‘’The problem with many governments that came before this one was that they left so many things to happen by default. The last Yahapalana Government governed almost entirely by default. One branch of government could not quite control the other – and the answer was to quit trying.
Governing by default is also called letting the chips fall where they may. When the dollar was in free fall during the Yahapalana administration, the then-Government’s answer was to do nothing. By contrast, the current dispensation’s technocratic principle is to manage and control everything, which means that there is an extraordinary amount of striving.
There is a work ethic. This does not mean that everybody likes the policies – far from it, as it should be common knowledge by now. But the striving is phenomenal, and everything is worked at assiduously.
All this work is of course on matters of policy that the Government is wedded to. For instance, if the Cardinal says “these specific people should be indicted in this specific way for the Easter Sunday attacks”, it doesn’t happen, because the Government does not believe in amassing political capital in this way.
The strange question that needs to be asked is, whether the Government believes in political capital at all. Of course, no government needs to pursue political capital by going out of the way to please persons that it doesn’t have to please, as a matter of top priority. It’s not as if the Cardinal and the Catholic flock are not important. But the current administration has a vision – though it may be accused of many other failings – and the Cardinal’s “pound of flesh” policy on indicting anyone even remotely connected to the Easter Sunday violence does not factor into that worldview.
As far as political capital goes, there is not a great deal that can be purchased by pleasing everyone, and that is a verity in politics. But isn’t the Government losing a great deal of goodwill by being totally wedded to its stated policies, like the fertiliser policy, for example?
The point is that this Government seems to strive so much towards its vision that it is not concerned about political capital as such. This is not necessarily a bad quality for politicians, even though it’s not certain how it would serve its cause in terms of electability, popularity, longevity of tenure, etc.
Striving for the attainment of the goal, as defined in its vision and mission, seems to be the summary of this Government’s modus operandi, and that shows up in almost everything the decision makers want to tackle. The spin-off is that whatever obstacles are placed in its way by its own policies, or external factors such as the pandemic, the administration manages to keep the repercussions almost miraculously within control. So far there have not been major breakdowns of supply, etc., that have caused upheaval in normal civilian life, apart of course from the lockdowns or the travel restrictions as they were called. People have so far not been angered by the lockdowns – but if there had been disruption at the petrol pump, or a major disruption of food supplies, they would have rebelled.
What’s the reason the Government is able to keep a handle on things, when it is clear sometimes the regime is its own worst enemy, with a policy-level intransigence that has rarely been seen in politics in recent times? The fact seems to be that the regime is good at micro-managing. It doesn’t leave anything – anything whatsoever – to default. Cabraal is there to manage the dollar and to micro-manage some of the more intricate matters of finance, and then as Gamini Lokuge says, a power-cut will not be allowed under any circumstances.
Though with previous administrations that would have sounded an empty boast, with this one, it doesn’t have the ring of idle, common, garden-variety bragging about it at all. It’s due to the fact that the Government’s variety of micro-management is thorough.
The previous Yahapalana administration didn’t even come close in terms of that type of micro-managed work ethic, and that seems only too obvious. It’s structure didn’t have tentacles deep into the territory of each different sector, be it petroleum, national security, or any other.
These folk by contrast have a set of networked people that keep the engines humming, as it were. If they don’t hum and suddenly something stops working somewhere, the Government would strive and toil at the problem to the level where it’s reasonably managed despite the enormity of odds.
As a result, there are no major disruptions of civilian life, which is also complemented by the fact that there is political stability irrespective of the efforts of everybody else to say there are rifts in Government. There is one cohesive unit, and good old-fashioned instincts of self-preservation may be the cause of it, but it doesn’t matter.
The fact is that there is functionality when theoretically, or on the face of it, things should fall apart. In the ancient Sinhala kingdoms, historical lore records that there were monarchs who strived. There were others who were flamboyant, but those who strived had reasonably long periods of rule; whereas those who were flamboyant, but couldn’t deliver, were banished by the people.
Some monarchs never strived for popularity, it is said. The juries were not unanimous about acquitting them for the historical record. It’s why only the names of the legendary Parakramabahu type of ruler of the realm are remembered. Others may have been forgotten, but it’s not as if the people reviled the Agbos and the entire assortment in the mix of the monarchs. They were just unsung kings, that’s all.
