Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara 7.9.2015 (Updated)

 The following list shows the list of Cabinet Ministers sworn in on 4^th Sept 2015

 Cabinet Ministers

1. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe – Minister of National Policy & Economic Affairs
2. John Amaratunga – Minister of Tourism Development & Christian Affairs
3. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera – Minister of Sustainable Development & Wildlife
4. Nimal Siripala de Silva – Minister of Transport
5. S.B. Dissanayake – Minister of Social Empowerment & Welfare
6. W.D.J. Seneviratne – Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations
7. Lakshman Kiriella – Minister of University Education & Highways
8. Anura Priyadharshana Yapa – Minister of Disaster Management
9. Susil Premajayantha – Technology, Technical Education & Employment
10. Thilak Janaka Marapana – Minister of Law and Order & Prison Reforms
11. Dr Rajitha Senaratne – Health, Nutrition & Indigenous Medicine
12. Ravi Karunanayake – Minister of Finance
13. Mahinda Samarasinghe – Minister of Skills Development & Vocational Training
14. Vajira Abeywardena – Minister of Home Affairs
15. S.B. Nawinne – Minister of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development & Cultural Affairs
16. Patali Champika Ranawaka – Minister of Megapolice & Western Development
17. Mahinda Amaraweera – Minister of Fisheries & Water Resources
18. Naveen Dissanayake – Minister of Plantation Industries
19. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya – Minister of Power & Renewable Energy
20. Duminda Dissanayake – Minister of Agriculture
21. Wijedasa Rajapaksa – Minister of Buddha Sasana
22. P. Harrison – Minister of Rural Economic Affairs
23. Ranjith Maddumabandara – Minister of Public Administration & Management
24. Gayantha Karunathilake – Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media
25. Sajith Premadasa – Minister of Housing & Construction
26. Arjuna Ranatunga – Minister of Ports & Shipping
27. M. K. A. D. S. Gunawardana – Minister of Lands
28. P. Digambaram – Minister of Upcountry New Villages, Estate Infrastructure& Community Development
29. Chandrani Bandara – Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs
30. Thalatha Athukorala – Minister of Foreign Employment
31. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam – Minister of Education
32. D.M. Swaminathan – Minister of Resettlement & Hindu Affairs
33. Chandima Weerakkody – Petroleum & Petroleum Gas
34. Dayasiri Jayasekara – Minister of Sports
35. Sagala Ratnayake – Minister of Southern Development
36. Harin Fernando – Telecommunication & Digital Infrastructure
37. Mano Ganesan – Minister of National Dialog
38. Daya Gamage – Minister of Primary Industries
39. Rauff Hakeem – Minister of Urban Development & Water Supply
40. Rishad Bathiudeen – Minister of Industries & Commerce
41. Kabeer Hashim – Public Enterprise Development
42. Mohamed Hashim Abdul Haleem – Minister of Postal Service & Muslim Affairs

This list does not include the following three Ministries.

Minister of Finance, Justice and Resettlement who were sworn in earlier

This list also does not have Ministers for Local Government, Trade and Food

Probably they must be within the 4 or 5 to be appointed in few days as it goes increasing

45 State and Deputy Ministers are also yet to come

I do not want to make any comment on the quality or the capacity of individuals as everyone in this country knows who they are. So I will make few pertinent observations only with regard to its number, format and classification.

Those Ministries marked in red could be easily dropped without any problem and they could be combined with those marked in black on a rational basis.  For example like Agriculture and Irrigation, Youth and Sports and Transport and Roads but certainly not like Education and Highways. Thus the number of Ministries could have been easily reduced to about 20 if the Government is serious in economy, efficiency and good governance. Before elections there was much talk for the need for a smaller Cabinet and scientific classification of Ministries and duties to be assigned on a functional relationship basis. But this looks a classic hotchpotch. It is ridiculous and disgusting for any country to have a list of Ministers like this. The whole world will laugh its guts out at this Ranil-Sirisena invention. 

Highlights

Too many ministries

No scientific and rational classification of Ministries or assignment of duties

No Ministry for Kandyan Peasants numbering over 6 million natives who the poorest of the poor in this country

Multiplication of utterly ridiculous and meaningless Ministries

Too many Ministries to handle the Plantation sector and Estate Tamils

Following Ministries are utterly superfluous created just to satisfy the recipients for plain political expediency?

Sagala Ratnayake – Minister of Southern Development .

1. Digambaram – Minister of Upcountry New Villages Estate Infrastructure& Community Development
2. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera – Minister of Sustainable Development & Wildlife

S.B. Nawinne – Minister of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development

Gayantha Karunathilake – Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media

Thalatha          Athukorala      Ministerof       Foreign            Employment
D.M. Swaminathan – Minister of Resettlement & Hindu Affairs

Mano Ganesan – Minister of National Dialog

Gayantha Karunathilake Minister of Parliamentary Reforms & Media ,

No Ministry for Kandyan Peasantry Development  

Isn’t it a national tragedy that this Government which has set up separate ministries for subjects like above including one even for wild life has completely ignored the Kandyan Peasants in this country and forgotten to have a Separate Ministry for the them who number over 6 million living in the entire Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and North Central Provinces and in parts of NWN, Southern and  Eastern Northern Provinces altogether living in 16 Districts out of the 25.They are the real Bhumiputras of this land and they have a birth right over this very territory from the dawn of history. This was their beloved land inherited from their ancestors that was taken over by force by the British since 1840; this was the land their ancestors lost for the British and on which they died in battle in thousands; this is the only land in the world where they have to fall back and pray and get buried when they die. According to the latest reports they are the most neglected and betrayed people in this country and they are among the poorest of the poor and the most neglected and betrayed by all Governments since independence. But this is how their own government treats the Kandyan Peasants, the descendants of those millions who have died between1505-1948 to protect the motherland and leave behind their heritage for the present generation.

