Much-awaited reshuffle should have brought Harsha and Eran into Cabinet

By The Analyst

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe-CBK Government has, from the time the Government was formed in August 2016, been struggling to take proper collective decisions. 

This is understandable given that 50% of those running the Government supported the Rajapaksa campaign and the other half supported Sirisena. The President however since of late in order to take control of the SLFP and to keep Rajapaksa at bay has begun to follow the dictates of the 50%, thus isolating the 50% on the UNP side. 

Meanwhile the Prime Minister in his usual style has resorted to isolating his decision-making apparatus to a few of his people, who are totally distanced and not the best people for making serious decisions, thus distancing himself firstly with the President, and secondly his own party men, and in turn totally isolating the backbenchers and many of the ministers in his Government. 

The case in point is where the Prime Minister had been advised by the President not to enter into any agreement without his consent. The President according to a SLFP Minister knows the current ground situation in his party and what the prevailing ground situation is in the country unlike the Prime Minister, who decides based on what his two to three advisers say and what his Royal College mates tell him at big matches. 

This is very clear because many of the UNP backbenchers, without going to the UNP Leader to discuss their grievances, are now going to the President and looking for new leaders in the Government to vent their frustrations. While the Prime Minister has mostly taken his friends around on his official visits overseas, the President has resorted to taking Deputy Ministers, UNP backbenchers and his backbenchers around on his overseas visits with a long-term view. 

Reshuffle 

The much-awaited reshuffle was a consequence of the internal pressure from within the SLFP and former President CBK, rather than from the ruling party, the UNP. Minister Ravi Karunanayake who was struggling at the beginning had just settled into do a decent job. On the other hand Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was the best man for the job from the UNP. So why change them and disturb that equation? Silly!

The Sri Lankan Finance Minister, a professional chartered accountant, for the first time in history had no control over the exchange rates or interests rates or even the State banks; he was forcibly pushed to the Foreign Ministry to appease the SLFP, despite the protest by the UNP leadership. 

The short-sightedness of the reshuffle is clearly noted when most of other non-performing ministers in charge of exports, FDI, law and order and justice and ministers accused of corruption were retained in the reshuffle. 

A national list MP who was forced to resign, Tilak Marapana, was brought back into Cabinet instead of appointing the two UNP bright sparks Harsha and Eran who got more than 100,000 preference votes in 2016 into Cabinet, when compared to the 70-year-old Tilak Marapana who had a free ride to Parliament. Dr. Harsha and Eran would have brought in fresh hope to the people. When will the Prime Minister ever learn? The two are far more superior to most in in the current Cabinet. Most ministers don’t even have O/L for that matter. 

President 

On the other hand, the President has now clearly demonstrated that he is the boss in the recent reshuffle, rightly or wrongly he did what he said and sources close him say he is a very strong-willed, brave and a patient man. When he decides, nothing can change his decision. 

The more isolated the Prime Minister becomes, because he centres his decisions around a few people, it will help the President to take full control. Also given that the President has less than three years to go and the country has achieved very little under his leadership, he has decided to take full control of the situation, given that the public opinion is now against his Government, the unhappiness of many of the backbenchers, the delayed investigations and the prevailing lawlessness in the country. 

Sources close to him say he had requested a full review of all the ministries and corporations from an independent party to do the required changes in State institutions in the coming weeks and those ministers who thought who had escaped his close watch will soon see stars if they don’t buckle up fast and clean up the mess in the Government.