What if this Government is unsung, but achieves, say, at least half of what it sets out to do? Its possible history would remember this period as one of uphill endeavour that was rewarded by the people with stoic endurance. Not a very flattering certificate for a regime – the part about stoic endurance – but it’s better than none at all. That may be the way this regime is headed: To win that imaginary accolade for “the regime that tried the darnedest”.
To this end, it seems to even act in character. For example, it’s reasonable to say that this regime doesn’t have any sales pitch now that it’s in power. By contrast, the previous government was all about self-promotion, though the record of achievement may have been extraordinarily thin by any standard. Some say that this regime’s PR and propaganda has been totally botched, and they point to the various “debacles” such as the presidential address before a mock-up of the Ruwanweliseya, or some such religious edifice.
Maybe the jury is still out on how the regime’s press czars have performed, but so far that aspect of this dispensation has been in character. There has been a great deal of striving, but not so much ado about advertising it. Some call it self-flagellation, this constant effort to micro-manage and get details right, nevermind the optics. But optics is not probably the priority of the Government. It’s the “vision thing” – as the former US President George H.W. Bush proclaimed rather clumsily – it’s the vision thing, as opposed to the “optics thing”.
In the final analysis, it’s the composite of all of these metrics that counts, and so what are the average marks that the Government gets? Perhaps the most that can be said, to take a sanguine view, is that it’s too early to tell. Perhaps with time, the Government may acquire a following, and history would be far kinder in its assessment then the pundits predict now. At least that’s the calculation of the regime’s leadership.
At the moment, the Government gets ready for another day of uphill striving, and calamity has been averted one more day.
(The writer is a former Editor-in-Chief of three national English language publications and a practicing Attorney-at-Law. He is an Editors’ Guild award-winning columnist, and contributing writer and columnist for the Nikkei Asian Review and South China Morning Post, while his editorials have been published in The Australian)
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.The Government strives optimally, but the jury is still out
08 Nov 2021
The Government strives optimally, but the jury is still out
08 Nov 2021
‘’The problem with many governments that came before this one was that they left so many things to happen by default. The last Yahapalana Government governed almost entirely by default. One branch of government could not quite control the other – and the answer was to quit trying.
Governing by default is also called letting the chips fall where they may. When the dollar was in free fall during the Yahapalana administration, the then-Government’s answer was to do nothing. By contrast, the current dispensation’s technocratic principle is to manage and control everything, which means that there is an extraordinary amount of striving.
There is a work ethic. This does not mean that everybody likes the policies – far from it, as it should be common knowledge by now. But the striving is phenomenal, and everything is worked at assiduously.
All this work is of course on matters of policy that the Government is wedded to. For instance, if the Cardinal says “these specific people should be indicted in this specific way for the Easter Sunday attacks”, it doesn’t happen, because the Government does not believe in amassing political capital in this way.
The strange question that needs to be asked is, whether the Government believes in political capital at all. Of course, no government needs to pursue political capital by going out of the way to please persons that it doesn’t have to please, as a matter of top priority. It’s not as if the Cardinal and the Catholic flock are not important. But the current administration has a vision – though it may be accused of many other failings – and the Cardinal’s “pound of flesh” policy on indicting anyone even remotely connected to the Easter Sunday violence does not factor into that worldview.
As far as political capital goes, there is not a great deal that can be purchased by pleasing everyone, and that is a verity in politics. But isn’t the Government losing a great deal of goodwill by being totally wedded to its stated policies, like the fertiliser policy, for example?
The point is that this Government seems to strive so much towards its vision that it is not concerned about political capital as such. This is not necessarily a bad quality for politicians, even though it’s not certain how it would serve its cause in terms of electability, popularity, longevity of tenure, etc.
Striving for the attainment of the goal, as defined in its vision and mission, seems to be the summary of this Government’s modus operandi, and that shows up in almost everything the decision makers want to tackle. The spin-off is that whatever obstacles are placed in its way by its own policies, or external factors such as the pandemic, the administration manages to keep the repercussions almost miraculously within control. So far there have not been major breakdowns of supply, etc., that have caused upheaval in normal civilian life, apart of course from the lockdowns or the travel restrictions as they were called. People have so far not been angered by the lockdowns – but if there had been disruption at the petrol pump, or a major disruption of food supplies, they would have rebelled.
