Observations on motivation

Saturday, 12 February 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Awards are for those who have earned something exceptional. The government a few days ago decided to select the best prisoner and award him as an encouragement to other incarcerated individuals. Clearly the aim is to promote good citizenship and this same concept can be attributed to many other people, especially ministers and other public officials.

Let us take a flight of fancy for a few minutes and consider the ramifications of giving awards to the best performing ministers. Each can be evaluated on his honesty, capacity to meet targets, handle crisis, commitment to public welfare, conducting himself in public, engagement with the media, contribution to poverty alleviation and development as well as dedication to democracy. The idea that a truthful and transparent report on the actions of each minister be revealed to the public would certainly change the actions and attitudes of many people.

Many goals that are set out for the nation are either modified halfway or not met at all. While there may be justifiable reasons for this it does little to make follow up or future programmes more successful and free from corruption. If the idea behind the prisoner’s award is to make him perform better then the same target could be achieved by those clapping him on by making their actions more transparent. It is not just the ministers who could be subjected to this challenge but also top public officials and even a selection from the private sector.

Controversial as the point will undoubtedly become the imagination becomes vivid when considering the civic good that could be done by an evaluation which would reward and more importantly assist the country in achieving their goals. If the prisoner can be encouraged to work towards the betterment of society then why can’t other stakeholders be similarly motivated? Obviously there are numerous professional organisations that present awards but politicians are noticeably absent from this list. So perhaps the time has come for them to participate rather than present.

Fiction will never become fact in this instance but for a fleeting moment in time it showed the necessity of promoting good governance, accountability and transparency in Sri Lanka. Often we believe that people who are behind bars are the ones that need to be reformed but each citizen needs to focus on doing good even without bars crossing their vision. Sanctimonious assumptions do not necessarily result in the holistic benefit to society. Just like society voted people into power they also had a hand in putting people into prison.

So if people are the ones with power then what award can they give to the winners of the ministers’ contest? Part of the glamour of an award lies in the public adoration that is normally heaped on the winner. Gaining popularity for public welfare is also the intent of ministers, especially as they vie for votes at the next election. So even without a formal award they stand to win much if they decide to be civic minded.