Yahapalana Govt. must uphold the trust placed in good faith by the people
When the United National Party (UNP), the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and a coterie of small parties formed a formidable alliance which met with success when Maithripala Sirisena won the January 2015 presidential poll, many Sri Lankans were elated.
A few problems arose thereafter – problems that one would expect in an uneasy parliamentary co-habitation of this magnitude. However, the UNP and the Maithripala-led UPFA faction secured enough seats at the August 2015 general elections to form a government. Many voters who backed this regime placed their trust in this government in the hope that they would see an end to the earlier era of threats, intimidation, mismanagement and corruption.
Yahapalanaya or good governance was the flag-bearer of the new regime or so the people thought. Everything would be transparent.
Now good governance is being dragged through the mud, transparency is being throttled by the day and even ‘reasonable and right-thinking’ political and non-political architects of the wave that transformed this country in January 2015 are fast becoming disillusioned.
Key appointments have gone wrong, new subjects allocated to Ministries (such as Finance, Public Enterprises Development and National Policies and Economic Affairs) have created confusion. An element of chaos and interference has crept into the public service.
Disenchantment is growing. One group of senior officials who have been making regular trips to the Financial Crimes Investigation Division to give statements over decisions made by political appointees (chairmen of state organisations and ministers under the previous regime) fear they would have to take the entire blame for those bad decisions. Frustrated, some are considering retirement without seeking extensions.
An example of the chaos: The re-alloca-