The 37th commemoration ceremony of the late Lands and Agriculture Minister Hector Kobbekaduwa was held on September 18 at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI). Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Trade Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardane, State Ministers Shasheendra Rajapaksa and Anuradha Jayaratne, Secretaries of Ministries, including Secretary to the Agriculture Ministry Major General (Retired) Sumedha Perera, family members of Hector Kobbekaduwa, heads of state institutions, scholars and staff of the HARTI participated.
Director General of the President’s Media Unit and renowned media veteran Mohan Samaranayake delivered the Hector Kobbekaduwa commemoration lecture on the topic ‘how the late Minister Kobbekaduwa’s agriculture and land policies could be the foundation for the implementation of the Government’s development agenda Vistas ofProsperity and Splendour.’ The salient points and highlights of the lecture can be summarized as follows:
Two challenges are faced in conducting the lecture on the above topic. Firstly, Minister Hector Kobbekaduwa’s economic, political and agricultural policies, and actions are not widely accepted in the framework of the ideology of the present society. Some could interpret it as an outdated philosophy. However, after World War II, there was a great deal of discussion about how society should be governed. Based on these ideas, the Austrian economist Karl Polanyi wrote an excellent book named ‘The Great Transformation’. Polanyi stated that if the market is allowed to control the society, that society would be devastated. However, this ideology, which was accepted by almost everyone in the society at that time, was later suppressed and the philosophies of neoliberal economic models embraced the society, allowing market forces to control the society.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis has hit almost entire world. It re-emerges the idea which was in existence in the 1940s, that society should control the market though it has not yet sunk deep. It can be identified as the other challenge. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a note on Twitter on July 18, 2020, at the height of the Corona crisis – “COVID-19 has exposed the lie that the market can guarantee health for all in the society and it also refuted the myth that social work is useless.”
During the COVID-19 crisis, Sri Lankan doctors, and healthcare and political leaders worked together and managed to bring the situation under control. Despite the criticism, all those officials were quick to resolve the crisis, avoiding a major catastrophe. However, market philosophies teach us something different. UN Secretary-General Guterres also made a note of another point. That is, COVID-19 denies the fact that we live in a world free of racism. In the end, he declares that we all are in the same sea, but some in super luxury yachts while others float on the wreckage.
Kobbekaduwa’s political vision
It is necessary to examine how realistic and people-friendly the policies pursued by Kobbekaduwa during his political career in the fields of land, agriculture and crop cultivation etc. The receipt of membership in the Kandy Socialist Front led by Minister T.B. Ilangaratne in 1947 was the starting point of Kobbekaduwa’s socialist thinking. Some socialist groups whose slogan was ‘destruction to imperialism and socialism for the people’ in the 1960s and ’70s are now claiming that there are no labour pains for socialism at present.
His philosophy was based on socialism. It means that a man can live happily and contentedly, building a good and just society. The primary purpose of human life is to be happy. It was even preached by the Buddha. Western thinkers also endorse it. The American Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, in the U.S. State of Philadelphia, is an excellent document. The second paragraph of it states that the creator of man has granted him several rights that one cannot take from him; It cannot be stolen by anyone else. They are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and so on. But to achieve those goals, humans need to obtain enough nutritious food. You should have the opportunity to take medicine when you are sick. There must also be an opportunity to live under a free regime. Likewise, there must be a social security system that allows anyone to live without depending on others in the latter part of life. It is to such a social level that we define a just society.
The movement for a just society emerged in 2015, and the main issue in the world, they said, was the abolition of the Executive Presidency. But ‘do people receive enough food there? Do farmers have enough water for cultivation? Do you receive fertilizer? Do they have facilities to sell their produce? How to get rid of malnutrition that is among them?’ were not the subjects of a just society. Prior to the last General Election, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa toured the country and listened to the needs of people on every occasion. People asked for deeds for land, fertilizer, schools for children, teachers for schools, hospitals for villages, doctors and so on. Accordingly, the President established State Ministries representing key thematic areas where people need support. It is clear that what is conceived there is an extension of Hector Kobbekaduwa’s land and agricultural policy.
Throughout our history, land ownership, crop production, productivity, harvesting, product distribution, and farmer nutrition have been the central factors in building a just society. Fights between the people of the tribal society and various conflicts in the colonial empire were based on land. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, people organized demonstrations in Russia and proclaimed, ‘Power to the Soviet Union, land to the people’. The Soviet Revolution failed, but those revolutionary demands could not be extinct. Land is such a central factor.
