaksa ordered them released, following an appeal by their parents and a verbal guarantee from them that their progeny would \u2018behave\u2019 thereafter.\u00a0 TNA MP M Sumanthiran<\/a><\/span> welcomed the decision at the time, but made the pertinent observation that it should not have come to a point where the President had to issue a directive.<\/p>\n

A few years before, a hitherto unknown individual, climbed atop a tall post in Vihara Maha Devi Park, demanding that the President intervene to resolve his various problems.<\/p>\n

More recently, i.e. on Friday, the matter of the controversial arrest and detention of former Deputy Mayor of Colombo Azath Salley<\/a><\/span>, was resolved in a similar manner, with Salley, in a sworn affidavit, explaining his position (including ignorance about the organization that had invited him to speak) and appealing for presidential intervention.<\/p>\n

Wijeratne, thus, has condemned all politicians and public servants as being incompetent and\/or corrupt. Only the President<\/a><\/span> can sort things out, he concludes.\u00a0 The flip side of the \u2018cannot\u2019 and \u2018will not\u2019 of official and minister, then, is the \u2018can\u2019 and \u2018will\u2019 of the President and his brother.<\/p>\n

Wijeratne\u2019s statement raises certain questions. Is it a question of competence, sloth, fear or not having authority (which could have been wrested formally or informally)?\u00a0 Is this state of affairs a product of constitutional provision (or lack thereof) or politico-administrative culture\/realities?\u00a0 Has the President (and his brother), in order to get things done or because he has the power and the will or because he wants to impose will on each and every matter, subverted institutional processes, rendering institution and official irrelevant?\u00a0 Is this the \u2018full manifestation\u2019 of the powers vested in the office of the President by the 1978 Constitution<\/a><\/span>?<\/p>\n

The truth is that when Gotabhaya Rajapaksa takes on a task (eliminating terrorism, cleaning up Colombo) he goes about it in a methodical and relentless manner.\u00a0 He will not let politicians re-draw game plans.\u00a0 Being the brother of the all-powerful executive president helps in a big way, no one will disagree, but that indicates feudalism if not anything else which perhaps what Sri Lanka has been post-Independence, the plus point being that Gotabhaya (as Wijeratne and many others believe) gets things done.<\/p>\n

But can one man (or two) do everything?\u00a0 Is fear inhibiting officials?\u00a0 Does this indicate that our entire institutional arrangement is a non-performing behemoth?\u00a0 Are we individual-focused and system-dismissive?\u00a0 If so have we always been like that or is this a post-1978 issue?\u00a0 Or is it a \u2018Mahinda Rajapaksa Regime\u2019 peculiarity (both the dependence, structured or on account of charisma and assertion, as well as the ability to deliver)?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s obviously a lot of power and a corresponding magnitude of dependence.\u00a0\u00a0 The only problem is that both the President and his brother are human.\u00a0 They can err and they too can get exhausted.\u00a0 What then?\u00a0 What \u2018thereafter\u2019?\u00a0 When systems are not used, they first become irrelevant and then they perish.<\/p>\n

Wijeratne has not elaborated. He\u2019s a here-and-now kind of operator.\u00a0 But he has said it \u2018as it is\u2019, at least the \u2018what matters\u2019 in the business of getting things done.\u00a0 But President Rajapaksa can only do so much and that holds for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa too.\u00a0\u00a0 Some might cheer the fact, some might worry. Either way, the indictment on institutions and officials is cause for concern, not applause.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":78746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nGota's 'Backbone', Mahinda's 'Ability' And Gemunu's Pragmatism - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gota-backbone-mahindas-ability-and-gemunus-pragmatism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gota's 'Backbone', Mahinda's 'Ability' And Gemunu's Pragmatism - 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