Financial Times

Rebuilding: Ignoring needs of the nation, the displaced
The deadly waves have come and taken away 38,000 lives while 10,000 are still missing. Nearly a million persons are homeless and 800,000 direct and indirect income sources need to be re-established soon. The damage to infrastructure is assessed at over $ 1. 3 billion.

Let us all unite and rebuild the nation says all leaders from separate stages. They hold hands, light lamps and sing hosannas together to bring light and prosperity to the nation and its people.

A full-page advertisement says the obvious "The best tribute we can pay to those who have lost their lives, is to restore life in the affected areas. The economic, social and development activity must continue in order to build a prosperous future for the people who have been affected by this disaster and the nation as a whole."

Then they go their own divisive ways and submit separate action strategies, criticize each other and look for faults and opportunities to personally benefit. This is what Ghandhi called "Politics without Principles", in his pronouncement of the seven deadly sins. Egos to the fore and the needs of the affected and the nation are sacrificed or ignored for short- term personal gain.

This appears an infectious disease as not only the political types but also big business and the media play the same tune. A big fuss is made by many a critic as to the profile of those who should sit on the leadership benches deciding on re-building plans and allocating resources.

Can we unite and rebuild a nation, if we cannot agree that the nation comes first and an effective and credible plan of action driven in unison by all leaders holding hands and marshalling their troops behind a single focused vision irrespective of differences is the first priority? Can we prepare plans, define policies and allocate resources without consulting those affected?

They select areas of priority as "Housing, Hospitals, Schools, Roads and bridges, Railways, Urban townships development, Water supply and drainage, Power, Telecommunications, Fisheries, Tourism and tourist resorts, Coast conservation and environment protection, Wild life and wild life sanctuaries".

A list decided by leaders with their big business colleagues only looking at what impacts them in their world of business! Chambers, Associations, Professionals, Government Servants, Senior Citizens and any other interested parties are invited to join forces, harness best resources to develop Sri Lanka into a nation brimming with promise and to be stakeholders in the effort of nation rebuilding. Oops! They yet again ignored the affected citizens.

For once in power positions they have the ladle and they serve whom they please with food they decide served in quantities and taste of their choice. They will never invite the poor affected and harmless citizens to share in the cooking including deciding on the menu, style and taste and quantity to serve!

Did our leaders not recognize that the priorities of the affected are different to some of the selected priorities and include finding their missing loved ones, re-constituting family units, getting in place of missing ones new documents of identity and entitlement, special issues of women, children, elders and orphans, psychological and spiritual needs, livelihood support issues (especially impacting the small traders and micro-entrepreneurs), preparedness for the future etc?

They also forgot to include under priorities - Disaster Mitigation and Recovery Planning, Communications, Engagement of all segments of society in the rebuilding process (not only international donors/community and big local and foreign business), and above all a strategy to address law, order and governance issues and not forgetting in the process the most important challenge of national integration and reawakening, as members of Sri Lanka Inc, irrespective of nationality, religion, caste, creed and status.

Let all these leaders be reminded of what a young priest of a church told its congregation that the spirit of Christmas was to live the real values of Christ and not perceived man-made differences.

He told them how 40 dead bodies were buried together in Hambantota in a mass grave that did not differentiate between Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus or level of income and wealth, for following the tsunami these were only rotting corpses that had to be disposed soonest for the sake of the living.

The thank you advertisement also made no reference to the affected and it is the nation's hope that soon they will confirm whether the affected were consulted and their needs and voices given heed to.

(The writer, a respected business leader could be reached at wo_owl@yahoo.co.uk)

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