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AGING LEADERS IN SRI LANKA - A Cue from the US

ASOKA S.

I was reading an article involving Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge's intervention to select players for the Davis Cup. This instantly reminded me why and how Sri Lanka still ails in the poor mans' club of the world. This man Lokuge has been the Minister of Transport 25 years ago, then the minister of Tourism later and now the minister of Sports and Recreation and many in between.

Then again you can still see names like M. H. Mohammed, Sarath Amunugama, DEW Gunasekara, Ratnasiri Wicramanaike, Dinesh Gunawardene, Bandula Gunawardene, D M Jayaratne, Athauda Seneviratne and more who have been Ministers for decades, some from J R Jayawardene era.

I can instantly also think of something else in common with most of the above. That is in some shape or form they have all played a role to create today's mess in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans living and breathing daily politics can write volumes about the "adventures" of some of these politicians.

How on earth a Minister who 25 years ago ran the CTB to the ground, had his thugs extorting route fees at private bus stands in Sri Lanka with no legal authority, then partaking in few hundred dozens of 5 star hotel dinners can now decide who is suitable to play the best Tennis for Lanka beats anybody's imagination. The conventional wisdom is that Ministers set policy, directions, guide lines and help create laws and leave the day to day administration to the experts. But in this case he is all in one which is not uncommon in Lanka anyway. Infamous Dr. Mervin Silva has more than proved this point.

This is where our so called leaders can take a cue from US politics. Now understand that US is no Sri Lanka. It is the worlds only super power and everything in US runs like clockwork. Even then, brilliant new comers like African American Senator Barak Obama are getting closer to the oval office every day, his biggest appeal being that he wants to create change. Now put that in comparison with Lanka with a bunch of ailing leaders mentioned above from the cold war era. I remember a senior officer in SL Passport Office recently told me that they are not moving into high tech in the passport office because the minister in charge is old school and still believes in piles of files being moved by a pion from Executive A to Executive B while man from Anuradhapura has to hang out in Colombo for a few days to get his passport while some of those files make their way to the Ass. Commissioner's desk.

So it will be the same old recipe of lethargic, high nosed, arrogant, corrupt and more importantly yesteryear's politicos trying to move our country into the 21st century "digital" era. This is a sure recipe for economic retrogation.

As soon as the nasty Elam menace is behind Prez. Rajapaksha's his next challenge will be to take on this battle to hopefully turn Lanka Leadership in tune with today's speed where information travels almost at the speed of light. The only way to succeed in today's digital world is efficiency, educated judgment and a good understanding of the modern day commerce made possible by very smart (not crooked) individuals. Many of the above do not even come close to fitting the bill.

The sad and brutal fact is that everybody has their day and when the time comes new blood has to inject new life to pretty much everything around us, more so for the poor countries or else you get poorer.

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