Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Why is he leadership stone deaf to the people’s grievances?


The point with media freedom, and the new found freedom of the people to damn the govt. to hell and high water, means that the average JOE now spends his time bemoaning the loss of hope. Hope he had that with YAHAPALANAYA, the crooks would be brought to book. Not one of the known crooks has yet been sentenced and doing time, a year and a half later.

Whatever excuse is given to the slow pace of JUSTICE, that is just not good enough. NOT ONE, and we have forgotten about SAJIN conveniently, why?

In these circumstances we cannot accept any excuses, that the leadership has been otherwise engaged in “fighting fires” like they literally had to do on the SALAWA AMMO DUMP!

It is simply that NO ONE IS IN CHARGE. I don’t blame the PM and President for not doing the needful themselves, as their job is to be seen amongst the people opening this and that, and giving this speech and that. They have got their hands full, and now we have two leaders doing the job one had in the past.

The link below refers to how ridiculous the present Govt has sunk to in satisfying people'e expectations at the time of the elections. 



What I would like to see is that ALL DECISIONS are acted upon by the next rung of leadership, with someone tasked with reporting to the two bosses that all the work has been done. If it was a private Conglomerate and these two are the Chairman and CEO respectively, there will be CLEAR lines of communication, and responsibility, and the orders will be acted upon smoothly, along prescribed lines, like in a Company’s handbook. Remember ALL the worlds top 1000 companies are bigger than Sri Lanka’s GNP in turnover, and have not had to go cap in hand begging for money.

Is the whole problem that our two bosses have NO EXPERIENCE IN RUNNING A COMPANY, and so they are floundering in 2016 leadership. I suggest then that each appoint a retired CEO of a big corporation, with some vision, to carry out their orders and report on progress, and take action when nothing is forthcoming. This is akin to a PA. Ideally, they should be young, but here as the leaders are not capable, and cannot direct them properly, they need to be shown the art of management by experienced professionals.

They MUST be “JAADIYATA MOODIYA” so they act in concert and not against each other, so complement each other. This will solve a lot of the problems, and as they are NOT politicians they can tell the incompetent politicians that they will just have to tell the big boss that they have failed!

In these instances the fossils like John Ameratunga, and Gamini Jayawickrema Perera and a host of people past their prime can realize they are actually harming the administration they have been tasked to help, and pave the way for younger people to carryout their tasks with more sense and common sense!

Tragically two very important Ministries, Tourism and Sustainable Development and Wildlife, which are ALSO complementary are hung to dry, due to the incompetence of the Ministers. So National Policy does not get carried out. In one sense Tourism and Wildlife have to work together with the CCF (central cultural fund) to improve the Tourism product to a level, where we can attract high spending Nature and Culture Tourists, of a high level, not just a passing interest. These two categories are more inclined to accept a low carbon footprint, and therefore hotels and resorts with less pressure on non-renewable resources, and together employ a huge number of rural folk to service ALL the aspects of this product to achieve the policy goals of minimum number, maximum value, maximum local employment, a complete win win formula.

This alone is a US$5B foreign exchange earner, with additional 200,000 employment opportunities, we are missing, due to the incompetence at the top. I picked on one example but I can do the same for each and every Ministry and give a National Policy Plan that can be followed for National Upliftment.

We must get out of the fixation of Finance that is dragging policy, as the whole taxation system is against the Middle Class, whose burden has just increased. This WILL dampen consumer demand, growth, and will be Counter-productive.

Instead of wasting time on this no-confidence motion of the Finance Minister today, if only he had a system in place to bring into the tax fold the 500,000 people without a tax file, beginning with the 50,000 I can give him if he gives me a month, then ASSESORS can just go to each and send an assessment within minutes of entering their premises.

It is simple, start with the hardware merchants. There are 5,000 who have assets worth Rs 500M in mainly their property, and hardware stock, but don’t have a tax file, and have never paid tax. Why have they NOT been taxed? How long will they get away with it. When you have never been taxed, it is easy to become a billionaire. 

Otherwise if they have been taxed on their profits, they would NOT have these levels of assets, as they would be acquired from post tax profits. This same argument goes for the second hand car dealers sitting on a Billion rupees in stock of cars in 5,000 sales in the Country, but have never paid tax. If an assessor comes their way, they are just paid off in cash. Rs200K in cash for someone earning Rs20K a month is just too much inducement to look the other way. Why oh why is this NOT being done?

In just two or three pages, I have shown just a tit bit of how the Govt. can increase employment by 200,000, however there is a shortage of qualified people! I have also shown how the Govt. can collect about Rs100B revenue in one shot and increase annual Taxation Revenue on Income or Profits Tax by at least Rs25B.

My allegation is that we have incompetent people running this Country, so even a simple elementary scheme as outlined above, cannot be implemented, due to the lack of will, and lack of common sense and personal agendas of the powers. Many of the grievances against the Govt. can be solved in minutes if these two pages of simple procedures are adopted.

Running a village called Sri Lanka is so easy. The leaders have the power, they MUST just delegate it in the way I recommend, and begin with the above procedures, and within 6 months results will be there for all to see, and much of the problems of the Govt. will be solved. The solution therefore is internal, not with the IMF grants and facilities, why cant the leaders see that?

Another rule I will enforce through my CEO, is that NO ONE can attend openings of anything and give speeches or go to embassy cocktail parties. This takes 80% of the elected leaders’ time, instead of running their Ministries and so their work gets step-motherly treatment.

Just imagine the time that will be released to the 100 ministers to actually do some work, rather than waste time attending events. If you don’t believe me, just look at the Diary of any lawmaker, and you will scratch your head asking, “HOW CAN THIS MAN HAVE ANY TIME TO DO ANY WORK?”

Look at any successful Country, and you will see a disciplined and organized leader, who knows how to inspire and delegate to the right people. We have enough competent people to delegate to, give them a free hand to do their job, and NOT interfere in their decision making. You have delegated responsibility to carry out the POLICIES, and they are capable of fulfilling them WITHOUT political interference.

When word spreads that political interference is being reduced, you can be sure the people with one voice will finally believe that this Govt. means business. Things and attitudes will change overnight, and the confidence that people will get that a level playing field has returned, you will get immediate results.


Just look! The best and brightest leave, because the worst incompetents get the jobs they apply for. If that changes we can retain the people we desperately need, to carry out all our development activities without fear or favor.

I am sorry to have to even give a common sense check list for the next few weeks. Its just that with all sorts of unnecessary matters occupying the lawmakers time they have not been able to spend any time actually thinking about what their job is, and how best to carry that out in the best PUBLIC INTEREST 

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