Accountability vs Visibility
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Many decades ago during the mid-1980s, when Ronnie de Mel was Finance Minister — in fact he probably broke a record for being the longest serving Finance Minister in any government here or overseas — he used to have his customary briefings for the media. But he also had his own rules, often frowned on mostly by senior journalists.He starts off a briefing……giving the headline of the story and the first para. “Now write it that way,” he would say much to the chagrin of senior writers but rather than confront the minister, who had his way with reporters, some reporters chose to follow his path!
De Mel passed away in February 2024 at the ripe old age of 98 years. He also created another first! He would invite media photographers to take his picture working in his office with the ubiquitous budget box on his table and the picture appeared in the media the following day — which was budget day. Sometimes, he would invite photographers to his tea estate down south for the pre-budget picture.
After he retired from politics, the portfolio was held both by ministers and presidents, the latter rarely meeting the media as a finance minister – maybe because they were not fully conversant with the subject. I was reminded about this when I spotted a news item on TV the other day showing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake meeting his Finance Ministry officials to discuss budget preparations.
Is that news? The President – who handles finance – meeting his officials should be a routine exercise and the President’s media needs to be circumspect, otherwise, all meetings in the President’s Office would have to be a matter of public record. Is the government following the same route as previous governments in giving too much publicity to, what is considered, routine work?
People want results..…..not how to get there. Already the government is reeling under various crises – rice, eggs, coconut, etc. – created, however, due to previous policies. Then comes another unnecessary bombshell – the qualifications fiasco resulting in the Speaker’s resignation. In fairness to the government, the Speaker did the right thing which may have not happened in another administration. However, the criticism was directed at an administration that vowed to bring in qualified people as politicians, ministers and officials and, in this context, the criticism was fair and just. Nowhere in the past has political parties made such promises.
The President’s parley with the media was also the point of discussion when Ruwanputha, my young economist friend, called on Thursday morning. “I say…..I was wondering whether there is over-publicity by the President and his Ministers. It’s mostly about what they want to do and about corruption and mismanagement. We need to know what they have done,” he said.
“Maybe, but they have been in power for just three months. How much can you expect in such a short time – less than 100 days,” I asked. “But… the expectations are high and we want some results like catching the crooks,” he argued.
“I agree, but remember going after corrupt politicians and officials means a lengthy legal process,” I said. “Okay……but may be the process would be faster if the legal part is handled by the existing legal infrastructure like the Police and the CID instead of creating new institutions or units which would take a long time and are likely to be dismantled if a new government comes in,” he said.
“On that point, I agree wholeheartedly. Take the case of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) set up in February 2015 under the Police which was eventually scrapped under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime,” I said.
President Dissanayake is a no-frills head of state preferring simplicity often in his trademark shirt with two pockets which was also donned during a meeting with the creme de la crème of India’s business community during his three-day visit this week to India. Simplicity and no fuss have been his hallmark.
It was time for a short break. I walked into the kitchen and was happy that Aldoris, my favourite choon-paan baker, had arrived as there was a hot and spicy maalu-paan on the table. Picking up a mug of tea, I looked out of the kitchen window to find the trio seated under the margosa tree engaged in conversation biting into maalu-paans and sipping plain tea. “Aranchi hatiyata, Janadhipathi Thumawa Indiyawa aadarayen pili-aran thiyenawa (I hear the President was given a good welcome in India),” said Kussi Amma Sera. “Ow, eka aththa. Prayojanawath sakachcha thibuna (That’s right and he had many good discussions too),” noted Serapina. “Eth prashna athiwevi mannaramey indianu adani samagamey sulang viduli viyapruthiya ekka. Ehey kattiya ekata viruddai-nae (But he would be facing a problem on the wind power project in Mannar by Indian company Adani as residents in that area are protesting against it),” said Mabel Rasthiyadu, a vociferous newspaper reader.
Coming back to today’s discussion on ‘is there too much publicity’, one of the mandates of the government is to reopen probes against perpetrators or killers of many innocents including journalists. This needs to be done swiftly as expectations are running high. The government has been chosen on an accountability platform and needs to be practising what it preaches instead of talk, talk and more talk!
In terms of accountability, there was a recent Court of Appeal judgment where it held that the money spent by a public authority must be accountable and such information must be made available to the public whenever required. The judgment was pertaining to monies spent by a society within one state bank which had refused to divulge financial information after a citizen had sought the information under the Right to Information Act.
In the arena of transparency, the Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe and his officials held a useful exchange of ideas with newspaper editors on Wednesday, in which the banking regulator promised to appoint a spokesperson to respond to queries from the media ensuring more transparency between the institution and the public (the media acting as the vehicle of dissemination of public information).
On that note, as I sipped my second mug of tea brought by Kussi Amma Sera and thought we should cheer the new era of governance, transparency and accountability with hopes that the new regime will speed up the work on tackling corruption and mismanagement. On the other hand, it is also battling issues in some sectors where chosen officials are facing accusations of mismanagement. PS. Well apart from my grumblings on ‘great expectations’, the President announced a series of relief measures for the people!
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