Rewiring Government

The week-old new government has plunged into the deep end of controversy straightaway with president Gotabaya Rajapaksa anointing himself with the portfolio of defence, notwithstanding the 19th amendment to the constitution that seemingly prohibits the president from holding any ministerial office.

That said, however, that the president has been careful not to gazette the appointment which technically makes it not legally binding and thus attracting a full blown constitutional crisis is noteworthy. The legality of the appointment cannot, therefore, be challenged in a court, but then what was the indecent hurry in what was at best, “flirting with the law”.

No official statement has been made over the controversial decision though a cabinet minister justifying the move argued that a two-thirds parliamentary majority was a sufficient mandate to do so. There lies the danger of it all; the inherent danger of the new government using its landslide parliamentary majority of last week to justify anything and everything.

The president was overtly careful not to engage in any controversy over the issue upon his election in november last year, studiously avoiding allocating for himself that portfolio. Come the august 5 landslide victory, and a two-thirds “mandate”, and he has been emboldened enough to take for himself the ministry without even bothering to seek an opinion from the supreme court on the matter, or waiting for a constitutional amendment to 19a. Whatever, it is the constitution and the spirit of the constitution also matters.

there are arguments that support the view that the constitution has entrenched provisions granting an elected president the “defence of the nation”, and logically they argue, it entitles him to hold the portfolio. Also, if an executive president as head of state can be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as head of government should he not be entitled to be the minister of defence? This has also been adjudicated previously by the supreme court that held the president ought to be the defence minister, but that was prior to 19a.

Even the incumbent president has been wary of testing the waters of this provision, careful not to trespass on any possible constitutional landmine -- until it seems, this landslide “mandate” came about. If this is to mean anything, it shows that the government is willing to push the constitutional barriers aside under the cover of the “mandate” manthra.

Not many would be in the know to fathom what is cooking in the form of promised changes to 19a. This week's cabinet appointments have made it clear as clear can be, that the powers-that-be gave a clear message to those who did not stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them during their time in the opposition, i.e the slfp mps who have been given 'stepmotherly’ treatment in cabinet appointments.

The writing was on the wall even before the election that these slfpers were to be treated shabbily. The chief organiser of the slpp made it public with exceptionally harsh remarks that these slfpers who were within their own coalition came smeared with sewage and had to be cleansed before they were embraced. The slpp will, however, be mindful that the slfp has more than a dozen mps in their 145-seat alliance and any blowback from that party could torpedo constitutional amendments planned by the new government.

What is still more interesting, if not more concerning to some, is another recent statement from the same chief organiser of the slpp. He says the slpp has modelled itself on the lines of two parties from abroad -- india's bharatha janatha party (bjp) and the chinese communist party (ccp), the two largest political parties in the world.

This might well send shivers down the spines of many for different reasons. The bjp is an unequivocally majoritarian hindutva (hindu nationalist ideology) party and the ccp runs that country as a one-party state. It is a deadly combo to follow. Both have a robust political philosophy -- the bjp revolving around the personality cult of its leader, and the ccp brooking no opposition and exercising the powers of a virtual parliament.

Both are engines of the growing economic power-houses of india and china respectively; pro-free market, almost capitalist in outlook dedicated to uplifting the mass of people in both countries who are plagued by poverty and economic inequality.

Gone seem to be the days when sri lankan political parties emulated british parties, like the labour party or in the case of the unp, the conservative parties of the world. It is a new era for sri lanka's political parties, at least for the winners of the august 5 elections.

Whether president rajapaksa subscribes to all of this is uncertain. He has not made any specific pronouncements on a political philosophy other than his 'saubagya dakma' (vistas of prosperity and splendour) which he has well and truly incorporated into his 'principles of state policy', so to say.

The fact that he has even taken the district secretaries (former government agents) and the divisional secretariats under the defence ministry signals his intention to run the country himself with a direct, hands-on approach. It is significant that there is no home minister and it would appear that the president is the virtual minister. Equally significant is that no deputy or state minister has so far been appointed to be answerable to parliament for the defence ministry.

President rajapaksa is out to reboot -- or rewire government. In relaunching or rebranding a rajapaksa government, whether he thinks government -- and parliament -- is the problem and not the solution to the country's problems, he has to work with them.

President rajapaksa has been unable to reboot/rewire the cabinet for a start. It is a case of old wine in new bottles. His picks of professionals have not been included in it, barring one. His revising the public service, from what has been seen in the period between the two elections was to draw from the only known source of personnel, i. e. Retired military officers.

Is rebooting the whole system an impossible job? President rajapaksa will not think so. He didn’t think winning the war against the ltte was an impossible task. Now, he and his brother, the prime minister, have time, and a parliamentary majority on their side. Yet many governments come with new ideas, and roosevelt type new deals only to end up a cropper because the government machinery does not work. It is not a rolls royce engine or super computer. To rewire/ reboot it will take some doing.