Ceylon Today Editorial

Clarion call for good governance

02 January 2017

The New Year messages with the blessings of religious leaders and the greetings from all national leaders have energized the countrymen to continue with the good efforts to strengthen good governance in the country. Two years ago, in January, the National Unity Government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was set up to the satisfaction of the peace loving citizens of this country.

The National Unity Government which is very much focused on strengthening peace and reconciliation has succeeded to a great extent in the past two years in wiping out the post-war grievances and making the country traverse on the path of prosperity. The reconciled State of the two prime National parties which had remained as arch rivals from the post-independence period with the formation of the National Unity Government is exemplary in spearheading the countrymen towards peace and reconciliation.

The present regime had to carry out an arduous task of purifying the State machinery which was in a State of disarray in its first year in office and to a great extent state sector has now been put in order despite the attempts made by unscrupulous political elements with vested interests including the Joint Opposition (JO) creating obstacles for the National Unity Government. The verdict given by the people in the country in January 2015 was to see not only the dawn of good governance but also to ensure the chauvinist elements are not taking the upper hand in national politics.

President Maithripala Sirisena in his New Year message has clearly stated that the country is stepping into year 2017 in the backdrop of several challenging changes taking place globally. While striving to stabilize peace and reconciliation enhancing the country's development activities, the present regime has to focus on maintaining good relations regionally as well as internationally. With the end of the civil war seven years ago, several countries have focused their attention on the island nation with regard to regional politics as well as the economic activities.

So, the present regime should be extremely cautious towards maintaining healthy external relations to strengthen the hard earned peace in the country. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his New Year message has cautioned over the notorious political elements which were trying to undermine the efforts taken by the present regime in building a healthy reconciled country.

As the Prime Minister is aware of the elements which remain a threat to good governance, instead of pointing them out all, measures should be taken to eradicate them in the best interest of the country. Apart from bringing in the present government two years ago the people also voted for the eradication of corruption and malpractices in the country.

For the much anticipation of the countrymen several investigations were launched to unmask the corrupt individuals of the previous regime. However, the general impression among the people is that the efforts which were mooted to expose the corrupt individuals were not effective enough and the leniency towards the wrongdoers will only help them to make manipulations to escape from the accusations against them as well as to regroup to create obstacles to the present regime.

Already there are signs of problems emerging gradually to ridicule the National Unity regime. A clueless atmosphere prevails in the country over the political and the economic challenges handled by the present regime. Despite several drawbacks in dealing with the political and the post-war humanitarian issues in the North and the East, Leader of the Opposition and Tamil National Alliance Leader R. Sampanthan has expressed optimism over finding a permanent solution to the ethnic crisis in the New Year.

Therefore, the National Unity Government which is in the threshold of entering its third year in office must flex its muscles to throw its weight in dealing with all negative forces to make good governance a reality.