Of the 135 individuals recently accepted into the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS), described as the apex of the government’s bureaucracy, all but one (a Muslim) were Sinhalese. Unsurprisingy - there weren’t any Tamils amongst the 257 people short listed.
See the full report by LakbimaNews here.
Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, P.B. Abeykoon, says the intake of Tamils in the civil service was dwindling even in the early 80s, when he joined the civil service. There were only four to five Tamil recruits even then, he recalls.
The government's explanation is that no Tamil met its selection standards.
Meanwhile, a Guide prepared by the United States State Department for US firms that wish to invest in Sri Lanka says amongst the problems they'll face is the bureaucracy, described as "cumbersome", "overstaffed" and "large, inefficient and dated."
Also see our earlier related post: ‘Ethnocracy?’
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