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Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

The fact that power cuts are soon to be stopped is excellent news for a couple of reasons. Most important of course is that one can actually get work done systematically, at night as well as during the day. But I am also delighted that Karu has been vindicated.

The cynical will say - as Mahinda Rajapakse did on radio - that this owes more to the rain than anything else. But that Karu relied on that, as well as other measures, and was prepared to risk his job on this is also to his credit. And there is also that strange phenomenon called fortune, which is so important in politics, and here more than anywhere else because of the perceptions involved. The weather gods have suggested to the world now that Karu has good fortune, and that world, which was so sure a few months ago that he would fail, will now treat him with greater respect. Earlier, in the drawing rooms of Colombo, it was assumed that he was bound to fail. How silly he was, they said, to make rash promises.

He's not especially bright, he doesn't really understand about electricity. What I found most interesting about such remarks was that they were similar in tone to what was said about Ranil about a year previously. Not in content, for the two are obviously very different people. But the note of complaint was the same, when they said that Ranil was spineless, and the UNP would never win under his leadership. It needed someone with more energy - someone like Karu perhaps, or Gamini Athukorale.

But Ranil won an election and became Prime Minister. After that he could do no wrong. So there had to be others to criticize, and as always the next rank became the butt, not only of those who like to gossip, but of all those who need to prove their loyalty to the leader. So I remember, just a couple of days before Gamini Athukorale died, being told that the reason he and Karu had not been given especially important ministries was that they could not be trusted. My informant was a pillar of the UNP who would have liked to feel a total Ranil loyalist.

The real position however was made clear a few days later, in the excellent obituaries of Athukorale that appeared. These made clear that he had been critical of Ranil when he thought he was not acting decisively, but that afterwards he had been immensely energetic as well as totally committed to his leader's cause.

But of course it was difficult for them, and it will continue difficult for Karu. Being number two is always difficult, especially when one is temperamentally different from the number one. Fortunately it looks like Ranil and Karu have established a good working relationship, in which they rely on each other's strengths. These are complementary, as are perhaps their weaknesses (though Karu is I think more decisive than people give him credit for). So far then things have worked well. But this is Sri Lanka, and problems will continue to be caused by the sycophants who believe that the way to someone's heart is by doing someone else down. And even Dudley, as we know, nicest perhaps of our Prime Ministers, was susceptible to this sort of pressure - he put the CID on JR's trail, many years ago, during the machinations that led him to drop the District Councils Bill.

How best, apart from personal integrity and confidence, can such a situation be avoided in the future? The answer, it seems to me, lies in what Chekhov prescribed, hard work. The more people have to do, the clearer and larger their responsibilities, the less likelihood there is of idle chatter and speculation.

So I was heartened to hear a few weeks back that the initial plan within the UNP, before the election, had been that Karu would be given a mega-Ministry encompassing all public administration. He would have had charge not only of functions, such as those entrusted to the present Interior Ministry, but also structures, belonging now to Provincial Councils and Local Government, and in addition the whole business of reform in these areas, for which at present there is yet another Ministry.

Unfortunately, I was told, he had been asked to take on Energy because of the urgency of the question and, being a willing soul, he had obliged. Now I do not know if this story is true, but it certainly deserves to be. And now that the Energy problem has been solved, it would be ideal if he were entrusted with the much bigger problem of reform of the public sector. Certainly he can do it. His track record in the Municipality was excellent, and as he makes clear when addressing seminars on the subject, he can conceptualize in a way few politicians are able to.

Nivard Cabraal incidentally is another exception, which is doubtless why he has been left out even in the selection of Rs 22,000 advisors. The two of them together could probably push through the reforms of the Administrative Service, and of Administrative and Financial Regulations, that successive governments have talked about for so long, with no concrete results. I have to confess I don't suppose this will happen. As someone in the UN system put it, peace and the economy are such priorities that nothing else is getting the attention it deserves. But Ranil, as his recent speeches indicate, is quite able to handle the peace process, risks and all, insofar as any Sri Lankan politician can. Besides, he has Tyronne and Marapana, along with two of the best Secretaries in the business, to help.

Chari and Choksy are there for the economy, along with a plethora of bright young Ministers and Secretaries such as Faiz Mohideen and Ranjith Fernando. But now, and even more in the future, we need a solid administrative system if we are to move forward. Someone with a vision should head that area. It would be a shame, now that the first challenge has been met, not to use Karu more productively to deal with a much more serious breakdown in the system than periodic blackouts.

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