Former secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media said that the country needs to go back to their original stake holders and get a mandate from the people on the way forward. He mentioned the country is in a dead lock situation due to a brewing political crisis as well as a constitutional crisis. As a country that believes in representative democracy, we need to go back to the people and admit that we need a new mandate to move forward without further deteriorating the current crisis, Dr. Herath said. He also said that the best way to do this is to call for a general election.
After the local government election, the policy direction taken by the two key partners of the current government seems to be headed in opposite directions, he observed.
According to Dr. Herath, the political crisis is the result of the absence of educated politicians who are capable of driving the country forward. He urged the people, at least as a starting point, to appoint at least 30% of educated leaders as their representatives.
“Being the representative of people is a full-time job. It is not awarded because someone is known to you or because someone is popular in the village. It is same as giving the responsibility to a qualified pilot to take off the plane and land it safely. For the last 70 years the pilots who took this plane off has knocked it on many mountains and damaged it massively", he added.
Commenting on the economic front, Dr. Herath said that given the demography of Sri Lanka, the way forward is to facilitate healthy competition between government institutions and the private sector. He cited the telecommunication reforms initiated from 1994 – 1996, under then Minister of Telecommunications Mangala Samaraweera, as the best example. The telecommunication sector is no longer a problem since it has become a competitive market and both the government and the private sector are doing very well.
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