EDITORIAL

Leading By Example

It was U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (the man who glowers at you from the wrinkled depths of dollar-bills) who observed that, "That government is best which governs the least." To the extent that they share this belief, Jefferson and little Sri Lanka's Ranil Wickremesinghe are birds of a feather. Like Jefferson, Wickremesinghe believes in hands-off government: government that facilitates rather than regulates. When it comes to government, our worthy prime minister is a minimalist, leaving market forces and a spirit of enterprise to deliver social and economic nirvana.

There can be no doubt that this strategy will deliver the goods. The question is, however, will the society that evolves from this free-for-all be worth living in? And there, Wickremesinghe may be making a boo-boo. Although Jefferson's aphorism mentioned above is often quoted by politicians who share his attitude to governance, the rider that follows is usually dispensed with. To wit, what Jefferson actually said was, "That government is best which governs the least because its people discipline themselves."

There lies the rub. The price of minimalist government is the self-discipline of those who govern. On this score, we take no cudgels against Wickremesinghe. For all intents and purposes, he has been a model leader, leading by example. The prime minister and his wife move about with little fuss, they mix with ordinary people without hordes of bodyguards fending the public off, they shun headlight-flashing siren-blaring motorcades. There is also no doubt that Wickremesinghe is the most approachable leader Sri Lanka has had since Dudley Senanayake, who himself was something of a one-off.

But the motley crew of whom the prime minister is primus inter pares, the first among equals, is another matter altogether. Wickremesinghe's hands-off approach is leading to his government enjoying to the full the freedom of the wild ass, with ministers each pulling their own way. Not only is there insufficient strategic direction to the government as a whole, there is a clear lack of concern for accountability.

Elsewhere in today's issue, for the third time we provide further evidence that brings into question the role that Jayalath Jayawardena plays in the UNF government. Ditto for Rohitha Bogollagama. Our intention is not to criminalise Jayawardena who, let's face it, did some honest and difficult work in bridging the credibility gap between the LTTE and the UNP when it was in opposition. That bit of yeoman service ought not lightly to be cast aside; but the brownie-points Jayawardena earned in preparing the ground for a UNF government do not give him carte blanche to run amok when in office. What is the message the prime minister sends to the rest of the cabinet, to the public service, and indeed the international community to whom he is appealing for funds for reconstruction when he brushes aside the outrageous conduct of a minister merely because he cannot look him squarely in the eye and put him in his place?

It is not in Wickremesinghe's nature to wield the big stick. At the very outset of his government, he told his ministers that he did not want to be the class monitor. But if he will not rein in his ministers, the question is, who will?

Just last week, Deputy Plantations Minister,  Navin Dissanayake, goaded the CWC's Arumugan Thondaman with regard to the latter's well-known opposition to the Upper Kotmale hydropower project. Dissanayake reminded Thondaman that he (Thondaman) was, as a member of the cabinet, bound by collective responsibility. There was therefore no way Thondaman could obstruct the project while remaining in the cabinet. The implicit challenge was, 'If you want to obstruct this project, resign from the cabinet.'

While at the best of times such a statement from a junior MP to a minister would be considered ill-judged, what makes it damning in this case is the fact that Dissanayake also happens to be Power and Energy Minister, Karu Jayasuriya's son-in-law. To make matters worse, Jayasuriya is deputy leader of the UNP.

The net loser in this game of horse-knobbling is the government, whose only major project to date is now in jeopardy. Thondaman's objections to the project are centred on environmental concerns. While these were assuaged to an extent sufficient for him to let the project pass without open dissent, it should have been clear to Dissanayake that he could score cheap political points with the more jingoistic element of his Sinhala electorate only at the expense of the government, if not his father-in-law. This is especially so given that Dissanayake's younger brother Mayantha, who is chairman of the government-owned Ingrin Institute of Printing, has unknown to Jayasuriya, already met with Power and Energy Secretary, K.K.Y.W. Perera in the company of a Japanese contractor vying for the Upper Kotmale project.

The fact that Wickremesinghe has not reacted to this new twist in the Upper Kotmale saga speaks volumes for his tolerance of the indiscretions of youth. While that is all to the good, it is also yet another example of his forbearance of indiscipline in his ranks. He must remember that Jefferson's truism that "That government is best which governs the least" carries with it the obligatory rider, "because its people discipline themselves." No discipline, no good government.

The issue of discipline applies not only to government, but also to society. The events of two weeks ago where weapons were brandished in the Blue Elephant nightclub in the Hilton Hotel, evoked an outburst from Wickremesinghe in far-away New York, about "rich brats" running amok in Colombo.

One has only to look at the indiscipline on the roads to see where a good start can be made. One need go little further than the Blue Elephant on a Friday or Saturday night, where a police checkpoint for drunken driving does brisk business with those very same "rich brats." As each flashy car is stopped and the driver asked whether he has been drinking, a Rs. 1,000 note comes out through the power-shutter, and the car drives off. No curbing of the rich brats will happen so long as this state of affairs continues. And what of the ministers themselves? As we have pointed out time and again before, some of them still dash about Colombo, lights flashing, sirens blaring, armed commandos and all, ignoring all the rules of the highway code. They have failed to note, after nine months in office, the example set by their prime minister, who is busy leading by example.