Editorial - The first cabinet and today’s: what a contrast!

In this era of giant cabinets when few among the common people know who is the minister of what and what he or she is doing or not doing, we recall that it was on September 26 1947—64-years-ago that Sri Lanka’s first cabinet was sworn in. It comprised only 14 members who all made an historic contribution to the image and development of Sri Lanka. They were Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake who is also regarded as the Father of the Nation and ministers

Dudley Senanayake, J.R. Jayewardene, Sir John Kotalawela, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, C. Suntharalingam, A. Ratnayake, T.B. Jayah, C. Sittampalam, George E. De Silva, Sir Oliver Goonetilake, E.A. Nugawela, Sir Lalitha Rajapakse and Sir Senarath Gunawardena. Four of them went on to become Prime Ministers while J. R. Jayewardene who was the Minister of Finance went on to become the first Executive President of Sri Lanka in 1977.
Today, with the standards and values of party politics and politicians degenerating to the worst levels, we have seen the number of cabinet ministers being enlarged to a monstrous 67 with ten of them being described as senior ministers and only they themselves perhaps know what they are doing or supposed to be doing. In addition the people of the country have been saddled with the burden of maintaining 28 deputy ministers and two project ministers.

All of them are given a multitude of extravagant or super-luxury perks and privileges at public expense at a time when millions of people are struggling to provide basic food, shelter clothing, healthcare and educational needs of their families.
According to official figures as much as Rs. 20 million a day or  Rs.7,400 million per year are required to maintain the office of the Executive Presidency. The largest allocations in this year’s budget are allocated for ministries run by the Rajapaksa family.  The Ministry of Defence has been allocated Rs.290,000 million, the Ministry of Highways Rs.131,610 million,  the Ministry of Finance and Planning Rs. 87,460 million and the Ministry of Economic Development Rs.88,900 million. Thus the total allocated for these ministries is a staggering Rs. 604,880 million. While the total expenditure for the year is Rs.1,350,000 million.

In addition the people have to maintain the chairman and members of nine Provincial Councils and other local councils while the government is reported to be considering the appointment of 25 district ministers with wide powers and privileges. A Cabinet Minister told the Daily Mirror, that in the appointment of District Ministers priority would be given to young and upcoming parliamentarians of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance. That means more than two-thirds of the UPFA MPs will have some kind of ministerial rank with varying degrees of privileges and perks—all at public expense.

With Sri Lanka’s State finances known to be at a breaking point, with expenditure going as high as castles in the sky, while revenue is decreasing, most independent economists believe that austerity is the answer if the country is to be turned around towards the path of sustainable development based on a solid foundation. The people will respond to any call for austerity only if they see an example being set by the leaders. Therefore, as proposed by a party in the ruling alliance of 2005 the number of cabinet ministers needs to be reduced to about 20, with an equal number of deputies, while the other MPs and local council members need to be told to go out, be at the service of the people and work for the people.