What is worse and the irony is that while this Government treats the natives in this manner it has created a new Ministry called Ministry of Upcountry New Villages Estate Infrastructure & Community Development and appointed P. Digambaram as its Minister, introducing a new type of Villages to this country called ‘Upcountry New Villages’ unheard in the annals of this country since the dawn of history. I also would like to point out at this stage that these were the very lands denied to the native Sinhala people who were evacuated in thousands from Kotmale and other landslide affected areas in the past to satisfy Thondaman. How come the present Government is generously handing over to the Indian Tamils to create Tamil villages in the heart of the Sinhale.

I am sure these Villages will be the future mono-Tamil villages referred to by Ra nil Wickramasingha and Kiriella during the pre-election period when they were distributing outright ownership of lands to estate Tamils. The ultimate result of this programme is the establishment of a separate Tamil country on the central Sri Lanka comprising Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla which will be extended to parts of Kegalla, Ratnapura and Monaragala districts in the near future. This is travesty and blatant violation and betrayal of the birth rights of the native Kandyan peasants. I am lost to understand as to why the Kandyans do not protest against this selective discrimination against them.

Apart from the importance of the Central hill country as the ‘Geographical Heartland’ (Major watershed of the nation) as the area from where the Islands entire river system begins you think of its geopolitical and strategic importance. Putting this region under the control of South Indian Tamils whose allegiance is still with India will be the end of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this country. From an Indian perspective I don’t think God could bestow a better deal on them than this as this will complete the age old Indian hegemonic dream over this Island. In fact this is exactly what they have been dreaming from the days of Ramayana. In other word what Rama and the whole chain of invaders like Sena Guttika, Elara (2n C BC) and Kalinga Magha( 12^th C AD) failed to do for 5000 years will be done by the  Ranil and Maitripala Sirisena government in the next few years.

This is why we have been against Tamilizing this part of the country right from the beginning. That is why we suggested creating Sinhala-Tamil mixed villages for those get displaced from the plantations along with landless peasants from the neighboring Kandyan villages as mixed village settlements so that there will be permanent  ethnic and social harmony in this part of the country.

Now look at the following news item that appeared in the Daily FT of 5^th May 2015 on a 10-year National Plan of Action for Plantation Infrastructure Development.

 The Ministry of Plantation Infrastructure Development has initiated an action to formulate a 10-year National Plan of Action 2015-2025 for social development of the plantation community with the technical assistance of the United Nations            Development   Progrogramme UNDP
The key objectives of the National Plan of Action (NPA) are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the plantation areas, especially in the estate sector.

The comprehensive 10-year NPA is expected to be finalized by end of July 2015.
Given the national importance of this”

The 10-year National Plan of Action for Plantation Infrastructure Development is intended for social development of the plantation community with UNDP assistance to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the plantation areas, especially in the estate sector. This is also classed as a Top Development Project of the present Government. The short period of completion stipulated, broad areas of development covered and the tight time frame and the national importance given to it clearly show the high degree of priority the present  Government has assigned to the estate Tamil votes, while criminally neglecting and betraying shamefully all the Sinhala people particularly living in the Central, Sabargamuwa and Uva Provinces

I request the government not to take this type of short sighted policy decisions for narrow political expediencies without thinking of the future of the country.

I can assure you with hundred percent certainty that if you go ahead with this programme without heading to my observations definitely you will be guilty for creating another Israel right at the centre of this country.

Therefore I request the Government to immediately stop creating these mono-Tamil settlements in the hill country for short term political gains. Then create the Ministry of Kandyan Peasantry Development to implement the rehabilitation programme outlined in the KPC report of 1951 and start a vigorous settlement programme under a village expansion project as Sinhala Tamil mixed villages with your eyes projected to the future where one can see Sri Lankan (not Indian) villages where ethnic and socio-cultural harmony reigns without any distinction as Sinhalese and Tamils. Once that is done both Sinhalese and Tamils in the hill country could be called Kandyan peasants, all sons and daughters of mother Lanka with no one having any allegiance to South India thereafter. This in my opinion is the best solution one could think of to bring about a permanent solution to this vexed problem.

Before I wind up this note my advice on Ministries is

Have a minimum number not exceeding 25. Classify them scientifically and rationally. Let the subjects assigned to them have some linkage. Select the best men and women as Ministers. Select people like Luxman Kadiragamar, Lalith Atulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka and R Premadasa to be appointed as Ministers. If you don’t have enough such men chase out some useless fellows you have caged in the so-called National list and bring in few with brain, character, vision and talent. After all as you have 29 slots, even after taking in 10 such new persons you still have 19 political watch dogs places left in Parliament  to accommodate your favorites for personal reasons.