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by Leo A. E. Fernando

In a Sunday newspaper recently it was reported that a Minister had abused his permanent secretary who had refused to carry out an order issued to him to appoint a less qualified person to a post in a foreign funded project. The Secretary in question had even informed the Minister that his illegal order could give rise to a fundamental rights case against the Secretary, who under the normal rules of the Establishments Code would have to pay compensation and other fines etc. ordered by the Supreme Court.

The power of the ballot

This is the type of political masters Sri Lanka's Cabinets have been packed with in the past for reasons of political expediency. In the recent past has a record of numerous instances of politicians, both of the central government and local government, taking the law into their hands threatening police officers, medical officers, hotel employees et al. and indulging in criminal acts or other acts of abuse of power.

There is no mechanism to bring the miscreants to book except at an election as the political bosses of the governing party are compelled to follow a policy of appeasement without upsetting the balance of political power and endangering their survival. At the end of the day the law abiding citizens of the country have to put up with the lawlessness and unruly behaviour of these professional power seeking politicians paying higher taxes.

Instances of abuse of power and making wrong policy decisions on issues of national importance are legion. Policy decisions made by one regime are reversed by the next regime at immense cost to the nation not only in terms of money but also in terms of lives.

It is appropriate at this stage to list such instances where ill-considered policy decisions had to be completely overturned to correct the wrongs perpetrated:

* The "Sinhala Only" Language Act

* Nationalisation (Insurance, Plantations, etc)

* Abolition of the Independent Public Service Commission enabling the Cabinet and its Ministers to make appointments and take disciplinary action

* Schools takeover

* Change of medium of instructions for higher education

* Standardisation of marks for admission to universities

* The Job Bank system of recruitment enabling government MPs to choose candidates in the first instance.

Except in two instances, the schools takeover and the change of medium (only partially changed) all the other bad policy decisions have been completely revoked. It is necessary also to list the other sins of omission and commission on the part of the Heads of State to remind ourselves of the evils of the one man presidential system of governance.

* Promotion of the Police Inspector found guilty in the Ms. Vivenne Gunawardene case,

* Inaction after the stoning of the houses of judges,

* Compulsory leave of the Actg. Auditor General for refusing to carry out an illegal order,

* Removal of the Chairman of the Education Public Service Commission (Mr. V. L. Weerasinghe) on a similar matter.

* Using the power of pardon on the accused sentenced to jail for assaulting doctors in the Galle Hospital as he had joined the government party,

* Obtaining letters of resignation from MPs of the governing party,

* Handing over arms and money to the LTTE,

* Sending away the Indian Peace Keeping Force before the LTTE handed over arms,

* Usurping the powers of ministers in the appointment of board members of corporations,

* Ordering the 600 policemen to surrender to the LTTE only to be massacred by it,

* Coercing the chairmen of the two state banks to grant loans to businessmen, party supporters, without collateral,

* Granting a reprieve to a party supporter just before elections,

* Waiving customs duty leading to the indictment of the Customs Chief,

* Planning to build a Presidential Palace and Speaker's residence costing Rs. two billion,

* Spending money unnecessarily on the aborted referendum,

* Importing 44 luxury vehicles including 18 BMWs and 8 Mercedes Benzes costing Rs. 1. 2 billion,

* Interference in the activities of the Bribery Commission by summoning witnesses, This list is by means an exhaustive list. The litany of sins on the part of politicians past and present will run into several pages. Suffice it to state that the people of the country have not forgotten the following scandalous events:

* A minister presiding at a high level Tender Board, The Thawakkal Affair,

* Dictating to the cabinet appointed tender board on railway locomotives to select the French tender (The chairman resigned),

* A minister forcing the release of a traffic offender who was arrested by the Borella Police,

* Politicians from the South soliciting commissions on a road development project,

* Appointment of retired apothecary as a consultant in administration in a central government ministry,

* State land grabbing by government party politicians then and now,

* The sons of three Ministers getting involved in shooting incidents with the moral support of the security officials of the ministers concerned,

* Violence laced Wayamba provincial elections with no inquiry.

Some of these politicians belonging to the ruling parties, then and now, are guilty of such acts of grand treachery against the public which in a Communist state like China or Cuba would have earned them the supreme penalty, capital punishment. There were stories floating around, not without foundation, that some politicians owned chalets in Switzerland, apple orchards in Australia and houses in Central London and grand palaces here.

Although there are few good and honourable ministers and parliamentarians among the bad eggs the entire cabinet and the governing party is tarnished by the outrageous behaviour of the rest. It must be conceded that the few honourable persons belong to a highly educated class and they are fully capable of handling the affairs of the state in a kind of coalition with public officials who have a proven track record in a new paradigm of governance as under the Donoughmore constitution.

A new paradigm of government is indicated not only to prevent more instances of corruption, abuse of power and bad behaviour on the part of politicians for whom "survival in politics" is the governing principle of life but for another important reason, namely the ineffectiveness of the Westminster cum Elysee amalgam" of government imposed on the voters who have been merely changing pillows, as it were, to rid the ruling inept governments after every six years.

Like the experience of the people in the 17th, and 18th centuries under Portuguese and Dutch rulers we have been only duped throughout the last five decades by the politician rulers. Where is the means and proof of accountability in the case of politicisation? They only reigned and ruined.

The conduct of the government party coalition versus the opposition and vice versa has always been confrontational, vindictive and at best defensive and never cooperative or helpful for whatever reason except when the issue pertains to receiving perks-pensions and Pajeros-at public expense. Based on the political history of the past fifty years it is difficult to envision a time when our politicians will change their attitudes and their philosophy of political life. Once in power they will forget the promises made at election time and revert to their bad old ways.

