26 May 2022

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

DOES THE PARLIAMENT BREAK-EVEN?

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to be in a hurry to ‘privatise’ the National Carrier. As per Sunday Times’ Selling a troubled airline’

[In a statement last week, soon after he assumed office as Prime Minister, Mr. Wickremesinghe said: “I propose to privatise SriLankan Airlines which is incurring extensive losses. The loss for the year 2020-2021 alone amounts to Rs. 45 billion. By 31st March 2021, the total loss was Rs. 372 billion. Even if we privatise SriLankan Airlines, this is a loss that we must bear. You must be aware that this is a loss that must be borne even by the poor people of this country who have never stepped on an airplane.”]

Part of that loss includes monies paid to ‘investigators’ in 2016 under this PM’s leadership. All ‘losses’ incurred belong to that government. In addition, Mr Wickremesinghe carries responsibility for the Central Bank Bond issue which is an example of what can go wrong with ‘privatisation’ of a public enterprise. That Bond issue would have been ‘right’ to a profit driven mind. In Government – the invisible shareholder’s need must drive the leader. This requires deep feeling of ownership.

The current economic meltdown led to restructure of the Sri Lankan government. The Rajapaksa government was a ‘private’ partnership running a whole nation. The clever minds in Sri Lanka ‘failed’ to use their cleverness to sound the alarm bells when this was happening. Hence they have been limited by global powers to this level. That is how Karma works. There is always a ‘karmic’ component when our minds are inactive. When they are idle – that mind becomes the pathway for the demonic power. When the mind is ‘full’ that mind becomes the medium of divine power. Both are karmic.

At operational level, ownership is recognized at three levels:

1.    Money

2.    Status

3.    Corporate Wisdom/Intuitive Intelligence.

Money level is the easily accessible entry point of Demonic Powers. The more money return we get for our investment/work – the less the status and intuitive intelligence. Hence money comes last in family relationships. The less money and status we take for the same level of investment/work as in the above, the deeper our ‘intuitive intelligence’.

The Rajapaksas failed due to their money benefits being far greater than their predecessors in those positions.

Any group – including the Parliament which has law-making authority, needs to be driven mostly by Corporate Wisdom/Intuitive Intelligence.  This ensures natural stability.

The PM who has experience in Parliament needs to ask himself how he would privatise the Parliament? One way would be to have a money value for the services provided by the Government. The cost of each legislation made by the Parliament could be established through the remuneration paid plus the status ‘taken’ above that of the common citizen – needs to be divided into the various activities through which the Parliament serves the People. Towards this, each type of activity needs to be considered a ‘Project Unit’ / Private enterprise. Those activities that are relatively high in terms of cost – need to be demoted in terms of budget allocations / Income sharing.

When this current government cut taxes – they were actually downsizing themselves but without parallel cuts in costs.

The removal of fertilizer subsidy was a cut on income/taxes/dividends  shared with the public as per government programs. The President needs to know ‘why’ it failed. It was a subsidy that was ownership capital to the Farmers which helped them feel they were in partnership with the government. The parallel of that to the Armed Forces would be to reduce the arms from outside Sri Lanka.

The difference between the Executive Government and the Judiciary is that the former as ‘maker’ needs ‘insight’ but the latter as user  needs proof so its ‘balance’ is ‘seen’/known. Hence the Doctrine of Separation of Powers.

Now, in the case of Sri Lankan Airlines – in my article of 16 July 2016 – I quoted as follows:

[On 27 April 2016 – the Colombo Telegraph through its article ‘SriLankan CEO Ratwatte Dismisses Weliamuna Report, Says No Proof Of Corruption’ reported:

‘…The first government-commissioned inquiry into the previous Rajapaksa regime’s acts of corruption, fraud and malpractices was carried out by the Lawyer J.C. Weliamuna along with his team comprising of senior lawyers U.H. Palihakkara, B.A.W. Abeywardane, M.K.Bandara. This six week long exercise cost the tax payer Rs 3.5 million.’

This cost therefore was quantifiable. The same problem if discovered by the internal owners would have been ‘ownership’ intelligence. These are driven by Performance Indicators and not by Proof. CEO Ratwatte who was a pilot lacked that intuitive power and hence asked for ‘proof’. The team by taking ‘money’ had the duty to ‘show’ proof.

The way forward is to

1.    Structure all services that are revenue producing – to show that they are recovering their costs.

2.    ‘outsource’ those services that are proving to be not viable on fee basis – preferably to private parties in Sri Lanka

3.    Find out the Corporate costs and require Budget allocations to meet these costs. Those would be the parallels of subsidies to farmers.

4.    These subsidies need to be allocated on the basis of Key Performance Indicators which must be above breakeven line. When they go below that line – the subsidy  for the following period ought to be reduced accordingly.

 

When this is done for the Parliament also – our economic problem would become an opportunity. More importantly the educated protestors would have a modern pathway to question the government regularly and need not wait until election time nor until they feel the economic pain.