Sri Lanka Post, once an essential part of the colonial empire and its bureaucracy, has been struggling to stay relevant and effective for decades. Today, the postal service, a public service, is like a time capsule, with archaic practices, remnants of politicisation, outdated staffing and business models, and a thick layer of trade union rust corroding its structures. The service is held together by multiple governments that have been fumbling with the political will to either put down the suffering beast or restructure it in a manner where it would be relevant and effective in serving the public today.

However, Sri Lanka Post, as an institution, is emblematic of the broader State sector, made up of staff who are more interested with themselves and their sustenance than about the service rendered. It is the embodiment of the State sector push for ‘regime change for the better’. Today, their actions showcase the hollow self-serving agenda behind the push by many of the public sector trade unions, who cried out loud for a ‘system change’. The hypocrisy is clear for all to see. Almost all public sector trade unions who called for it only want system change for others, while they want to continue with the ‘systems’ which they are tweaking to serve their own interests.

Yesterday (18), the Union of Post and Telecommunication Officers, together with the United Postal Trade Unions’ Front (UPTUF), continued their strike for the second consecutive day. According to the unions’ representatives, the strike is based on 19 key demands. These include the payment of overtime (OT) allowances for postal officers, and opposition to the directive requiring officers in administrative and accounts offices to record attendance using fingerprint machines. Herein lies the key issue. Sri Lanka Post, or an outright majority of its staff are resisting the ‘system change’ which the current Government has an overwhelming mandate for. Shame on them. How dare they leech off the taxpayers’ rupee, delivered during times of austerity, and not comply with good governance and accountability mechanisms which are accepted worldwide as the norm? If the National People’s Power (NPP) Government had any illusions when it came into power about the compounding effect of a bloated State sector in Sri Lanka’s economic downturn, its own trade union membership, and that of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) members in Sri Lanka Post, should be the ugly face in the mirror they see. Will the NPP have the political will and gusto to take Sri Lanka Post to task and bring ‘transparency and accountability’ to the institution? Time will tell.

It will be a litmus test for the Government to show it has the backbone to take errant and disruptive State institutions to task. Failure to do so will only erode the public’s trust in not only the NPP but also the State as a whole. How can we blame disgruntled youth who are leaving the nation in droves when the very Government empowered by the people to ‘system change’ stands before the State sector with weak knees? The NPP Government has trumpeted its ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative (which many in the Government seems to lack clarity about) as a long-term means to change the culture and community of Sri Lanka to be more clean, efficient, effective, and accountable. It should start the ‘clean’ with institutions like Sri Lanka Post. Irrespective of how the Government deals with the lawlessness within Sri Lanka Post, with en masse refusal to adhere to basic attendance and overtime clocking through modern means such as biometric sign-in, the writing is on the wall for institutions like it. Sri Lanka Post has decreasing social relevance. It is clear that a serious reform process must be implemented in order to adapt the postal service to modern demands. Many countries have evolved their postal service network to deliver modern needs and services, if Sri Lanka Post is not significantly reformed and streamlined, it will just be another white elephant propped up by our tax rupees.