Once out of office they will ally with even the devil to come back. The politicians responsible for thwarting the previous initiatives at solving the ethnic problem, the Bandaranaike-Chelvanaykam Pact and the Dudley Chelvanayakam Agreement, are to be seen, now exposed, in both parties which alternately ruled and ruined the country. And the cost of it 60,000 lives and Rs. 600 billion or more.

Some questions have to be asked from the politicians of all parties that have been in power (and from even members of he opposition now) viz.

1. How many of them employed close relatives like wives, sons and daughters and cousins as private secretaries and coordinating officers and consultants when these jobs could have been offered to other deserving persons on merit?

2. How many of them imported luxury vehicles on duty free concessions and mortgaged or "sold" them on open papers? Is there a mechanism to check on the proper use of these vehicles by MPs?

3. How many of them have been appointed as heads of diplomatic missions after defeat or retirement when those positions should have been held by the more deserving professional members of the Overseas Service?

4. How many of them took personal interest in taking revenge by transferring public officers for alleged political reasons or acquiring land of their rivals?

5. At what cost is security being maintained at public expense for parliamentarians when they need not have entered politics if they had such a morbid fear for their life? As a result the services of the security staff are not available to control the weave of crime. 9. What is the justification for paying out an additional allowance to MPs for attending sessions of Parliament when they are already paid a pensionable salary?

The public are well aware of the contrasting scenario of Indian ministers using the home made Ambassador cars for transport.

It is time that parliamentarians get together and work as a joint task force. This cannot be done under the current one man/woman presidential system-cum-PR parliamentary system of elections and party politics. About a year ago, a very distinguished economist of this country addressing the annual sessions of the OPA made a case for a sort of "elitism" in governance. By this it was assumed that he was envisaging a model similar to Plato's theory of government by a "philosopher king". But a one man show can be disastrous as illustrated by the examples mentioned above unless he were a real philosopher-god. Such persons will not be found in this part of the world.

Though the idea is utopian there is some sense if this model can accommodate a group of elitist politicians who are not so difficult to find in our country. Such an elitist corps of politicians are already around in our parliament. They will be the future ministers who should govern. But they will not allow party affiliations to influence their policy making and policy implementation, after being nominated by the respective party, after an election, according to the proportion of votes received by that party.

The rest of the MPs will, as in the days of the State Council, serve as quasi advisers and take part in policy making at the meetings of the respective Executive Committee.

However, there will also be a corps of elitist public officials like the three Secretaries under the Donoughmore system. As these officials will not belong to any political party they will serve as a bulwark against any form of political interference, extravagance and excesses on the part of the MPs. The elitist ministers and officials will be senior members of a profession (like Presidents Councels, specialist medical doctors, senior accountants) or members of the academic community with at least Masters level research degrees and qualifications.

The portfolio of Finance should be held by an official member as under the Donoughmore Constitution. Capital or development expenditure budgets in the long term will be prepared by a Planning Commission as in India, consisting of economists/bankers and private sector businessmen. Its chairman should be an official member of the Board of Ministers. The Prime Minister naturally will be chosen by the President from the party that commands a majority of Members in Parliament.

The ministers should be held accountable i.e. being not only answerable in word but also being liable to surcharges as in the case of politicians of local bodies. The President will be only a figure head like the Queen of England or former Governors enjoying similar powers and privileges but not immunity from court action and will be appointed by the Board of Ministers, holding office for ten years i.e.longer than the life of Parliament. The Constitutional Council should be empowered to recommend the appointment of chairmen and board members of corporations and ministry secretaries.

There is at present hardly any differences in the policies of the two major parties and it is most unfortunate that they should be always at each others throats instead cooperating to build the nation that is just rising from the ashes. The public are well aware that election pledges put out in party manifestos are never fulfilled. A policy framework jointly agreed by the party leaders at the first meeting of the Board of Ministers in conformity with the plans of a permanent Planning Commission should constitute the action plan for development.

This model, based essentially on the system of government prevalent in the thirties and early forties, will retain the party system while ensuring the participation of the defeated parties also in governing. As reported in the press, this system has the support of many political scientists and even politicians themselves. There was a time when politicians used the hustings to canvas votes by criticising rival candidates using humour and irony in language and even verse and song. But now political meetings are no longer pleasant occasions to the voter due to the danger to life from acts of thuggery and the gun culture in vogue for which politicians must take the blame.

It is time also that the number of elections where so much blood is shed and the number of local level politicians, should diminish. A small country like ours does not need three tiers of politicians. Many writers to the press have expressed the wish to do away with the provincial level of government which has only proliferated half backed and semi literate politicians and a fat bureaucracy at public expense. A new federal system of government should ensure that the number of politicians living off the income of the public is reduced to the minimum. Retaining or rejecting the PC system of provincial administration should be decided at a referendum which also will decide on the acceptance of the new constitutional proposals.

In a way this is not a new paradigm. Only the broad outline is spelt out here and the details can be worked out by an expert group of senior politicians, professionals and constitutional pundits. The OPA and the National Chambers of Commerce and Industry should have a role to play in working out the details. Sri Lanka can longer wait for the country to be ruled by semi literature demagogue-politicians who rule with words only. We need elitist men and women who are numerate and professionals, who have the capacity to analyse policies with the participation of the representatives of the people in the wider interest of the country instead of for their political survival.

An alternative to this old Executive Committee system of government would be to handover the country to Britain which would most certainly do a better job as can be inferred from the examples of Gibralta, Falklands and till recently Hong Kong whose people preferred to stay under British rule despite the cultural differences.

(The writer is a retired member of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants)

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