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to Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka had the advantage (or was it a disadvantage?) of gaining her independence much earlier than Malaysia, and is stillfar from reaching the levels achieved by that country. Both nations had a somewhat similar socio-ethnic mix and early teething problems of taking off. While, Malaysia has now come of age, Sri Lanka undoubtedly is still struggling on the tarmacon its attempt to take off. A local business journal celebrating its tenth anniversary recently, referred to Sri Lanka as a nation that continues to exist in crisis mode. Since independence we have indeed moved from one crisis to the other, living on almost a hand to mouth existence in the past few decades, with events of crisis proportions looming on the ethnic harmony front, politics, youth unrest, terrorism, economic dependency, education, unemployment, bribery and corruption, crime and suicides and the like. The only consolation has been a relatively good score card in the delivery of social services, which once again is a legacy we inherited. Since history provides us lessons to learn from, what is vital and wanting is for us to learn these lessons and move forward. Thus this probe, Where to,Sri Lanka, where to, our motherland? Malaysian Prime Minister Badawis address to his nation last Tuesday, certainly offers us Sri Lankans, some food for thought. He is reported to have said “Let all citizens of Malaysia, without feeling inferior, without feeling sidelined, irrespective of race and religion, rise to become statesmen in our own land. We are equal, we are all Malaysians. Unleash your potential and shape this country of yours the way you want it to be…. It is better we ask ourselves; as a Malaysian have I done my duty as a citizen to at least make Malaysia a nation we can all be proud of ? If not, what are you waiting for? If yes, have you, done enough?” Though similar to the famous words of the late John F. Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country? the Asian leader s passion and focus is even stronger and more challenging. Most of us Sri Lankans, have mastered the art of passing the buck like no other, in this land like no other. Before our engines loose any power to effect even a late take off, we all may have to take a good look at the mirror at ourselves and ask, “Have I done enough?” Or “Have I done anything at all?”. Don t most among the business leadership, still continue to make back of the door contributions to political entities, expect favours in return and then cry foul and complain of corruption, lack of transparency and non-merit based practices? Don t we complain of the lack of quality, dedication and commitment of most of our political leadership and fall over each other to seek their favour, have them at our events and functions as guests of honour and even pretend to listen to dished-out speeches that are read out? Don t we encourage the undermining of the authority and efficacy of public servants by approaching politicians to get things done and then complain of the ineffectiveness of their services? Haven t we in the recent past, allowed a presumed supremacy of political leadership to effectively kill initiative of civic leadership, except in limited domains? If the honest answers to these are a resounding yes , then are we not responsible for the mess we have got ourselves into? If that be the case, should it not be each of us individually and all of us collectively, that should explore the answer to the question Where to Sri Lanka?” by driving initiatives that will allow our motherland take off on a vision driven flight path, moving away from this crisis mode of operations? |
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