Ministers wailing before the masses

It is ludicrous that while people are suffering from severe shortage of essential goods such as domestic gas and milk powder and a threat of imminent long hours of power cuts is looming, ministers who are responsible for resolving these issues are pointing finger at each other in public and attempting to absolve themselves from their responsibilities.  

As some main power stations have already been closed due to inadequate fuel supply, and water level of several main power generating reservoirs is fast dwindling, the Energy Minister Udaya Gammnapila has been telling media that he would be able to supply fuel for the power stations only if the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) paid the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for fuel in dollars. And the Power Minister Gamini Lokuge in turn tells the media it was the responsibility of the CPC to supply fuel to the power stations in accordance with the regular order placed with the CPC.  

Again the Energy Minister tells the media that unless a daily one-and-a-half hour power cut is implemented now, a four-hour power cut would be inevitable in April. Then the power Minister replies to that statement also again in the media posing a question to the Energy Minister on what basis he calculated the duration of power cut in a period three months ahead and reminds the latter his responsibility to supply fuel to the CEB, which is acceptable for argument’s sake.   

Making a statement to the media means it is made to the people. Then what is the use in one minister making a statement to the people accusing another and latter blaming the former in turn? People do not have answers to the questions that are raised by the ministers nor do they have solutions to the problems. It is the responsibility of the ministers to resolve the issues collectively and not to attempt to absolve themselves from their individual responsibilities.   

When the Energy Minister advises the Power Ministry to implement power cuts in his statements to the media, people feel that he is trespassing into the Power Minister’s area of purview. And the Power Minister also seems to be replying in the same line of thinking. Ministers can and should discuss matter out of their scope of responsibilities at the Cabinet meeting. Going public criticizing each other without taking tangible collective decisions at the Cabinet meeting to resolve the problems faced by the country and the people is nothing but breaching of collective responsibility of the Cabinet enshrined in the Constitution.   

This is not the only occasion when the Ministers fail to speak in one voice. For instance, they make various comments on the flawed decision to switch to organic farming in one cultivating season, instead taking collective action to resolve the issue. Ministers are also hiding themselves when journalists question if the rice that is to be imported was produced by organic farmers.   

The most serious immediate question that the country is faced with now is the unprecedented foreign exchange crunch which has become a vicious cycle. Despite the politicians in the government attempting to put the blame for the situation on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is in fact a secondary cause. The main reason is the flawed developmental policies of the successive government and the pandemic only helped expedite the inevitable outcome of them.   

In spite of students of economics being taught at schools and universities that a country can strengthen its foreign reserves only by diversifying the economy and increasing the local production of essential goods and import substitutes, those students after taking up high positions in politics and the bureaucracy did not want to implement what they have learnt, for the past 74 years since Independence. Even after Sri Lanka was alerted on the issue during the tenure of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1970s with a severe foreign exchange crisis which created a famine-like situation, leaders of every successive government thought of only the next election, instead of next generation. They implemented sometimes mega projects which have by now proved not to be the real development. We do not have a solution even now, except for empty slogans and chest-thumping.   

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his recent policy statement at the opening of the new session of the Parliament called on all political forces to unite to face the current critical situation. It is a healthy sign in respect of governance but it is also a time when the government has to accept its mistakes and mishandling of issues and to first speak in one voice.