{"id":43676,"date":"2015-10-23T23:58:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T03:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43676"},"modified":"2015-10-23T23:58:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T03:58:50","slug":"sibling-appointed-ports-authority-chairman-by-arjuna-ranatunga-just-as-president-sirisena-appointed-his-brother-as-telecom-chairman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=43676","title":{"rendered":"Sibling Appointed Ports Authority Chairman by Arjuna Ranatunga just as President Sirisena Appointed his Brother as Telecom Chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Lucien Rajakarunanayake<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amidst the often tortuous and boring abundance of advertisements promoting candidates seeking election in the run up to the August 17 General Election, there was one ad that stood out for its clarity and unambiguous statement.<\/p>\n

This well produced and impactful ad in Sinhala, was presented in the depiction of a classroom in a regular school, where the teacher was advising students on the best standards of social behavior and leadership. With good acting from the writing on the blackboard to talking to the pupils, the key lines of the teacher were:<\/p>\n

“Tell the truth,<\/p>\n

Speak clean and direct,<\/p>\n

Do not endorse wrong actions,<\/p>\n

Be rid of fraud and corruption,<\/p>\n

Be committed to the country —<\/p>\n

These are the qualities of a good leader”<\/em><\/p>\n

Just as the last line was said a pupil stood up and asked whether this was not referring to Mr. Arjuna\u2026…..<\/p>\n

From then on it was the advertising blurb to vote for Arjuna Ranatunga the UNFPA candidate inthe Gampaha District, with a good display of his candidate number.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This ad was shown over and over again on TV, and gave the impression that the advertiser, Arjuna Ranatunga, was making a good effort to instill these good qualities in the minds of the voting public, and hopefully the next generation, too.<\/p>\n

But the recently reported act of Arjuna Ranatunga, who remains the Minister of Ports (with Aviation taken off and patched on to Nimal Siripala de Silva with Transport) made me realize that in all these good qualities mentioned in this ad, there was one important item missing. That of nepotism. The teacher did not say “Do not give in to, Do not practice, or Be rid of\u2026 nepotism”. It may be that the copy writer thought the concept of nepotism in its translation to Sinhala was too far in thought to the teacher or pupils in that class.<\/p>\n

It is now public knowledge that Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has appointed his brother to the office of Chairman, Sri Lanka Ports Authority, over which he presides as the minister in charge. Even if that ad promoting his election did not refer to nepotism, which is patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics, it cannot be forgotten or ignored by anyone that the fight against nepotism was one of the main slogans in that election, especially in the camp from which Arjuna Ranatunga contested and campaigned.<\/p>\n

In fairness to Arjuna, it must be admitted he had not lied that the person he appointed to this gravy train post is not his brother. Almost in keeping with what is said in the Bible, Arjuna firmly remains his brother\u2019s keeper. So good for the brothers. And mind you, there are many more brothers in that family, many of whom were involved in recent politics, both winning and losing, in the polls.<\/p>\n

If one were to keep politics aside for a while, and look at the game of cricket, where Arjuna excelled and brought glory to Sri Lanka, there must be rules that prevent nepotism and family promotion in the selection of players to a team, whether in captaincy, as openers in batting or bowling or way down the line. Whether drawn from the Gentleman\u2019s Game of Cricket or the overall need for democracy and good governance, the fight against nepotism was a leading slogan in the Presidential Poll of January 8, which brought what called a Silent Revolution, and the August General Election, which has resulted in this government of confusing consensus.<\/p>\n

Now that all power and profit in the ports have been sealed with fraternal solidarity, there are questions, whether such fraternity will extend to the field of cricket too, in the elections to the important body controlling the game that is due very soon. There are also questions whether the success of another brother of Arjuna\u2019s in the management and direction of cricket through so many years, and his association with TV broadcasting of sports, also has the support and approval of the minister brother, who is sailing ahead in what may end up as a sea of nepotism.<\/p>\n

Of course Arjuna can always say that he has good examples of the endorsement of nepotism by the leadership of this government, especially in the brotherly warmth when in came to appointing the chairman of the biggest State dominated authority on telecommunications. He may also have been moved towards nepotism by the father and son relationship of power in the recent United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York, and what is frequently seen as the rise of a daughter of power.<\/p>\n

There is increasing evidence that the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda had everything to do with a book he was writing about the Family Tree of the Rajapaksas. Whether that is established in court or not, Arjuna Ranatunga\u2019s solidarity with his brother, following the other examples of recent nepotism in governance, gives one the fear that we may soon be moving towards another huge family tree of profitable governance, with ministers and others in good positions sharing the fruits of office with their near and dear.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s keep hoping for the time when teachers will instill in their pupils that an essential quality of a good leader is the complete rejection of nepotism, or the unfair support to members of one\u2019s family, and help root out today\u2019s saplings of tomorrow\u2019s huge Family Trees of political power.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Island<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Amidst the often tortuous and boring abundance of advertisements promoting candidates seeking election in the run up to the August 17 General Election, there was one ad that stood out for its clarity and unambiguous statement. This well produced and impactful ad in Sinhala, was presented in the depiction of a classroom …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sibling Appointed Ports Authority Chairman by Arjuna Ranatunga just as President Sirisena Appointed his Brother as Telecom Chairman’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43677,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43676\/revisions\/43677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}