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Thursday, 17 March 2016 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, who took oaths as the Minister of Regional Development recently, said he would ensure a corruption-free development process which will punish those who robbed people’s money in the name of the development.
“Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government borrowed huge amounts of money for development projects and half of that money was robbed by his family. During that era, development was only confined to highways, a haunted airport and a haunted harbour,” he alleged.
In an interview with the Daily FT, Minister Fonseka revealing his basic plans for regional development said that the country needed dedicated and committed officers to have a proper development drive that covers the four corners of the country.
“I can give the assurance that there will be honourable people in my Ministry, it will be free of corruption and we will be accountable for all financial allocations given for us for development projects. There is no room for corruption,” he stressed.
Following are the excerpts of the interview.
By Shanika Sriyananda
Q: What is your development vision?
A: The Government has not yet spelled out the areas which have to be covered by the Ministry. The departments that should come under the Ministry are yet to be decided and no gazette notification has been released with regard to the functions of my Ministry.
Q: What are the areas that you intend to improve in all regions?
A: We have to contribute towards infrastructure development, means of income generation, agriculture and industrial sector. What I mentioned here is the basic outline of the functions of the Ministry but we have to work out a detailed plan soon.
Q: How important is regional development in the country’s overall development?
A: Regional development has a direct bearing on the living standards of the people and the quality of life. Otherwise, we can have huge factories or big towns and few people with comfortable lifestyles but the majority of people of this country will not feel the joy of development. We have to take development to the rural areas, basically outside Colombo. If you move around the country, you will see that we have whole lots of towns but most of them are only confined to a few shops and junctions. No significant development has taken place in those areas. Living standards are still low in this country.
Q: But the buzz word of the previous Government was ‘development’?
A: Yes, during that era, development was only confined to highways, a haunted airport and a haunted harbour. People have not seen any development. The quality of life of ordinary people has not gone up because the Rajapaksas did lots of development for themselves, their families, their supporters and their relatives. If there is development, we should have felt it. I don’t see development. People had to go through their lives with lots of difficulties economically and even now they are going through the same difficulties to make a living. I think Sri Lanka has a long way to go.
They were talking about $ 2,000 to 2,500 per capita income but the real figure is $ 500 to 600. This is the per capita income of over 40% of the country’s total population. The balance 60% have had $ 2,000 per capita income. How can anyone say that Sri Lankans have higher living standards? People have not felt the so-called development by the previous Government.
Q: When you consider regional development, what is the area that important to achieve the development goals?
A: It should definitely be infrastructure development. Although there are highways, the roads just 10 miles away from them are not motorable roads as they have not been constructed properly. Even if you look at the roads in the Western Province, most of them are not in good shape. I think priority in regional development should be given to infrastructure development.
Income generation is another aspect we need to seriously look into. If you take agriculture, Sri Lanka imports most of the food items, including onions to mangoes. We are very backward in agriculture and I do not think we can achieve our development targets overnight or within two to three years. But if we can lay the foundation now, in six to seven years’ time we will be able to see a clear-cut difference. We have to introduce some industries to create employment opportunities for the people as well.
Q: Do you expect to get international support, including expertise, to develop the country?
A: Yes, we will have to consider getting the support of the international community at the beginning. If we want to commence infrastructure development, this country does not have enough money now. Borrowing a huge amount of money, like the previous regime, is not an effective solution.
He borrowed huge amounts of money and did not have an idea on the means of repaying. Half of the borrowed money was robbed by his family. But this country has to pay back that money. Some loans amounted to $ 30 to 40 million but there are no records of utilising that money. Nothing happened on ground. They are boasting that they are very clean people but they have robbed most of the money that was taken to develop this country.
We have to get investors into the country and also the Government needs to get small development grants. When you request small grants of $ 30 to 40 million, we can approach a number of countries. The most important requirement is that we need to have a clear plan about how and on which projects we are utilising those grants and also how we are going to pay them back. Then we can make a difference.
We need the contribution of local experts in regional development. If we need any foreign expertise, we will consider it when required.
Q: How do you think someone from a military background can envision and strategise in terms of development strategy?
A: The background of the person is not required here. He can be a businessman, a teacher or a soldier. Development in a small country like Sri Lanka can be compared to running another business. There are individuals who are running administrations bigger than this country.
In the military, I was involved in administration and controlling huge budgets, which I accounted for. I think it is the same for someone who is eating and drinking and travelling around the country and having knowledge of what this country and its people require. If you can understand that, you can work out a development strategy.
