Reforming government

When the various colonial powers invaded and conquered areas of Sri Lanka, they adopted a system of administration which was a mixture of that from the metropolitan country and that which already prevailed here.

The Portuguese had a European administration - fundamentally feudal - superimposed on a parallel, modified version of the local feudal system.

The upper stratum of Portuguese and Mestee officers, ruled the lower, of Sinhalese and Tamil aristocrats and gentry. The Dutch Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (at the time the most advanced corporate body in the world) used European officers above indigenous and Mestee mudliyars and arachchis.

The ideal mixture - for the colonial power, that is - was achieved through a process of trial and error. For example, the English East India Company introduced its own ‘native’ officers from its Madras Presidency when it took over the Dutch-ruled Low Country in 1796. This led to a rebellion two years later, so the British reverted to the use of indigenous lower-level officers.

British administration

When the British took over the Kandyan Kingdom, the local aristocracy were suborned as native administrators, duplicating the Low Country system. The only major reform to come during the British administration was the abolishment of the Mudliyar system in the 1930s, when the Native Department of the colonial administration was closed.

Old Parliament building

The system of administration was fundamentally an exploitative one, intended to provide the highest possible income to the imperial power (and to its citizens and commercial corporations) at the lowest possible expenditure. It was this structure which was inherited by post-colonial governments.

In its own way, it was an excellent administrative arrangement, with precautions incorporated to prevent venality among employees and to ensure that incompetent officials didn’t hush things up. It incorporated records and precedents, established procedures and boiler-plate texts for dealing with all manner of situations.

However, three fundamental disadvantages stymie its ability to adapt to modern Sri Lankan society: (a) while fast for the era of letters and typewriters, it is slow for the era of email and computers (b) it tends to stunt innovation and initiative and, most crucially (c) it depends on clerical staff adequately trained and competent to carry out their duties.

Languages policy

In the first three decades after formal independence, there was little trouble with the administrative system left over by the British. The pace was slow, the need for innovation was limited and the clerical staff was excellent. Governments could tinker with and adjust the setup and introduce democratic modifications to make it more relevant to our culture, society and economic targets.

However, things started to unravel at the seams after about 1977. The first major strain was introduced by the post-1956 official languages policy. The problem was that, while Sinhala and Tamil were the official languages, the de-facto position was that English continued to be used for governance.

Fewer and fewer of the clerical staff were competent in English, as they were recruited based on their Sinhala and Tamil skills. The second major strain was the recruitment (particularly after the 1980 General Strike) of personnel who were below standard, and the arbitrary promotion and commendation of officials on the basis of political favouritism. Typical of the bizarre situations which ensued was the granting of a prize to a railway foreman for using a crane to lift weights above its safety limit.

Political experience

Thirdly, while the politicians who sat at the top of the government ladder had hitherto been highly educated or had experience of administration, they were now less educated and had no administrative experience. They began by-passing the system, using the advice of favourites and yes-men instead of that of the designated officers. Thus, fairly competent government officers found themselves having to work for less knowledgeable politicians, supported by less competent staff. The politicians, based on their political experience, began to chair ever larger and longer meetings of senior officials, leaving the latter with less time for more productive work.

The officers also found time at a premium. Changing situations meant that the old boiler-plate letters were no longer sufficient, while the clerical staff were no longer competent to formulate new texts. Hence, senior officers would spend a large part of their time drafting letters and correcting the numerous grammatical and typographical errors committed by the clerks - now merely glorified typists. Tools, such as computers are not used to the fullness of their capabilities, merely serving as word-processors for letter writing and image managers for the production of presentations. This is mainly because there is little on-the-job training in modern technology.

Job descriptions

Some officers simply gave up the fight altogether, only going through the motions - justifying this by the fact that they would anyway be blamed, whatever happened. This has meant an even greater load on the shoulders of the officers who do work.

Hence, red tape has become an almost insurmountable obstacle, blocking development activities. Corrupt officials actually use for their dishonesty the self-same mechanisms devised to prevent venality. Procedure has become an excuse for not doing anything.

There should be a broad-ranging systems analysis and conducted on the state administration and, together with operational research used to formulate new mechanisms to modernise and speed up the system - as well as more responsive to democratic needs. The requisite changes need to be carried out in such a manner as everybody concerned understands what is going on - so knowledge management expertise is required from specially appointed change supervisors.

In the meantime, the officers need to be retrained to make use of the latest techniques and technology. The clerical staff need to be retrained to undertake the job descriptions they are already supposed to be fulfilling. And politicians need to be retrained to deal with modern organisations and their requirements. Until these basic conditions are fulfilled, no amount of modification of the administration can succeed fully.