It was nothing unusual – the plethora of comments from the public who were asked by the Business Times for this week’s ‘What do you think’ series, to name some of the priorities of President Mahinda Rajapaksa after his polls win last week. Law and order, reaching out to the north, a report card for ministers, governance, development and devolution and in particular, winning those who didn’t vote for the President, came out strongly in the newspaper’s popular ‘have your say’ column.
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Academics, businessmen, corporate CEO’s, students and housewives were among those who expressed their views on the direction of the President this year and in coming years. Particularly strong was the point that something seriously needs to be done to rising prices and the high cost of living with inflation in consumer prices rising for the 11th consecutive month and expected to peak by the end of the year. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, academic and former ambassador said the President must ensure that the minorities are treated as equals in practice, and recognize that just as the Sinhala Buddhists take pride in their identity, so too the Tamils and the Muslims, not to mention the Sinhala Christians. “He must leave no room for perceptions of discrimination and second class citizenship," he said.
Business professional Hilmy Cader suggested a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each of the ministries and state entities (ideally linked to rewards and recognition). After going on television announcing their agenda of work, they can ‘re-appear on national television after one year and tell the public how they have fared’, he said.
Sri Lankans overseas
Strategic plan
for Sri Lanka
Start on a clean-slate and develop a Master Strategic Plan for Sri Lanka Inc., that covers all the different facets of a country strategy i.e. Economics, Business, Social, Political. Based on this strategy, once again on a clean-slate, develop an effective structure (i.e. division of ministries and state entities) to execute the strategies.
Then set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each of the ministries and state entities (ideally linked to rewards and recognition), get each of them to come on national television and present to the public their specific KPIs and how they plan to achieve it – so that at the end of the year they can re-appear on national television and tell the public how they have fared.
To enable this process, the ministers (and even the parliament) can benefit by going through a process of management / strategy education, with exposure to best practices in both public sector and business management around the world
Hilmy Cader
- Chief Executive,
MTI Consulting
Spend on infrastructure
Increase spending on infrastructure. This is the most prudent strategy for lowering the country’s fiscal deficit over the long run.
As more of the deficit is dedicated to infrastructure investment each year, then (i) the greater productivity will be (recall that investment raises productivity), and (ii) the greater both job growth and output will be over time via the Keynesian multiplier theory.
Since virtually everyone recognizes that Sri Lanka's infrastructure is woefully inadequate, now is a golden opportunity to correct this.
A rupee invested in infrastructure will lead to greater future output.
Better connectivity across the entire island will also vastly benefit other social policies including, equitable wealth distribution and stronger ethnic integration. Corporate profitability would benefit via lower input costs.
Kajanga Kulatunga,
Investment Specialist
in Australia
Academics
Win over those who didn’t vote for you
Priority of the President is to win the confidence of 4 million voters who did not trust him. Unfortunately, the conduct of the government suggests that the victory vote of 6 million has a legitimate right to crush 4 million (who voted against them).
That is not democracy!. Democracy is to ensure that once elected all the people are equal and are not subject to discrimination. It is the President who should first display magnanimity without allowing his team and supporters to victimize the opponents and critical voice. It is he who should convince his supporters that the final winner is the democracy at an election. The second priority is to ensure good governance and constitutional behaviour of his government.
During his campaign, the president pledged to eliminate corruption and every one around him and those in the opposition should support him to eliminate corruption. It is clear from the result that if he has a genuine interest in eliminating corruption and nepotism, the whole country will endorse his efforts. We will all support the president in that direction without any hesitation.
J.C. Weliamuna -
Constitutional Lawyer
and human rights activist
‘Dan ithin ekauthu wemu’
There are three priorities that should engage the President. They are governance, development and devolution. Law and order must be restored at all levels. Security and safety of all, irrespective of one’s ideology must be established. “Dan ithin ekathu wemu” (lets get together now) should be the rallying call of the President, embracing all and sundry.
This sense of inclusiveness and integration should be pervasive. Nothing should diminish its centrality. A compact team of expert economists, business people and savvy public servants must come together to develop a concrete plan for development. Fiscal and monetary policy should form a part of it.
Thereafter, an operations team must be in place to monitor key milestones of all development projects. The North and East development projects must be fast-tracked. Clearly, this must be juxtaposed with a robust power-sharing arrangement.
Academic cum practitioner
National security and economic stablity
The backdrop of the setting is not entirely new, as the President was holding the same office for the last four years. Thus, it only is a continuation of his seasoned function for another term. Listed below is my brief perspective from a citizen’s point of view.
Priority One: National Security
Example: Ensuring national security by way of sea, coastal, air and land defences to stabilize the peace and communal harmony.
Priority Two: Burning mass issues
Example: Smothering the cost of living escalation and enhancing quality of life of the masses in every segment and community – both in metro and rural zones.
