Thoughts to create a harmonious country

Sri Lanka is a rich country which has been made poor due to corruption, wastage and lethargic or apathetic management

By Surya Vishwa

The harmony, peace and prosperity of a nation begins with the individual. Sri Lanka, if genuine Buddhistic principles are followed in governance, has all that is needed to foster holistic wellbeing within each human, fulfilling both the spiritual and the monetary.  

Yet we have failed as a nation. Blaming politicians alone is insufficient. After seven decades of fostering a political structure that has accrued the country’s loss, the people have realised that something is very wrong. Proper reflection would show us that when we use the term ‘system’ that the system begins with each of us. Each of us are micro parts of that system which hopefully we are authentically realising now.

This realisation that we have now somewhat woken to should be with us consistently, so that the minute the current inconveniences and queues end, we do not revert to our previous apathetic psyche. It is said that Sri Lankans have very short memories. Let us reflect deeply.

It is time to consider that for seven decades we have been blind to the blatant misuse of public resources which is most evident during elections; that has continued right throughout whatever the government in power. 

We have not questioned why business persons and others have to waste millions of rupees to fund those who are contesting elections. We have failed to realise that a person who calls himself a politician who is elected to serve the people, has had five years or so to prove whether people should vote for him or not and that money wasted on meaningless election campaigns could have been spent on genuinely eradicating poverty.

Instead we have celebrated poverty at each election campaign, watching those whose poverty is purportedly being alleviated being bussed to be one of the crowd at election rallies which is a reality whatever the political hue. 

The lack of some essentials are worrying all of us today irrespective of social class. Yet there have been millions in this country who have not been able to afford these conveniences due to abject poverty. 

Have some of the elites protesting today been a genuine voice for these people over the past years? Or are we in Colombo just drawn to protest because after the richer classes have had to stand in queue?

Politicians are servants of the people but we have consistently made kings of them. Have we thought about why we should stand up for politicians and allow them to have plaques that carry their name to whatever building constructed with public money. Changing politicians is futile unless we realise that our psyche should change – permanently and until we bring our active participation in the functioning of the system. 

The system change should begin in our mind with some very needed queries that we should ask ourselves. Let us think.

Have we realised until now that we have a duty to make these servants of the people work for us, the masters, and thereby assert ourselves intellectually, contributing different expertise as relevant to the diverse ministries that are there to serve us. There are hundreds of diligent public servants who are committed to genuinely serving the people and there are cases even now, in this difficult time, some are continuing with projects even using their own money. Thus active citizen participation in different spheres would have helped in preventing the dismal position we are in as a country. 

Sri Lanka is a rich country which has been made poor due to corruption, wastage and lethargic or apathetic management.

Does our small country need such a large staff to serve us (225)? Why have we not considered all these years that the administrative cost of maintaining them is making us poor?

We may be well-advised to study some of the richest countries which have the smallest numbers in parliament and no perks or special privileges for politicians. One stark example is Sweden which has all ministers including the head of State using public transport. Private vehicles for politicians at duty free is unthinkable. It would be akin to blasphemy to any Swede. The whole of parliament has only three vehicles to be used only for official travel. 

When was the last time we saw a Lankan government minister or member of parliament in a bus or a train, including the minister of transport (except for a media photo shoot)? 

The countries where heads of States use public transport have the most developed transport systems. Our cities are among the most polluted in the world because our public, unlike countries we label as rich, do not use public transport which has not been developed. Simplicity in life when adopted makes the individual and the nation rich as could be seen in countries such as Japan, Bhutan and European nations where the politician is just an average human being who is strongly monitored by the ‘system.’

Let us therefore ensure that we call for a new way of being where intellectual wealth is what is considered valuable and for all those who aspire to serve the people in a new political framework learn to live without becoming addicted to luxury that splinters the connection with the average citizen.

It would be interesting to note that if we sold all the ostentatious vehicles which are there for the benefit of politicians, and all such resources, that we could be considerably richer and possibly build homes for those living in what could be described as shanty locations.

Over the years this writer has asked many Lankan citizens who could contribute to the country in diverse fields of knowledge why they are not entering politics. Every time the response is that politics is a garbage ‘pit.’ We have all these years expected a garbage pit to have the qualities of a botanical garden! We have admitted we have a garbage dump but refused to be involved to transform it. 

We are now realising that this country has enough honest and capable people to entrust governance to, if such a civil leadership is created.

It is time we realise that we need to educate ourselves on the fundamental right of citizens to avail themselves of legal processes to ascertain if the money they pay as taxes have been misused by the politicians they elect. 

