The topic is familiar and you may think that some of this was written yesterday. No, it was all written and published in July 2011, and was a plea for all involved in our nation building effort. We have since made much progress in several areas, yet failed miserably in some other vital ones. I leave you, the reader of my blog, to critically evaluate where we have scored well and where there is dire need to fix leaks and potholes.
Re-establishing
and sustaining a peaceful environment after a prolonged war is no easy task.
The issues are many, and reconciliation is not merely about words and
declarations, but about real deeds that impact positively on the lives of people.
There needed to be opportunities created for those that were once victims of
the war in the North and the East to slowly but steadily re-establish their
lives. On the other hand, perceptions needed to be managed in the South and the
rest of the country, that there is an enhancement of living standards of all,
in an equitable way.
Large
extents of land had to be cleared of mines laid during the war. Minds and
hearts of those who were once supporters of or combatants for the LTTE had to
be won-over and healed. Areas had to be got ready for resettlement and roads,
bridges, irrigation channels, public utilities and houses had to be repaired or
rebuilt. The armed forces, members of which performed heroic deeds during the
war against terror, that now stayed rested, had not only to be looked after and
given recognition. They had to be kept engaged, on an ongoing basis in useful
pursuits. There was no room for any vacuum to be created with idle minds and
hands. These were taken head on and the spheres of rural and urban development are
now both seeing a new revival and the leadership in government need to be
commended for the efficacy with which it was handled.
Wasteful
demand
The new
found freedom of living without fear also created new wealth resulting in an
increase in effective demand. That led to shortfalls of supply and increases in
prices, sometimes creating waves of discontent. There was also new demand
created for useless and luxury goods such as energy guzzling individual
transport vehicles, continuance of war time personal security arrangements for
people’s representatives without any rational need, fancy personal care,
entertainment and other items, holding of opulent ceremonies and celebrations
most unfitting of the needs of a nation and its people that is emerging from a prolonged
conflict. With such increases in supply of both the essentials and of useless
luxury items, keeping the supply-lines in tact, of the essentials, in the midst
of a recessionary environment on the global front, was indeed a challenge.
Concurrently,
frequent ‘battles’ needed to be fought with a portion of an ‘international
community’ that kept on calling for what they have been fed to feel as
‘violations’, by elements of a still strong Diaspora that supported or were
part of the LTTE. With electoral
influence in the countries where they operate, there is a need to continuously counter
them with truth and on-ground realities, for they will go on seeking to hurt
Sri Lanka’s legitimate efforts, towards reconciliation, in any which way they
can. Their unwillingness to give up claims of a separate state will continue to
trouble us, in this extremely un-level playfield of international ‘opinion
making’. The need of the hour is for all Sri Lankans to work in unity to place
the truth and reality of our position without any reservation. On the local
front, a weakened opposition is ripe with criticism. While some of it is wild, others
are constructive and valid and must be taken careful heed of.
Regional
development
We all must
agree that we have seen a fair-share of opportunists, strongmen abusing power
and the corrupt that made the most of the new found ‘freedom’. This was in spite
of declarations and statements of intent made by the President as leader and as
head of state. In the midst of all of this, the challenge faced by the
leadership was to ensure that development activities were not only taken on,
but were perceived by the people as happening solidly on the ground.
In my
considered opinion, the government had achieved substantial progress in its ‘Naginahira
Udanaya’ and ‘Uturu Wasanthaya’ development programmes and is moving in a
focussed direction. With the electoral result in the North of last week, a new
opportunity will emerge for the government as well as the newly elected
representatives in the North to work together to present even stronger
development programmes in the future.
This will
augment the significant progress achieved in regional development in the rest
of the country, such as the development of the once backward districts of Hambantota,
Monaragala and Ampara. Such development has had infrastructure development and
generation of opportunities for self-employment as its major thrust.
Constructive
criticism
The intent
of my column today is not only to give credit where such credit is due, but to
generate constructive criticism in some areas, where I as a citizen of this
land, feel there need to be a stronger and genuine focus by the leadership to
resolve them.
One such
area is corruption and wasteful use of resources. We all know that corruption
is not only of the monetary kind. Today, it has trickled down to even our
school system, our state institutions and rural administrations. A citizen has
to dole out ‘santhosam’ or ‘paga’ (bribe) of varying degrees to obtain a service
which they are supposed to get as part of their right as citizenry. Sadly, such
practice has become the norm for many service transactions, placing millions of
ordinary Sri Lankans in very difficult circumstances. Various henchmen of
politicians and other persons in powerful positions are known to seek financial
rewards to get things done, using their positions and influence. Often the
victims are the innocent, the poor and the helpless; the very people who have
supported them to get to these positions of power.
Some
unscrupulous government teachers of today, charge their own students to attend
private tuition classes, the same as doctors encourage their patients to see
them at private clinics instead of at the out-patient departments in the
hospitals, where they work. Illegal logging, sand and mining of other minerals
that lead to the denudation of our natural resources, is rampant for even some top-officials
charged with their protection, are known to yield to pressures of the powerful
or to that of personal pecuniary benefit.
Take
heed
Violation
of tender procedures has proven to lead to wasteful use of funds, materials and
other resources and has already created several embarrassing situations for the
government. The perpetrators of these and other non-merit based awards of
contracts, only rarely are effectively dealt with, within the purview of state
auditing mechanisms for in most instances they get out scot-free for technical
reasons such as the lack of provable evidence and/or the vanishing of such
evidence.
We must
take heed and note the events that are unfolding in neighbouring India
Moral
power
To sustain
any effort of development, there must be the will and the desire to conserve the
resources it utilises with accountability and transparency, held as the most
important platforms for expressing such will and desire. For it is only through
a culture of conservation that a resultant effort at sustenance could emerge. For
this to happen there must be relative certainty of the future, for in a
terribly uncertain environment, a people, a nation or the world at large will
attempt to consume its resources now and in the present, without postponing it
to the future.
In Sri Lanka
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