NPP Govt's first Cabinet reshuffle

PRESIDENT Anura Kumara Disanayake undertook the NPP Government’s first Cabinet reshuffle last week, which saw the appointment of three new ministers and 10 additional deputy ministers. Governments across the world carry out cabinet reshuffles due to a multiplicity of reasons. Cabinet reshuffles become necessary when presidents and prime ministers are compelled to remove ministers from their existing portfolios due to their ill-advised decisions and actions as their continuous presence in the same ministerial positions has an adverse impact on the Government’s popularity.

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Cabinet reshuffles also provide an opportunity to keep coalition government intact by appeasing partners of the coalition through ministerial portfolios. New ministers may be inducted to the prime decision-making arm of the government in order to provide representation to minority ethnic/religious communities. Rearrangements also serve the purpose of getting rid of under-performing ministers apart from showing the door to those whose views do not align with the policy direction of the government.

In Sri Lanka, Cabinet reorganisations often associate with giving the cold shoulder to ministers who are at loggerheads with the President. The famous Cabinet reshuffle in 2007 under President Mahinda Rajapaksa saw the late Mangala Samaraweera, who was not seeing eye to eye with the former on many issues, losing the foreign affairs portfolio. At the very reshuffle, the late Anura Bandaranaike was downgraded to the insignificant portfolio of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage as Rajapaksa had serious doubts about the late politician’s loyalty to the then Government.