The balance of power - clean and lean governance

A week of power shedding it was — but unfortunately in the wrong areas. The number of Cabinet Ministers increased by about a third, raising the grand total to 32 (we are losing count) but the power cut hours were doubled by the Ceylon Electricity Board. It is too early to quite blame the new government for the power shedding on the national grid. But for a party that made mincemeat of the previous regime for its cabinet of 44 Ministers, 32 is certainly no small meal either.

It is an open secret in the country now about how some of the newly appointed Cabinet Ministers got these Cabinet posts. Sulking, threatening the leader, boycotting invitations to make presentations at Cabinet meetings and even threats of resignation were all part of the armoury to which the Prime Minister eventually caved in. There are of course some such as The Hon. Karunasena Kodituwakku who should have been appointed to the Cabinet in the first place. As is usual in these matters, there has been the official prevarication in the form of an explanation on the large-size cabinet. It was that some Ministries could not have a parliamentary consultative committee appointed, because the standing orders of Parliament did not provide for such committees in Ministries which did not have Cabinet status. Someone obviously forgot to simply amend the standing orders as a remedy.

This sudden quantum power surge – turbo-propelled one might say — with the President also doing her bit of power wielding in the crazy world of today's politics by way of delaying tactics, has not helped the people who have to face the doubled power cuts from this week onwards — hardly a week after the Prime Minister issued a stern order that no increase should be made in the power cut hours.

It is one good lesson for politicians — which is that no amount of issuing orders or sermonizing from the bully pulpit will be of any consequence, unless one rolls up ones sleeves and goes to work. And getting national cricketers to make appeals for public co-operation is too little; too late.

Though this government cannot be blamed for today's power crisis, what it could do is to root out and hold accountable the culprits who are responsible for plunging the country into darkness while they fattened their personal bank accounts in the last few years. Power tenders go a long way, all the way to the previous UNP government. Some of those who put their hand into the till then, are back in action now, and are busy with the economic policies of the new UNF. The PA did their own embezzlement in-between, but nobody seems to be punished for these crimes against humanity. In 1977, the UNP successfully telescoped the Mahaveli into an accelerated project, which among other things promised self sufficiency in electricity through a multi purpose hydro power scheme. There were even those grandiose plans to export power to South India. 25 years on now, since, – but what has happened? Half the North is in permanent darkness while the rest of the country is facing five-hour power cuts. What seems to be rotten in this paradise island? Is it that we have a population so large that our institutions and infrastructure cannot support it? Or does it all boil down to a story of corruption, incompetence and gross mismanagement? The story of modern Lanka.