When Sri Lanka got Independence in 1948, it had a well-functioning democratic system and a stable macro-economy, and with all the natural and human resources of this island-nation, coupled with its strategic location in the world map, the path ahead looked very promising. Looking back after 75 years, one cannot help but realise that we have somehow missed the bus and failed to live up to its initial expectations.
What went wrong in this country? Why, where, when and how did it happen? Who are to be responsible? As we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of gaining independence from the colonial rulers, now would be an opportune moment to turn the searchlight inwards and ask some hard questions. Not because we can rewrite history, but because we can learn from the past mistakes, some of which we have still been hesitant to admit, and move forward.
The Daily News spoke to Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, an expert who is adept at public policy, economics, communication and technology, in search of his opinions to some of the above questions. A well-experienced professional, who have held high positions in both public and private sectors and brought in innovative changes and ideas, Prof. Samarajiva is the founding Chair of LIRNEasia, (Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies Asia), a Colombo-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy and regulation think-tank active in the Asia Pacific region.
All is not lost
Kicking off the interview on a positive note, he said that the post-Independent Sri Lanka has had significant achievements too and those have contributed to improve the people’s living conditions over the past decades.
“It has not been completely doom and gloom and wrong policies all the time, but we have had some achievements too. For example, we have had many health innovations in the past decades that improved people's lives. Back in 1945, the year we have the data, the average life expectancy of a woman was 42 years, and the same of a man was 44 years. In comparison, women lived for 76 years on average and men lived for 72 years on average, according to the 2015 data. The improved conditions under which our women give birth have helped tackle the problem of maternal mortality. The economics, in the end, must serve the people. While we do talk about Sri Lanka being in a good position back in 1948 as an economy, we must understand that it was a relative position,” he remarked.
However, he predicted that the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka may reduce the life expectancy of Sri Lankans by one or two years, in the same way how the COVID-19 pandemic has said to have reduced the average lifespan of an American.
He pointed out that the problem with Sri Lanka is that the achievements it made have been non-sustainable or non-robust. “We have done good things, but we have not done them in the proper way. What did we do while Japan developed its overall economy (in the aftermath of World War II) by opening up its markets and diversifying the economy?” he asked, and in reply to his own question, described how our country’s focus had gone astray.
Inclusive society
“The very first law that Independent Sri Lanka enacted was to take away the citizenship of the Tamil people of Indian origin who were living in the estate sector. Then we enacted the Sinhala-only Act (the Official Language Act which made Sinhalese the official language of the country) in 1956, removing the ability of the Tamils or Burghers to participate in the Government Service and economic activities.
“We were vindictive towards our minorities. We were not able to make correct decisions to make this country prosperous because we did not maintain good relations among its communities, and because we were majoritarian and oppressive towards the others. There is no way to go back in time and correct those mistakes, but we need to ensure that all citizens of the country feel respected in the future,” he observed.
He recalled how former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew referred to Sri Lanka as a negative example when talking about Singapore’s rise. In an interview given to the International Herald Tribune in 2007, Lee said, “In 1965 (the year Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent and sovereign state), we had 20 years of examples of failed states. So, we knew what to avoid – racial conflict, linguistic strife, religious conflict. We saw Ceylon. Thereafter, we knew that if we embarked on any of these romantic ideas, to revive a mythical past of greatness and culture, we’d be damned”.
In this light, Prof. Samarajiva said that he fully agrees with President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s recent statement on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. “I look very positively at the President’s announcement that we will, at the minimum, live by our written Constitution. It has Clauses on power devolution which we have not yet implemented. The President was clear that we have to either formally implement or remove them, and that is a very reasonable statement,” he said.
Where to point the finger
He underlined that while blaming the politicians for the wrongs committed, and rightly so, the people who elected them and condoned their activities should also share some of the blame.
“When actions were taken against the Tamil people of Indian origin, who kept our tea and rubber industries going, there was no significant opposition from the voters of the majority community. In contrast, when there was a debate about the continuation of slavery in the United States (US) under its President Abraham Lincoln, in the 19th Century, some white people, who were free, also joined in the protests to end slavery, in solidarity with the black people. We did not do that. The majority community has to take blame for allowing these things to happen.
“When the Sinhala-only Bill was moved, people did not protest but supported then Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike to enact it, but he did not have the same support when he tried to walk it back through the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact. The Tamils protested and engaged in Sathyagraha, but in vain. The Burghers migrated. Did anybody care?
“Yes, our politicians cannot absolve themselves from blame, but at the same time, it was the people who elected them at periodical elections,” he reasoned.
