BY NEVILLE DE SILVA
Those who followed the intense campaigns ahead of the two elections in 2015 to oust Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government from power will probably recall the promises made with gay abandon by those who sought change.
Those who really believed the promised changes would come and clean government installed, must surely be wondering now whatever happened to the good governance that was to replace the autocratic regime of Rajapaksa with the attendant ills of nepotism, cronyism and clannishness that characterised it.
Among the plethora of pledges that was to turn Sri Lanka into a real wonder of Asia instead of a fake was the promise to make meritocracy the guiding principle in appointments to the public service and other state institutions.
It might be recalled how often Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe underlined the importance of meritocracy in the selection of officials to keep the mills of administration functioning efficiently and effectively.
One of the state institutions that suffered from nepotism and cronyism over the years was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mandated to run the country’s diplomatic service. Career diplomats who had entered the service after passing relevant examinations and worked to acquire higher educational qualifications and language skills often found themselves shunted aside.
Instead relatives, friends and political supporters with few, if any, qualifications and even less understanding of diplomacy and the country’s foreign policy were planted in important diplomatic positions that should really have gone to persons who had worked their way up in the service and some due to retire shortly.
This is not to say that all career service officials make capable diplomats or that all political appointees were rotten to the core and an unbearable burden on the country. There were those who made demands, which were often readily granted by the ministry because of their political or family connections.
Shortly after the January presidential election the newly elected foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera ordered the recall of political appointees functioning as heads of missions and later recalled other political appointees in lesser diplomatic posts.
Many believed that at last meritocracy would prevail and many of the career officers who had been sidelined to make way in our missions abroad for the ‘Chosen Ones’ would now regain lost opportunities.
Lakshman Kadirgamar as foreign minister worked out a ratio system whereby career officers fill 70 % of the top posts and 30% would be filled by non-career persons, generally nominees of ministers or others politically connected.
It was thought that Samaraweera would wipe the slate clean and appoint professionally competent and qualified career officers languishing in Colombo to most of the posts vacated by those who were recalled at his behest.
If it was thought that the diplomatic service would be transmogrified into an efficient and professional service run by intelligent and capable officers such hopes were quickly shattered.
Meritocracy was ditched even before it was tested. One set of unqualified individuals enjoying a happy life abroad at state expense was replaced by another set of generally lacklustre individuals. The story goes that some of them hardly knew what diplomacy meant, that several knew little or nothing of world affairs.
Some wag said that some of the newly appointed had to consult a world map to
Instead relatives, friends and political supporters with few, if any, qualifications and even less understanding of diplomacy and the country’s foreign policy were planted in important diplomatic positions.