With the Presidential election over people having exercised their franchise are back to get on with their lives, till they come out again next at the General election due in 2020 to elect their representatives in Parliament. The new president has assumed his duties at a time people are with more questions than answers in their minds; in much anxiety and hopelessness with the insecurity prevailing in the country. President must understand that Buddhism was preached by Buddha during a similar time to provide hope and answers; as the practitioner of such faith needs to first struggle to find answers and then apply those solutions to the society at large.
In Sri Lanka majority of the population shares a small percentage of the gross national wealth and the rest of the population a small minority owns bulk of the wealth; a simple scenario where people are not sharing enough than country not having enough. It is this way of life that has promoted much anxiety and hopelessness in the minds of most people. By contrast Buddha’s teaching provides necessary and useful goods and services to enable everyone to use and thereby perfect service to, and in cooperation with, others, so as to liberate oneself from inborn egocentricity. Only with such an understanding, the President could serve the people best by providing answers to overcome their struggle.
In the meantime the new President exercising the executive power given by the people is preparing for an interim government and appointed a new cabinet limited to sixteen from his existing members in parliament. The new cabinet of ministers were sworn in before the President this morning at the Presidential Secretariat, with responsibilities divided among the sixteen as follows:
- Finance, National Policies & Economic Affairs, Urban Dev., Buddha Sasana, Religious Affairs, Housing & Water Supply.
- Justice, Human Rights & Legal Reforms.
- Social Empowerment & Estate Infrastructure Development.
- Foreign Affairs, Skills Development, Employment & Labour Relations.
- Fisheries and Aquatic Development.
- Women’s & Children’s Affairs, Social Security, Health & Indigenous Health Services.
- Information & Communications Technology, Higher Education & Innovation.
- Public Administration, Internal Affairs and Provincial Councils & Local Government.
- Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation, Rural Development, Internal Trade & Consumer Protection.
- Education, Sports and Youth Affairs.
- Roads & Highways and Ports & Naval Affairs.
- Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Industry & Supply.
- Passenger Transport Management, Power & Energy.
- Environment & Wildlife, Lands & Land Development.
- Plantation Industries and Export Agriculture.
- Investment Promotion, Tourism and Aviation Services.
Sri Lanka need to continue this practice of a small cabinet beyond next General Election in a manner that serves the interests of the people; all constitutionally amended to improve the past system of governance with jumbo size cabinet that survived many decades without being challenged. A much wanted change from the practice of forming jumbo sized cabinet that by nature encourages corruption to reward political loyalty and to consolidate political power. In 2015, the President from one party was the Head of the Executive his Cabinet of Ministers drawn from Parliament including the Prime Minister from other party.
Northern Breeze 