Attitudes to get rid of
Prof. Samarajiva, who has a demonstrated history of working in the public policy industry, pointed out that the welfare-dependent mentality and short-sighted policies have pushed the country back. “The State institutions have been used as job banks to provide employment to graduates and non-degree holders, even when there were no vacancies. Some such recruits did not even have a job description. Some Trade Unionists, who did not speak when these unjustified recruitments were happening and bad things were done to the State apparatus, only voiced against privatization and changes to the taxation of the Government officials. Today, we have come to the end of the road with those kinds of behaviours as the country is bankrupt,” he stressed.
“Japan was a country that was subject to an atomic bomb attack in 1945. It was flattened to the ground. Where is it now? It is a well-respected member of the world economy. Likewise, it is not too late for us, but we have to understand what we did wrong and fix them,” he added.
Responding to a question on corruption, a pervasive problem in our country, he said that reducing the discretionary decision-making power of Government officials and politicians, or in other words their ability to say “yes” or “no”, would help remove the grounds for corruption.
The public policy expert also highlighted the importance of breaking the habit of making unrealistic and populist election promises to lure voters, also reminding that former Singaporean Statesman Lee Kuan Yew described it as “a periodic auction of non-existent resources”.
“We have to have some control, some morals to prevent political parties from engaging in that. For example, if somebody comes up on the election stage and say that they would give tax breaks for the people, he or she needs to say how it will be done, the rationale behind it and from where the money will be found. If we can get that into our political culture, we will be in good shape,” he commented.
Foreign affairs
Turning to the topic of international relations, the professor opined that it is a balancing act, which we can learn much from the way former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike handled those affairs.
“The question is how we manage external influences in a way that optimizes the benefits to our people. Sirimavo Bandaranaike had been quite successful in that count. She balanced the Chinese and Indian influences very carefully. She earned recognition and respect from other countries. In 1971, during the JVP insurrection, she got military assistance from both India and China. That is how we should approach this problem.
“Moreover, if a country is prosperous and got the resources to feed its own people, repay its loans and do other good things, it can be confident when dealing with other countries. Today, we are in a weak position because we have not looked after our economic affairs,” he added.
Asked on his view of the current trend of young people and professionals leaving the country in large numbers out of their frustration over the present system, he stated that what needs to be done is to create a conducive atmosphere for them to happily return, adding that 'Apahu enna hithena ratak' could be an apt slogan now for the country.
“Why do you think our people spend large sums of money to migrate, losing connections with their families, to work in substandard jobs in foreign countries and pay higher taxes than they do here? This is a nice country to live in, and they will come back, hopefully with more education, skills, open attitudes and with less parochial mind-sets, if the right conditions are there. For example, when there was war, those involved in the tourism industry moved abroad, but they came back when the situation improved with more knowledge and training,” he opined.
Reforms needed
The professor said that many economic experts, including former Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, saw that this was coming even before 2020. “Before an all-party panel in 2021, we cautioned that we are going to collapse and the way we are going we could end up like Lebanon. We pleaded with the political representatives to get together and prevent that from happening. We are facing an unprecedented crisis. People still do not realize how bad this is. Seven to ten percent contraction in the economy is something we have not experienced before. It means less industrial and service activities.
“If we do not get this IMF agreement and bridging finances quickly, we are in trouble. This has happened in Lebanon. It had the best healthcare system in the whole region, people used to come there from many other countries to get treatments, but today it has collapsed, doctors and nurses have gone abroad and hospitals are in dire straits. It had one of the best educational systems in the region, but it too has collapsed. People who could get jobs outside have left.
“We could fail like Lebanon if we do not act fast and take some hard decisions to engage in some reforms. We cannot go on paying the low taxes we used to pay and expect services that cannot be supported by those taxes. We have to change the way we look at the State and the economy. The wrong decisions that our Governments made have brought about this crisis. We will have to suffer the consequences and it is unavoidable,” he emphasized.
“If we manage to pull this off and do not do stupid things in the next few months, it will still take a minimum of another two-three years for us to get back to where we were in 2019. That means a loss of progress for several years, and some other countries will overtake us. We were running neck to neck with Indonesia on the GDP per capita, but that is history, and Indonesia is going to be a developed country well before we are. We may even possibly be overtaken by Bangladesh,” he analysed.
“We and our rulers have done this to ourselves. We have to get to a new economic model, where there are opportunities for young people, and where we are not stuck on a limited range of exports to a limited number of countries. All the economic expansion is happening in Asia, but most of our exports still go to the US and Europe. We have to change the way we do things and re-orient ourselves. If we do those things, we can be in a relatively better position in 10 years, and in 2048, when we celebrate 100 years after the Independence, we can stand as a prosperous Nation,” he summed up.
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