Priority Three: Economic Stability
Example: Stepping out objectively to contain waste, increase GDP quality, explore global markets and tariff relief for commerce in order to re-create revitalized cash flow.
Priority Four: Global Relations
Example: Develop a supreme vision and swift mission for Sri Lanka - to be a respected and mutually benefited global citizen, especially from the first world community.
Priority Five: Development Drive
Example: To focus more on revenue generating development drives to ensure that the national productive capacities and facilities are expanded via global support.
Damith
Kurunduhewa – Risk Management Specialist
Reduce north-south divide
The North and South must reach out and build bridges across the ethnic divide. The President must ensure that the minorities are treated as equals in practice, and recognize that just as the Sinhala Buddhists take pride in their identity, so too the Tamils and the Muslims, not to mention the Sinhala Christians.
He must recognize that the construction of a broad, common Sri Lankan identity can take place, not by suppressing or legislatively eliminating any mention of ethnic identity, but by generously accommodating such identities. He must leave no room for perceptions of discrimination and second class citizenship."
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka - Academic and former ambassador
Student
Tackle corruption, misbehaviour
The President took the lead in ending the war against terror much better than anyone else in this world. But still he has to start many more wars against state corruption and political misbehaviour.
The war has just begun. Lot of things yet to be won – internal corruption of politicians and civil workers, misinterpretations of patriotism and racism in the public sentiment, defending from incoming threats from foreign powers through diplomacy and democracy, to name a few. The President should take effective measures to tackle these issues considering it as his first priority
Sunil Dharmasena, Kelaniya
university undergraduate
Retired
Restore law and order
Ascertain the concerns and aspirations of the people in the North and the East, enter into a dialogue with the more popular and accepted representatives of the Tamil speaking citizens and agree on a plan to ensure their security, grant equal opportunity to education and employment , restore their dignity as equal citizens of Sri Lanka, reconcile the conflicts and bring them to the mainstream of politics and governance.
Stop the misuse of power by politicians and make institutions such as the police independent. Strengthen socio economic stability.
Deva Rodrigo
- Retired Accountant
Businessman
Support business growth
The President should support businesses to grow by doing two things. First, he should make sure that the cost of capital is affordable to enable business expansion. This means keeping inflation or prices low and to keep interest rates at a reasonable level so that businesses can borrow money and expand. This will lead to employment and an increase in our per capita GDP which is good for the country.
Secondly, it is the responsibility of the government to give the basic infrastructure facilities to all parts of Sri Lanka, most importantly access to electricity, roads and telecommunications. This will lead to business expansion and employment in the rural areas.
As an individual, I want to see equitable access to justice without any subversion or interference by politicians and to see no media censorship so that we can voice our concerns and complaints as happens in any democracy in the world.
Local Businessman
House wives
Enhance buying power
The President should address the economic problems of masses by enhancing their buying power so that every citizen can buy the day-to-day needs with hard earned money.
For that matter either the prices of goods should be reduced or the income level of the people should be raised. The President should immediately find a redress to the economic problem of the people by reducing the cost of living.
Sunanda Hettiarachchi,
housewife from Dehiwala
Improve living
standards
The President should focus on improving the standards of living for people which means increasing wages and bringing down high prices. One thing people coming from abroad, either foreigners or Sri Lankans, notice about Colombo in particular is how expensive it is to live here.
People coming from the US have said that prices here are comparable to those in large cities like New York and Los Angeles but people here earn a fraction, of what people in the US are earning. Only the very wealthy can have a decent quality of life. It’s just not right.
Ranjula - Housewife
CEO
Building credibility and acceptance
Let's start with asking ourselves what do we want to achieve? The answer is to be a strong and vibrant nation that we can all be proud of. If that is the end goal, then, the single most critical aspect for the President as he moves forward is to unify this nation.
The only way he can do that is, if he is able to build acceptance and credibility across all of the people and communities in the country. This unification is key to sustainable economic development and the establishment of a vibrant democracy, which are the foundations of a strong nation.
To do so, he has to establish a much more transparent system of governance. The actions to achieve this are manifold, some of which could be : following not just the rule of the law but the spirit of the law, implementation of the 17th amendment, appointing key officials on competence and not on allegiance, war on high level corruption through prosecution and the list goes on….
Ruchi Gunewardene,
Company CEO
Researcher
Overcoming divisions
The election results show the sharp ethnic divisions in the country. While President Rajapaksa won the Sinhala heartland, the areas dominated by the minority community voted against him. This includes not only the Northern and Eastern Provinces, but also Nuwara Eliya district, which has a high concentration of Indian Tamil population.
Overcoming these divisions should be the central concern after the election. This should be an integral part of everything we do. This is extremely important in the area of economic development, where the dominant discourse is reduced to a limited vision of chasing growth figures. We have to get out of this narrow vision.
A country that has gone through such a traumatic experience demands it.
Sunil Bastian
Researcher,
Development Consultant |
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