All political appointments including the posts of President and Prime Minister are those that represent people and the people are their vigilantes. Parliament is an institution that belongs to the people. Likewise the Justice system should represent the hands of the people who can steer the country to be one where politicians cannot metamorphosise into swindlers. Hence the relevance of law to the average citizen pertaining to their fundamental citizen rights should be considered general knowledge.

So far we have not fully realised that constitution making should be transformed to being one that is a people focused task where the masses have a direct consultative role. It should no longer be seen as the past-time of any politician to fulfil their personal agendas. The supremacy of the people has to be enshrined and reflected in the constitution. 

It is time to contemplate that parliamentary representation can be limited to at most 60 persons (although even 40 truly hardworking persons may be considered sufficient). We no longer need an over-occupied system that guzzles money.

We need to choose an islandwide administrative structure that gives equality to all, that is grass-root driven but without needlessly burdening a small island such as ours with the cost of maintaining legions of lethargic provincial officials. We have to consider that much of provincial work could be handled by a very few and by the District Secretaries. 

The system change we are calling for should apply to every sphere; from the education sector to the media, the medical and agriculture industry. For example; we speak of the need to combat climate change but our schools do not have adequate syllabuses to create a genuine love for nature. We daily kill our natural habitat along with the soil through chemical agriculture. Transforming from chemical to organic agriculture is a long drawn process and not an overnight one. If it took several decades for an agricultural country to become addicted to chemical fertiliser then it will take another decade at least to free our mind and the soil of that addiction. 

We remain ignorant of the many diverse traditional methods of farming that are non-violent to humans, the soil and bio diversity and this is costing the nation money. A genuine change of the system should bring in this awareness.

Our education sector today is a rote learning menace that makes children take exams taking robots where very little of what they learn will encourage them to contribute to the country with ideas and inventions. Hence any real change should begin first with the classroom where children are taught their role in society and country. Thus children with such national consciousness could grow up to be academics, politicians, inventors and creators of progressive ideas. The preoccupation with wanting to leave for foreign countries for education would stop if we make our universities vibrant by teaching both modern subjects and traditional knowledge. The Sanasa University is one example to emulate.

To create a country that celebrates wellbeing and a truly people and environmentally friendly ‘development’ we need banks to support this cause. This is not present in Sri Lanka today. Especially to rise from this crisis Sri Lanka needs development banks and also cooperative linked banks. We need in Sri Lanka to have more people taking on missions such as P.A. Kiriwandeniya who created the Sanasa bank was originally meant to be connected to the cooperative societies. It is to be contemplated that Sri Lanka which had a similar financial situation in the 1970s failed to realise the wealth of encouraging cooperative societies throughout the country. It may fail yet again if those who are familiar with this system do not genuinely revive it.

Some countries that we call advanced do not have overcrowded prisons which means something is very right in those societies and something very wrong in ours. There are some cases where some of these countries have to shut down prisons because of the lack of people in them. In contrast it is said that our prisons are colleges of crime where anyone taken in for a petty theft emerges as a seasoned criminal. Any society with overcrowded prisons has to seriously question itself. A society that has kindness, forgiveness, understanding and equality should be created to ensure poverty does not create criminals. 

That change comes from within each of us. The word government reflects its people and is not meant to describe only the rulers. Thus, we are our country. Leadership is not limited to the political amphitheatre. In all key sectors we can make solid positive changes with progressive ideas that promote food security in an abundant country such as ours. 

There are many today, especially some Western trained economists who may scoff at the link between national economy and traditional knowledge that this ancient civilisation holds. 

Yet Sri Lanka recently spent a couple of billions of dollars we don’t have for obtaining what was described as ‘organic’ fertiliser from another country. Traditional knowledge is certainly not limited to farming or soil conservation but definitely it encompasses the basics of soil nutritionalisation that Sri Lanka had inherited as part of its ancient heritage. 

There is already a food shortage which is expected to get worse; are we thinking about the role each of us could play by cultivating and perhaps choosing a new system of being where we adopt lifestyle patterns that reduce waste and encourage children to be closer to mother earth. Why cannot food waste be used for both charity and for nutritionalising the soil and taken on as the responsibility of each of us?

Perhaps choosing vegetable and medicinal plants as gifts could be one way each of us could counter any emerging food crisis. Even paddy could be grown in small spaces including pots. 

The real protest should begin with self-realisation of how much we are eradicating ideologies and practices that are harmful to the country and choosing new ways of thinking and living that create abundance, joy and peace. 

Hence the changes we envisage in Sri Lanka should begin with progressive initiatives each of us takes.