We must create a culture of science and technology in SL: Minister Amunugama

Following is the speech delivered by Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama at the Techno Sri Lanka 2017 National Engineering Technology Exhibition held at the BMICH recently 

It is a great honour for me to be at the inauguration of this exhibition. I look on it not merely as a formal duty, but something that is of very great importance to our country. Unless Sri Lanka moves up to a high level culture of science and technology, it would be difficult for us to move ahead in the modern world. 

If you look at the developed countries as well as the fast developing countries, you will see that at the root of their success is a shift from traditional cultures to a culture of science and technology. For example, the success of Europe follows the industrial revolution, following a scientific revolution that put them at an advantage over other more traditional societies. 

If you look at Japan, it was after the Meiji period when they adopted science and technology and scientific traditions of the West that Japan emerged from Shintoism and became a world class power. They rapidly transformed their society to a science-based society, though they retained their traditional culture, so much so that within a few decades they became the biggest military force in Asia and for the first time an Asian country defeated a European country, when Japan defeated the Russians in 1905. 

If you look at China today and you look at their leadership, more than 80% of the leaders of China are engineers. They look out for engineers, they seek engineers, for every level of decision making and administration in China. 

Even in India today, we see that it is fast transforming itself into a great scientific community. Today the leaders of science in India are world class. And the number of scientists in India I think are no less than the number of scientists in the so called advanced countries. Therefore we have to move up to a more modern and scientific culture if we are to progress. 

Science and technology is extremely important

I have always thought that if the last King of Kandy had a bicycle or a motorcycle we would have remained a free country, because when he fled from Kandy he had to be carried in a dolawa. They could go only for 10 miles. The British overtook them. If he had a motorcycle he would have reached Hanguranketha in no time and would have not been captured by the British. 

So science and technology is extremely important. Whatever we may talk about culture, unless we can progress in science and technology, then that country cannot go very far. That is of course not a very profound thought because everybody knows that it is so. 

Now for example, a lot of people are talking about medicine. Traditional medicine and all that is very good. But unless there was the discovery of penicillin, unless there was the discovery of antibiotics and modern diagnostics do you think all of us would have been alive today? More than three quarters of this audience is over 60 and Madam Ratnayake told me that she is 66, none of us may have been alive here if not for modern medicine. So we have to keep pace with modern science and technology. It is not just a luxury. Today it is a fact of life. 

If you study the growth of science and technology in India, it began with the Nehru administration because Jawaharlal Nehru was a scientist. He had a science degree from Cambridge University and when he became Prime Minister he said India must move to science and technology. If you read his speeches the main thing he said was: “I will use all my power to take this country forward from its backwardness to make it a country of science and technology.” 

And what did he do? On the model of MIT he established IITs in all parts of India. Like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he established the Indian Institute of Technology. I think initially he started with twelve. I was at Harvard University and our neighbour was MIT. MIT had a large number of Indians who had got their early higher education in the IITs and those very bright people from the IITs were brought into MIT, into Caltex, and all those leading science universities in America. They are the growth factor in Silicon Valley, who helped Silicon Valley to develop the latest technology particularly in the computer field. This is a fact. 

Today there is a crisis. All the big computer based companies in Silicon Valley are complaining to the American administration because they have brought in rules saying you can’t bring Asian scientists to Silicon Valley. Various rules and regulations have been imposed and the most forward looking industry is telling the administration “Look, Be careful. If you go on interfering with the recruitment of scientists, if you go on interfering with our policies of having many communities working in this field, then America is going to lose the leading position it has in this field.” 

It is already happening. I think about last week you would have read about the phenomenal growth of Alibaba Corporation and the Huawei Corporation, I had the privilege of going to Shanghai to see the Huawei science and technology division. It’s a huge place and in the front office they had a preview of all the new technologies that they are going to develop in the next 10 or 20 years. 

They are currently doing research. So those are world shattering events and fortunately all those findings will be commercialised and brought to our door steps in a couple of years. 

There is a huge commercial and scientific battle going on to give the latest technology to consumers. So, that is pushing science forward. 

