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Regaining lost ground

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's "Regaining Sri Lanka" initiative has won the acceptance of the world community, judging from the response the plan has got from the Japanese government as well as multi-lateral lending institutions.

The plan, which aims to turn this country into an economic powerhouse, is aptly termed because we have lost the initiative and momentum we had in the early 1980s mostly because of the war.

After the economy was freed of the shackles of central planning and control in 1978, Sri Lanka recorded double-digit growth rates for nearly eight years. It was a remarkable period when new roads were built, dams were thrown across rivers and an industrial base was constructed, which has stood us well in the bad years that followed.

The political crises that plagued us in the ensuing years were compounded by the severity of the war and the JVP insurrection. This caused Sri Lanka to lose the economic edge at the time other countries in the region prospered.

Political pundits and economists have said that if we had continued on the same path to development we would have reached a stage close to what some countries in East Asia have got to now. Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew was constrained to comment at a public seminar some years ago that Sri Lanka had done everything right except manage her nationality question.

Former Prime Minister Lee is a great friend of Sri Lanka and his criticisms were benevolent but pointed.

Now that we are in the process of sorting out the national question and there seems to be a very good chance of a lasting solution, we need to build confidence in the world about Sri Lanka as well as among our people that we can regain lost ground and get started on the path to development.

Regaining Sri Lanka is a genuine possibility and we ought to aim for it in earnest.

However to do so it is necessary for all of society to think anew. In the past decade or so our country has lost many of the attributes it had when we were on a growth roll.

Primarily we have lost confidence in our ability to compete with the rest of the world. This was because many Sri Lankans who invested time and money in various ventures saw their enterprises go down the drain because of rampant economic and political mismanagement.

Politicians, government servants and businessmen were out to make a quick buck from every situation and not work hard to build for the future. In a way they are not to be blamed, as the steady diet of crises we were fed on in the past decade did not hold much hope for the future.

A case in point is the permission given to government departments to invest in private banks. This has led to rampant corruption with state funds, even from poverty alleviation programmes being parked in high-interest paying private banks where the officials who made the deposits are alleged to have been paid a commission from the expected interest.

There are also allegations that provincial councils and other local bodies have parked funds allocated to build roads and maintain infrastructure in such banks and finance companies and skim off the interest. The result has been a further deterioration of the existing infrastructure, while corrupt officials make a buck.

This reflects a serious attitudinal problem where even the leaders of our society do not consider national interests paramount.

Across the board, professional standards have declined and we have become a nation of people willing only to do the minimum. The respect for professionalism, hard work and the service element is missing.

For us to regain Sri Lanka there has to be a drastic change in attitude. We must find our confidence, both in our own abilities as well as develop faith in the future.

This change in attitude must come from all sections of our society, but must be led by the movers and shakers. The politicians, businessmen and administrators must show that they do have the confidence that this country has a future and show concrete examples of investing in development.

We have been given a chance to build a new future, to regain ourselves. Let's not squander it. 

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