Sunday Times 2
Think wisely, our lives matter, too
It’s prime time for us to think about our lives, too. This is not by protests or violence and counter violence as seen with the Black Lives Matter movement, but by peacefully voting to begin a journey to eliminate poverty, discrimination, inequality and corruption. Selecting a few MPs who genuinely stand to resolve our root causes of decline would not only be a step forward for the working class but also reduce the risk of damaging conflicts in future.
We became a free country in 1948 with a surplus economy. This was a time when our per capita income was equivalent to that of Singapore. That country’s per capita income (GDP) now is (USD 63,987) or 16 times above that of ours (USD 3,947).
Further, we are debt ridden over and above what we can repay, thanks to our democratically elected politicians promising a better Sri Lanka at each election. Today, our government wants to increase our debt ceiling even further (which is at 87% of the GDP, at present) by holding unborn generations also to ransom. We need to change course. Carefully voting to elect a few parliamentarians who understand and fight to resolve our root causes of decline is the only hope of rescue.
There are five fundamental issues that need urgent resolution for us to even dream of a better future. Once the root causes are resolved, development will begin automatically.
Energy is a major need. Why do our politicians promote coal and diesel power plants when we can generate power at minute cost? We have plenty of sunlight to generate solar power, a constant flow of wind to generate wind power and water in excess and waves to generate hydropower. Why do we not promote these instead of coal power plants that need daily fuel import? Why not provide subsidised solar panels to each household? That will preserve our foreign reserves by reducing living costs and the carbon imprint too. What prevents politicians from promoting eco-friendly public transport systems (city trams/monorails) to reduce vehicles that burn imported fuels?
No country can develop without discipline. Discipline comes from education and also implementation of regulation. The latter needs an impartial system of law and order. Politicians flout regulations for their own benefit– corruption — and contribute to the erosion in the law and order situation. Sadly, there also seems to be no political interest to improve our road discipline where nine people die every day. What a tragedy?
We need to promote our identity as a single nation. Politicians surviving on slogans of division based on race and religion or blaming the past have prevented our unity for a long time. Unity as a nation is fundamental for our development. There is a need to accept diversity and reject discrimination and inequality by legislation as seen in developed countries.
The proportion of graduates in the workforce in any developed country exceeds 20-30 percent. Developed countries spend 8-10 percent of their GDP for education. We have had governments that spend only 1 percent of GDP for education. At present, we admit 5 percent of our student population to university leaving the rest to find their own fate. They are not even allowed to seek high-end higher education at their own expense in our country while programmes of high demand are not allowed to be developed in the private sector either. Why cannot we spend 8-10 percent of public money to develop higher education instead of supporting mega cabinets and megaprojects of little or no return?
There is an escalating blame game between politicians and government institutions for poor performance. Efficient institutions depend on professionalism of its leaders and staff. Depolitisation of the institutions is the key to enhance their productivity.
Independent thinking and voting away from the engraved bias of party colour, religion, race or gender will be our only saviour. The media should consider ‘taking a knee’ to elaborate this need but I am sceptical.
(The writer is a former professor and dean at the University of Peradeniya.)