Financial Times

Misgivings over appointments
There are growing murmurs of misgivings in corporate boardrooms and other private sector gatherings over some of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s appointments to key positions in the government bureaucracy, state corporations and other organisations. Rajapakse does not seem to be appointing the right people for the right job.

The doubts over new state sector appointments – that some of those in key positions are misfits - do not augur well for the new administration, already saddled with an image problem created by the support it gets from the leftwing JVP and the JHU. Rajapakse seems to be falling prey to the same mistakes made by his predecessors in appointing unsuitable party faithful, friends or business loyalists into key state sector positions. The fiasco over appointing the Sri Lanka Tourist Board chairman is a good example. He is sticking to his position while Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike has ignored a Rajapakse order to appoint Bennet Cooray to this post.

However, it must also be said at the same time that the private sector’s usual answer to such problems – that of appointing their own kind to head the state sector – does not always yield the advertised results. A good case in point is the dismal performance of TAFREN, the super-bureaucracy headed by a supposed private sector whiz kid that was meant to speed up tsunami rehabilitation work.

TAFREN’s achievements, or rather the lack of them, has effectively demolished the myth of the magic of private sector management skills – that corporate executives drafted into such positions could perform better than their public service counterparts.We had on a previous occasion commented on the gloomy start of the new regime with the appointment of an outsized Cabinet of ministers of various sorts despite Rajapakse’s promise that his administration would be different from that of his predecessors. Many of Rajapakse’s supporters who were hoping for a cleaner, and leaner, administration, were disappointed and they would now be even more disillusioned with some of the appointments to key positions in the state sector. Even Rajapakse’s own staunch supporters, the JVP, have fired broadsides at him over the size of his cabinet. Once again, we would like to warn that Rajapakse risks losing popularity with such choices.

In fairness to the new president, he has had to grapple with a mounting set of problems ever since his election, the gravest of which is the shadow war being waged by the Tigers, in blatant violation of the ceasefire and all norms of decency.

No doubt the new president has his hands full trying to prevent another war from breaking out and keeping the military, whose patience is sorely being tested by the Tigers, in check.

Rajapakse has to walk a tightrope and maintain a delicate balancing act, trying to placate the Tigers to get them to re-join peace talks from which, it must be remembered, they unilaterally withdrew on the flimsy excuse of not being invited to the Washington aid conference, to resisting pressure from the meddlesome troika of nations which think they control this country – the US, UK and Norway. At the same time Rajapakse has to ensure he does not alienate the vast majority of the peace loving public and his support base.

However, it is precisely for these reasons that Rajapakse should take more care in the appointment of key personnel in the state sector. Suitable appointees who can do a good job of work, are honest and disciplined, could at least keep the administration functioning effectively, ensuring the public is satisfied, leaving Rajapakse to douse the flames of the political fires that keep breaking out from time to time. Rajapakse must also crack the whip if ministers fail to carry out his orders – like in Anura’s case - whoever they may be, otherwise he would be considered a weak leader with no backbone. In the final analysis, Rajapakse will be judged by how his administration and the people in key positions perform or do not perform.

Back to Business