Challenges of doing business in Colombo

A speaker at a forum recently highlighted a story in a Washington-based foreign policy magazine which had listed Sri Lanka as the 25th nation after Rwanda on in its list of Failed States. I dismissed the statement publicly as an attempt by the magazine and the speaker to tarnish the good name of the country. However if we continue the way we are going by closing down city roads at peak business hours in important commercial areas to accommodate the movement of politicians elected by the people and top government bureaucrats connected with the administration and also waste public funds to massage egos of VIPs, it won’t be far off before we become a failed state and sit right next to Rwanda in the roll of honour. We already have a situation where rising inflation, high interest rates and the escalation of hostilities have had a major impact on business and investor confidence.

Therefore by closing down city roads at rush hours and barricading commercial areas to facilitate VIP movements, business confidence will only continue to edge its way downwards and also drive away potential investors. We all say the private sector is the engine of economic growth then creating a level playing field and creating a business friendly environment is the responsibility of the state. Today the private sector is the largest direct tax payer and employs more than 70% of the Lankan labour force. Therefore bringing some normalcy into the city can only help to prevent a bigger bite out of their corporate earnings. Protect VIPs The government according to newspapers some time ago imported nine bulletproof super luxury Mercedes Benz cars from Germany for the security of several ministers, when prices of essential items were skyrocketing and when we did not have the funds to even cushion some of those increases. Initially the government had ordered 12 cars but reduced the number to nine due to the unavailability of the full requirement.

The price of one of these cars was estimated to be around Rs 60 to 80 million. Many rural and urban roads could have been rehabilitated if that money was diverted for the welfare of the public or to cushion the price increase in kerosene used by the poor instead of being used to import cars for VIPs. Therefore, now that the public has made that sacrifice and got the VIPs the bulletproof cars, why do we need to close city roads and clear roads for ministers if they are in fact traveling in bulletproof cars? Ministers are elected by the people to serve them and not to be served by them. Therefore ministers must work on the basis that the nation must exist for their government to exist. If some of our ministers are so valuable and an asset to the country because say their skills, abilities and competencies have the potential to propel Sri Lanka into a NIC and also bring about the much needed peace for economic development. No Sri Lankan will grudge them the luxury of a bulletproof Mercedes Benz to protect them from terrorist attacks or even the first class travel and hotels they dream for themselves and their families once elected to office. Sadly most of our so-called people representatives both in the Opposition and the UPFA who travel in these bulletproof tinted cars are afraid and hide from the very people who voted them into power. Some of these ministers forget that the very people they prefer to avoid have to pay for their individual and their family security by way of taxes. Many of these ministers who travel around with armed escorts do not even know what the voters in their constituencies want, leave alone having the competence to give leadership to the country to take the tough and unpopular decisions that are urgently required.

If top Indian politicians like the LSE educated Indian Prime Minister or the Defense Minister can travel in an Indian built bullet proof car, or for that matter take the example of President Ahmadinejad who used his own old car to set an example, we too should be looking at that option instead of wasting our valuable foreign exchange to import top of the range branded cars for ministers in a poor country like ours where we sometimes do not even have the money to pay our public servants their increments in full on time. Politicians should not contest elections to hold office and live like African rulers at state expense and make the masses suffer. In fact JVPs Bimal Ratnayake even went to the extent of saying that the people travelling in bulletproof cars were the real terrorist. The current scenario is a recipe for revolt and disgust.

A survey carried out by a newspaper in a South Asian country as to whether VIP security is a nuisance to the general public revealed that 56% of those surveyed said VIP security was a nuisance. To the question whether it was necessary to have security in a dignified way, surprisingly, a huge 78% said yes again. It seems people are prepared to accommodate limited privileges to the VIPs provided there is no abuse of power and extravagance on the part of the politician at the taxpayer’s expense. Also while it is only the right that ministers adequately protect themselves against terrorist attacks, they also should make sure to protect the common man who elected them to office from terrorist attacks. Perhaps in a way, there could be an inherent bias in a city like Colombo since the capital does house the most number of VIPs in the President’s jumbo Cabinet. Moreover, there may be only a few people who have once somewhere or the other not tasted VIP security and burped abuses at our politicians for days to come. Overall a largish chunk of our peace loving people in the city of Colombo do not feel that VIP security is a nuisance to them, provided the politicians and their families operate within the rule of law and contribute towards the development of the country. Democracy is no obstacle. There is no question that our security situation is fast deteriorating with the escalation of hostilities in the North. In these difficult times there can be no dispute about the need for proper security of the President and his ministers.

However the challenge for the government is to combine national security and the personal safety of our VIPs in way that it would not infringe the civil liberties of our people and also become a nuisance to the common man. Democracy can be loud and messy to some ministers but certainly not an obstacle to prosperity. Besides this it is also important for the government to maintain a climate that is conducive to the conduct of business and promoting tourism. In fact many business houses have had to suddenly close down for the day because a VIP or a VVIP was travelling in that direction. While there should be no compromise of their security, there should be some method to prevent the very people who elected the President from getting abused and harassed from his security. It is simply not correct to harass ordinary people purely to accommodate ministers movements.

These ministers have no birthright to govern or rule, they are elected by ordinary citizens to serve them. Road clearing should be done in a subtle manner thereby not alerting the entire neighborhood that a minister is travelling which can actually pose a threat to the minister. So if VIP security is not managed professionally and combined with a programme to protect civil liberties we could in effect drive away our business community, tourist and potential investors. If the President does not want to take this country into a further state of anarchy he must step back and take stock of the current situation and prevent the disruption of the day-to-day lives of ordinary people by overzealous security officers. He owes this to the ordinary people, because it is these people who put him into office to serve them. Therefore the President should learn how to match political freedom with economic ones to facilitate economic growth and wealth creation; Thereby he can transform the lives of many poor Sri Lankans.