Expand science and technology

We must go in for IIT type institutions in Sri Lanka – middle level institutions, so that large numbers and not just a select few can benefit. Our problem today is that only the privileged few, only the brilliant few, only the bright few have the opportunities. I must say the system is reaching out to rural areas also. That is very good. But we must have greater scale. There must be larger and larger numbers of science-oriented people coming into our society. I think that will not only help science, it will help politics also because more and more educated people will then come into politics. 

So the need of this hour is to expand science and technology in this country and unless we do that, it would be a betrayal of the people of this country. Unless we adopt policies and pursue them very vigorously then it is very difficult to imagine that we will have a future. 

We have taken some steps. Now we have this big hue and cry at Hambantota. But do you know that 300 industries are coming to Hambantota and with Chinese assistance we are going to set up a major technical training centre for the whole of the Southern Province. So that is transformation from traditional culture, an agriculture-based culture. 

Strengthen the manufacturing sector

The problem with our economy is that year by year the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is declining. The contribution of industrial exports and the contributions of the service sector is increasing. The manufacturing sector is keeping a medium pace. That will be the major sector of our economy. So we have to strengthen the manufacturing sector. 

I must tell you, we had a discussion with the President and Prime Minister of China. So what did the Prime Minister say? “What are you doing? Why don’t you develop your manufacturing arm? You are having one of the most strategic locations in the whole of Asia. From there you can export to everybody. Don’t start dealing with only your local economy because there is no domestic market. You can go beyond that. If you want to be a powerful and rich country use your strategic position. Make it a manufacturing hub and export your products to the whole of Asia.” 

That is the only strategy that is viable for Sri Lanka in view of the fact that we have a very limited domestic market. Even though we have 20 million people, the people’s purchasing power is less than half of that number. Others are living at subsistence level. What are they going to buy? So if we are to have an expanding manufacturing industry, it can’t cater only to the domestic market. 

You can remember the time when there were restrictions, with production only limited to the local market and when we went abroad you ask a friend ‘what do you want me to bring from Holland or from Singapore?’ they would say, ‘please bring me a packet of shaving blades’ because with the local razor blades you could not shave your face. You could not go for an interview with three or four patches on your face, if you had used a local razor blade. And so, friends will say ‘please bring a packet of razor blades’. It was easy for us also. Otherwise you will have to bring toys, you will have to bring shirts, you have to bring suiting material, perfumes, etc. Now it was very easy. You bring a packet of – I don’t want to give the brand name – a foreign made razor blade and you are very happy and you happily pass on the razor blade. 

Be realistic 

You have to be realistic. You have to make use of a manufacturing hub. Now take Mattala. Again there is a big fuss. But the reality is, already we are going to have there a major aviation centre. I am glad that our armed services heads are also here. We will have a major aviation training centre in Mattala. We can take in people from all of Asia, if you have an excellent aviation training centre and an aviation repairing centre. 

Why should we always think small like the last king of Kandy who wanted to go in a dolawa and also escape the British? You can’t do both. If you have modern technology you can live to a ripe old age and you would not have been captured by the British. What happened in China? The Chinese were the biggest population. The British had only about 2,000 people but they had gun boats. The Chinese were using traditional gun powder – they were the people who found gun powder. But the British gunboats were coming up the Yangzi-Jiang and shooting everybody. Then the largest population had to give into 2,000 people. So that is the role of technology. 

Stop talking about the past, get wise in the present, have science in the future

We have to look at technology. We have to look at science and we have to bring round a whole generation of our people who are talking nonsense about the past and get them to think of the future. Sri Lanka must stop talking about the past, get wise in the present and have science in the future. So in this context your attempts are very welcome, I hope the Finance Minister will also listen to my speech and introduce my ideas. Every district must have a medium level science and technology institute. 

All these young people learn science up to Year 13 and yet can’t get into university. Their knowledge is no different from the guys who come into your engineering faculty in the first year, they are no different to the guys who go into the medical faculty in the first year. 

Are they going to stop all that after Year 13 science and go back to the paddy field? What a waste. That should not happen. But that core of students, the number of students who go up in science up to grade 13 but can’t get into the university must go into further education in science and technology. 

We must create a culture of science and technology in this country. That is the future. So I am very glad that I had this opportunity to sound off all my best theories.