Today, global land grabbing takes place in another form. There are more land grabs in the African Continent and Latin America than in our country. Kobbekaduwa was aware of the need for land ownership. Sirimavo Bandaranaike appointed him as the Lands and Agriculture Minister in 1970 and he worked with foresight and deep thinking. We are making great use of the results of his vision even today.
The Prime Minister of the Government that came to power in December 2001 stated that paddy lands should be reclaimed and gherkins should be cultivated. He stated that they could be exported to Europe. Also, the Agriculture Minister of the Yahapalana Government stated in 2015 that the country’s paddy production is beyond what we required and therefore we need to divert to cash crops. In order to reduce the paddy production in the country, the land extent used for paddy was allotted for other crops. If those policies were successful, what would happen to the people of this country at the time of the food crisis due to COVID-19 menace?
The agricultural development journey initiated by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1956 was further extended by Kobbekaduwa in 1970. He can be identified as the founder of a specific land and agrarian policy and the political leader who had the courage to implement it.
Land is an integral element of human life. Land has become a major factor in every development project that has been sustained. The basis of the capitalist mode of production is the alienation of people from the land. That is why Britain passed the Barren Land Act in Sri Lanka and launched it in this country. This fact was central to Kobbekaduwa’s land, agricultural, and food policies. We are still extensively reaping the benefits of his policies. Land should belong to those who cultivate in the land. That is why in a play by Bertolt Brecht, it says “farmers must win the land and the village”. Land ownership should belong to the people of this country and not to foreigners. These lands should be cultivated according to a proper methodology. There should be an institutional system in supporting agrarian activities. For example, HARTI is supposed to perform that task. Over time, this institute has been conducting vital researches on food production, crops, minor export crops, and spices, etc. in our country, rendering a great service to the nation. These institutional mechanisms must be strengthened for the sake of agricultural development in the country. Minister Kobbekaduwa realized that service as an urgent need and hence the Agrarian Services Department was established. The governments headed by D.S. Senanayake, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and the vision of the then Agriculture and Lands Minister Hector Kobbekaduwa contributed to the progress of agricultural development in the 20th century.
Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour
The policy framework Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour states that the local economy is an essential factor in human existence based on food security. The Buddha also once preached that all living beings depend on food. At the United Nations Conference of Heads of States in 1977, food was recognized as a basic human right. Accordingly, the establishment of an indigenous economy that guarantees food security and an agricultural sector that strengthens the local economy have been identified as key elements in the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour. The fifth section of the policy framework which is on the people-centred economy, outlines the prosperity through food security. It demonstrates the agricultural development policies to be implemented by the present Government. Based on these facts, one Minister and three other State Ministers for Agriculture have been appointed. Accordingly, the President is implementing a three-pronged programme by including every small sub-sector of agriculture.
It is important to look at how the developed countries of the world reached supremacy. The mode we are taught is to open the economy, to allow foreign capital to allow plunder. But the developed countries did not reach the development in the same way. Ha-Joon Chang, a professor at the Cambridge University, in his book ‘Kicking away the Ladder – Rewriting Development Strategy in Historical Perspective’, explains that they became rich in the way they told us to reject. Accordingly, the United States is number one in economy as well as military power in the world. If the President and the governing body of that state decide, there is a possibility that the civilization on this earth will be reduced to rubble within months.
How did those countries reach that place? In the 19th century, there was a debate in the United States about the model to be followed. At that time, Britain was in a strong position. This statement was made by Abraham Lincoln, the President who ruled the USA for six years from 1862. “I don’t know much about taxes. But, I know something else. If we buy goods from abroad, we receive the goods. Money goes abroad. If we make goods in this country, the goods are ours. Money is also ours.”
This is the approach and how the developed nations have moved towards development.
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan told the world about free trade. During his reign, he strictly adhered to the protectionist policies of American history. While not publicly accepting or rejecting that vision, the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour attempts to identify the potential of our country and take advantage of it to build a strong local economy and a path marked by food security. The programmes for that objective are being implemented. Therefore, names of food crops are included in the subject name of state ministries, and ministers have been appointed for each subject. The unwavering support of people is needed to achieve this vision.
Kobbekaduwa’s land and agricultural policies may have been influenced by the cruel injustices perpetrated by the British imperialists on the people of hill country where he was born. The Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour learns specifically from the mistakes of the post-colonial era.
The plunder of their land is an extremely cruel and inhumane injustice during the colonial legacy. It created a pressure in the local society. Even today, it has not been completely abolished. Therefore, the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour is based on the principles, food and nutrition for the people. Accordingly, it is clear from all these facts that there is an inseparable link between the vision of Hector Kobbekaduwa and the policy framework Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour. While preserving the great nexus between these two policy approaches, we wish the effort to make our country a great success.
