New Sri Lanka Government Should Focus On Governance

By N.S.Venkataraman - Sri Lanka Guardian

As the people of Sri Lanka has decisively rejected Rajapaksa’s leadership and voted the coalition party led by Sirisena to power, the new government has to gear itself to manage the challenges and opportunities with understanding and competence. Obviously, the expectation from the new government both in Sri Lanka and outside are high.

Sirisena and his team do not have the problem of handling a civil war that Rajapaksa’s government had to face. The then government was able to defeat the militants and ensure an integrated Sri Lanka. With this problem of civil war not being there and human rights violation issues being targeted against Rajapaksa’s government, the new government has nothing to complain and has no reason not to perform and meet people’s expectations.

Unfortunately, after assuming power, the new government has not so much talked about its economic and industrial policies and programmes but has only been highlighting it’s plan of appointing enquiry committee to look into the deeds of the previous government. Rumours are being spread that Rajapaksa tried to scuttle the poll results and members of the previous government are trying to flee the country. Such accusations and charges may give vicarious satisfaction to the politicians in the ruling parties but not to the people of Sri Lanka.

On the other hand, the euphoria created by the election results in favour of the ruling parties will dissipate in quick time, if the focus would be on punishing Rajapaksa and his team instead of providing quality governance.

Sri Lanka is a country bestowed with tropical advantages, strategic location in the world map and natural resources and many tourist attractions. It has the potentials to emerge as a strong economy like Singapore , if only the leadership of the government has the vision with appropriate programmes of action. Sri Lankan people certainly would like to hear and see more about such strategies and action plans of the government, instead of being fed with stories about the failures of the earlier government.

A democratically elected new government invariably enjoys good will and best wishes from the people. It is upto the government to consolidate such gains and forge ahead in a planned and matured way to make itself strong and build it’s image as a credible and trustworthy government. It is necessary for SiriSena to keep in mind that the honeymoon will not last long, unless he would give quality governance.

One big and serious issue faced by Sri Lanka is the level of corruption in the administration. Without rooting out this evil, it is not possible to improve efficiency in the administration ,that would ensure that the programmes of the government would reach the people and achieve it’s objectives. Sirisena should find a mechanism and create institutions that would put fear in the minds of the corrupt people as early as possible.

Most of the corruption , particularly in developing countries, are due to the dishonest behaviour of the politicians in power and the nexus between the politicians and business men. SiriSena has to ensure that his ministers and key administrators are corruption free and remain blemishless. This is the biggest challenge facing him.

People are unlikely to forget the fact that Sirisena was part of Rajapaksa’s government for long time. Therefore, it requires double efforts on his part to prove to the people that his administration would not only be corruption free but would also appear to be so.