What’s the reason the Government is able to keep a handle on things, when it is clear sometimes the regime is its own worst enemy, with a policy-level intransigence that has rarely been seen in politics in recent times? The fact seems to be that the regime is good at micro-managing. It doesn’t leave anything – anything whatsoever – to default. Cabraal is there to manage the dollar and to micro-manage some of the more intricate matters of finance, and then as Gamini Lokuge says, a power-cut will not be allowed under any circumstances.
Though with previous administrations that would have sounded an empty boast, with this one, it doesn’t have the ring of idle, common, garden-variety bragging about it at all. It’s due to the fact that the Government’s variety of micro-management is thorough.
The previous Yahapalana administration didn’t even come close in terms of that type of micro-managed work ethic, and that seems only too obvious. It’s structure didn’t have tentacles deep into the territory of each different sector, be it petroleum, national security, or any other.
These folk by contrast have a set of networked people that keep the engines humming, as it were. If they don’t hum and suddenly something stops working somewhere, the Government would strive and toil at the problem to the level where it’s reasonably managed despite the enormity of odds.
As a result, there are no major disruptions of civilian life, which is also complemented by the fact that there is political stability irrespective of the efforts of everybody else to say there are rifts in Government. There is one cohesive unit, and good old-fashioned instincts of self-preservation may be the cause of it, but it doesn’t matter.
The fact is that there is functionality when theoretically, or on the face of it, things should fall apart. In the ancient Sinhala kingdoms, historical lore records that there were monarchs who strived. There were others who were flamboyant, but those who strived had reasonably long periods of rule; whereas those who were flamboyant, but couldn’t deliver, were banished by the people.
Some monarchs never strived for popularity, it is said. The juries were not unanimous about acquitting them for the historical record. It’s why only the names of the legendary Parakramabahu type of ruler of the realm are remembered. Others may have been forgotten, but it’s not as if the people reviled the Agbos and the entire assortment in the mix of the monarchs. They were just unsung kings, that’s all.
What if this Government is unsung, but achieves, say, at least half of what it sets out to do? Its possible history would remember this period as one of uphill endeavour that was rewarded by the people with stoic endurance. Not a very flattering certificate for a regime – the part about stoic endurance – but it’s better than none at all. That may be the way this regime is headed: To win that imaginary accolade for “the regime that tried the darnedest”.
To this end, it seems to even act in character. For example, it’s reasonable to say that this regime doesn’t have any sales pitch now that it’s in power. By contrast, the previous government was all about self-promotion, though the record of achievement may have been extraordinarily thin by any standard. Some say that this regime’s PR and propaganda has been totally botched, and they point to the various “debacles” such as the presidential address before a mock-up of the Ruwanweliseya, or some such religious edifice.
Maybe the jury is still out on how the regime’s press czars have performed, but so far that aspect of this dispensation has been in character. There has been a great deal of striving, but not so much ado about advertising it. Some call it self-flagellation, this constant effort to micro-manage and get details right, nevermind the optics. But optics is not probably the priority of the Government. It’s the “vision thing” – as the former US President George H.W. Bush proclaimed rather clumsily – it’s the vision thing, as opposed to the “optics thing”.
In the final analysis, it’s the composite of all of these metrics that counts, and so what are the average marks that the Government gets? Perhaps the most that can be said, to take a sanguine view, is that it’s too early to tell. Perhaps with time, the Government may acquire a following, and history would be far kinder in its assessment then the pundits predict now. At least that’s the calculation of the regime’s leadership.
At the moment, the Government gets ready for another day of uphill striving, and calamity has been averted one more day.
(The writer is a former Editor-in-Chief of three national English language publications and a practicing Attorney-at-Law. He is an Editors’ Guild award-winning columnist, and contributing writer and columnist for the Nikkei Asian Review and South China Morning Post, while his editorials have been published in The Australian)
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.Kapruka
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!
Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!