Development for all

Thursday, 26 May 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PRIME Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the National Government will soon reveal its four-year development plan for the country. Speaking at the National Summit on Foresight and Innovation the Premier spoke big on sustainability and equitability, but history has shown that development in this country usually comes with collateral damage.

While it’s inadvisable to jump the gun and critique an as-of-yet-unrevealed plan, citizens should of course maintain a healthy discourse on what development means, how it is carried out and who it will primarily benefit. But with Sri Lankans having recently signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals being touted globally, the pressure is on for meaningful action.

As the Prime Minister noted during his speech, Sri Lanka was indeed a regional leader in social development at the time of independence. Many Sri Lankans are still reaping the benefits of early policies that established free education and healthcare. Later policy changes such as those related to housing during the Premadasa Government were also hailed as progressive developments and continue to be a value addition to the nation.

However, leaving aside theses few victories for development, there is also a long trend of development projects that have proven to be either incomplete or inequitable. Furthermore, given the extremely fragile nature of Sri Lanka’s economy, massive debt and more incoming loans, there are surely question marks surrounding the financing of any major development project.

During the previous regime, ‘Beautification’ was the buzzword – a somewhat superficial form of development. Over the last few years Colombo has changed, mostly for the good, residents would agree. But it came at a cost, particularly for thousands of poor families who were displaced and scattered across underserved settlements, as slums are termed with political correctness. They have seen the land they have lived on, sometimes for generations, taken away to be dressed up for Colombo’s elites. Many felt the powerlessness as the State, sometimes with soldiers in tow, broke their homes or removed their livelihoods.

More recently development has been driven by cold, hard economics. The Port City is set to continue despite opposition on environmental grounds. Similarly, plans for the Sampur Power Station to meet the island’s energy crisis have faced intense resistance and scrutiny due to its reliance on coal – a dirty source of energy that would likely lead to disastrous consequences for Trincomalee’s fragile ecosystem. Thankfully however these plans seem to have been abandoned in favour of LNG.

For now we can only wait and see what kind of development Yahapalanaya is peddling. Will it be development of the progressive variety and uplift the most downtrodden of Sri Lankan society? Or will it be a glorified vanity project for Colombo-based elites? Good development must rise from the grassroots through direct democracy. Top-down development on the other hand serves only to push the backward further back.