Q: What will be the challenges in regional development?
A: Laying a solid foundation for regional development is the most challenging task, because Sri Lanka is still one of the underdeveloped countries in the world. Therefore, I think once a strong foundation for development is laid, other things will start moving.
Before that, we have to fight against many things. We have to ensure that the administration is working properly and free of corruption; then we need to appoint capable and qualified officers to higher posts who are committed and dedicated to the task. We as a nation have a long way to go. My personal opinion is we have become selfish. The majority of the people of this country think only about their survival and do not care about others. They simply want to fulfil their aspirations and we lack people who think about the future of this nation and the next generation.
Most Sri Lankans do not work properly during their working hours but do overtime to complete their workload. They take enough leave and do not give priority to their work. This needs to be changed if we are to progress in future.
Q: Does this mean that you will implement a militarised administration system in your Ministry?
A: What I mentioned was not the military way of doing things; this is the way people in the developed countries are doing things. In my Ministry, I can give the assurance that there will be honourable people, it will be free of corruption and we will account for all financial allocations given to us for development projects. There is no room for corruption. We will do our best to fulfil the aspirations of the Government in developing the country.
Q: Are you satisfied with post-war development?
A: After 8 January, it is back on track. Post-war development was not properly carried out during the previous Government. The affected areas were totally neglected and in the rest of the areas they were having carnivals. The Rajapaksas acted like a royal family and they showed that people of this country are slaves. They expected to live like kings for the next 30 to 40 years and they did not have any desire to develop this country. In the post-war era, people of this country did not feel anything about development but they felt peace as they did not have any fears of bomb explosions.
Q: What didn’t Sri Lanka get right in post-war rebuilding and rehabilitation?
A: As I explained before, after the end of the war, the previous Government didn’t do much to bring the lives of affected people back to normal. Infrastructure facilities were totally neglected. We did not see the then Government doing enough to reconstruct those damaged infrastructure facilities.
Q: But it was during that time that they started reconstruction of several roads in the north and east.
A: Yes, like in the south, most of the roads were constructed and carpeted during that time because it was the biggest income generator for the Rajapaksa family. Without knowing how to maintain those carpeted roads, they started road construction all over the country because of the commissions they got from those projects. For example, most of the roads in Hambantota are carpeted, wasting a massive amount of money, but nobody uses those roads other than a couple of monkeys who cross the roads once in a while. They never had the intention of developing the country; they wanted to make their families rich.
Q: But in the post-war scenario, top priority was given to develop the north and east. Will you continue this?
A: Yes, we will continue to develop the north and east but we can’t only have plans to develop one part of the country. Development should take place equally in all parts of Sri Lanka. After the war, compared to other parts of the country, we had to help the north and the east more since everything was destroyed in those areas due to the war. People had to start life from zero. Now they have basic infrastructure facilities and the administration is back to normal, similar to any other area of the country. But there are some pending issues like land disputes and resettlement to solve. The Government is attending to solving these issues now.
Q: Do you expect to get assistance from the military in development efforts since they have expertise and resources?
A: It is true that the military has certain capabilities in certain areas. For example, the engineering, technical, communication, construction and mechanical repairing units can assist us in developing the country.
Q: When the previous Government used the military in construction, the Opposition was up in arms. But now you as the Minister are planning to use the soldiers too. Your views?
A: What I explained was that soldiers of those units could be deployed to help in development projects but not the infantry men to do labourers’ work. What happened during the previous regime was that they used the infantry men to dig and clean drains. If we want to get the support of the military, we will get them from the units which have the capabilities. We will use them in dignified tasks, for which they have expertise.
The former Defence Secretary used them to clean and clear jogging tracks because he thought it was nation building. There are enough and more labourers in the Colombo Municipal Council to do such jobs, but he found the easiest way of ordering the Army Commander to deploy soldiers. The two former Army Commanders after me were ready to undertake any task and he made use of this to misuse soldiers. He didn’t have any concern about the dignity of the soldiers.
Q: What role do you seek from the private sector?
A: They can play a vital role in regional development. They will definitely be a part of the whole effort as they have the capacity to do investments and other contributions. We also welcome foreign investment as we will not be able to meet the required investment capacity only through local investors. We also plan to create employment opportunities for the youth. We can’t implement all these measures overnight but we are dedicated to finding solutions to people’s problems to uplift living standards.
