Sri Lanka’s development story

By Sunil Karunanayake

Very recently Sri Lanka proudly welcomed its second international airport. It is difficult to state whether a second airport is a necessity. However, a large number of Sri Lankan expatriates returning home through Mattala were quite pleased about the new development.

During the period of war, there was a certain amount of fear and uncertainty after our only airport was attacked. It’s a credit to the Government of Sri Lanka for ending the 30-year war that affected the lives of the all people, rich and poor, from all communities.

Post-war development has been very encouraging with impressive infrastructure overhaul across the length and breadth of the country. Leading cities have been given a complete facelift to reflect the ‘garden city’ outlook like in developed countries, which certainly boosts the morale of the people too.

Inadequate governing mechanism

Having said the above, it is sad that the governing mechanism is not adequately geared to meet the challenges. The proposed electricity price hike is likely to drive low income earners to poverty level.

The majority of the State institutions are poorly managed depending heavily on taxpayers’ contributions to meet their commitments. Consequently Government levies are being increased regularly.

The majority of the State corporations are headed by those who are not adequately qualified or competent to lead such institutions. Perhaps most of them are enrolled to the positions owing to political affiliations.

Despite COPE and Parliament keeping vigil on State institutions, their accountability seems poor. Especially due to poor reward schemes, etc., these institutions are unable to attract competent and qualified professionals. This is in quite contrast to private institutions that are able to reward their stakeholders reasonably.

Two State banks – People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon – are shining examples of good management, accountability, etc., and are in a position to enrich State resources. It’s sad to note the state of Government-owned air lines like SriLankan and Mihin Air incurring huge losses at great cost to the general public. The story with railway and public transport is no different. While infrastructure development is essential, eliminating losses of public institutions too should be given priority.

Poor road discipline

It is said that highways reflect the people’s culture and the style of governance. Road discipline is at a very poor level with most motorists caring little for rules and causing many accidents and loss of human lives. Trishaws have become a reasonably popular public transport system run by the private individuals. However a fair amount of them do not seem to take any notice of road rules; similarly bus drivers too are mostly careless, speeding and blaring their loud horns. It cannot be denied that the Police too does not take notice of these wrongdoers.

Another road issue is the Traffic Police switching off traffic lights and resorting to manual control, which is virtually difficult. All this adds to traffic jams of long lines. A few years back the Government moved swiftly to erect flyovers at strategic locations to ease traffic and the results were encouraging. For whatever reason, this project does not seem to be moving now.

It is also quite surprising that at strategic locations like Slave Island, Cotta Road, Borella and Castle Street, roads are blocked for a considerable period of time at loss of man-hours and fuel owing to the rail track intersecting the main road. This seems far too primitive for a country that has invested heavily in infrastructure. The fuel lost on the road in this manner could be substantial.

Public demonstrations that are becoming regular events too cause immense problems to innocent public. Parliamentarians who often travel overseas may well be seeing how the developed countries manage these affairs. What we note is a lack of consistency and speed in most Government affairs.

We should try to emulate successful nations like Australia and Singapore that seem to be highly advanced in all facets, thus attracting foreign investment and human capital from countries like ours. We have the potential with plenty of qualified professionals, academics, and technocrats.

Fortunate escape

Sri Lanka was fortunate to escape from the global financial crisis mainly due to its insulation such a capital accounts control, etc. As a small nation we stood up well to maintain our dignity. Most of the powerful European nations succumbed to the crisis and even as at today they have not come out of the deep crisis they have been driven to.

I am airing my views as a simple citizen hoping it could catch the attention of relevant authorities.

Michael Lewis in his best seller ‘Boomerang’ states: “Greek monks became playboy financiers, Icelandic fishermen became investment bankers and Germans became even more German.” Perhaps this simple phrase explains what the world went through. Quite recently there were riots in Cyprus (population of only one million people) in the Parliament, with legislators exchanging blows. Unlike catastrophes of Greeks, Germans and Cypriots, we could boldly state ours is a blessed nation that should be protected.