As Sri Lanka moves into the new millennium (January 2011), it’s time to reflect on the happenings in the past decade and the lessons that could be learnt.
The biggest lesson one needs to learn however is yet to be learnt, and never will be: Unbridled corruption and an increasing favours-for-deals culture, which is also running parallel to a culture of impunity and brazen openness. It’s not only politicians who are involved but also influential sections of business.
Perhaps three events in the Sri Lankan context stand out in the soon-to-end decade: The 9/11 or September 11, 2001 attack on the United States by terrorists, the end of the Sri Lankan conflict in May 2009 and the furore over the leakage of sensitive US government documents by whistle-blower WikiLeaks.
All three events have or will fashion a new world order in which Sri Lanka will be a key player. 9/11 not only changed the world and the US government’s approach to terrorism, but it also helped in the world clamping down on the LTTE. The end of the conflict is seeing a new lease of life not only in Sri Lanka but also in the world as the LTTE rebels had also killed a top foreign leader, India’s Rajiv Gandhi, while the WikiLeaks drama which has enveloped the world much more than the end of the Sri Lankan conflict will see many a fallout.
On the WikiLeaks drama, it is imperative that the government doesn’t react to it in a ‘bull in a china-shop’ approach. A rational and thoughtful response, particularly to critical but confidential emails sent by the US ambassador here in the issue of war crimes (which has been reported in the media), needs to be prepared.
A ‘gut’ reaction response just like some rabble-rousing government politicians is not the way to play the game! Ideally Sri Lanka should use this opportunity with a diplomatic initiative to win back the US, at a time when the US would be on the defensive and feeling rather silly!
Whatever it may be, the WikeLeaks exposure is reverberating across the world, exposing the US, releasing an explosion of anger by US leaders and former President Bill Clinton saying a few people could die as a result of the revealations. How big the impact and fallout from the leaks would become clearer in coming weeks and months. There is no doubt governments and leaders in the spotlight would have a lot of damage control to do amidst frayed tempers of those who have been criticised, including Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has been accused of war crimes by US authorities.
Analysing other events, the end of the war was a major event for Sri Lanka and brings a new lease of life as normalcy is restored and a major development initiative takes place in the North and East.
Another nagging issue in the past few years is the lack of a charismatic leader in the opposition United National Party (UNP) to challenge the party’s most formidable foe, Rajapaksa. Over the years, the UNP – the country’s strongest political party – has been unable to break through the grip on power by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its allies. Apart from that – and in the people’s interests – it has also failed in its duty as a responsible opposition party with in-fighting and internal conflicts dominating the party over the years. In such a situation, the weakness of the main opposition party has been effectively used by the government to steamroll controversial legislation like the 18th amendment to the Constitution.
Climate change (see special feature on the same topic on this page) is also of concern in the decade to end with monsoon rains happening during non-monsoon periods and freak showers causing havoc in the city of Colombo where the slightest shower triggers major floods and traffic jams.
The curse of the three evils – corruption, nepotism and family bandyism – continues to haunt Sri Lanka despite the new culture of governance and transparency. Corruption hasn’t only firmed itself in the public sector but advanced in the private sector. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the great buzzword this decade in the private sector for ethical and morally-correct business, in most cases is just window dressing for back-room, shady and corrupt deals. ‘If we don’t offer bribes to get contracts, we’ll be out of business because others are doing it,” said a Colombo businessman justifiying ‘payments’.
The favours-for-deals culture has got firmly entrenched in Colombo after the end of the conflict and however much the government will deny it, deals and contracts are dished out to their favourities.
The global financial crisis rocked not only the financial world but also the political world and Sri Lanka saw its fallout through the crash in dubious finance companies and the now-famous Golden Key debacle in which some 8,000 investors/depositors lost their money and are trying through courts to recover it.
The decade-long debate over inflation has taken many turns. In the current debate, the issue - which has been discussed through many articles in the Business Times – is about the meaning of inflation. Experts have repeatedly said inflation is the ‘rate of increase of a basket of goods year-on-year or month- on-month” and current rates show inflation slowing down. To the average consumer, that’s a meaningless and nonsensical definition:
“How can inflation go down when Bombay onions cost nearly Rs 200 per kg or sugar nearly Rs 100 per kg? How can we survive?” asked a Colombo housewife.
Thus as we move into another millennium, the fervent hope of Sri Lankans here and abroad is that leaders of the community like politicians, judges, teachers, academics, journalists, artistes, parliamentarians, etc will serve society the way they should as honest people and set an example to others. |
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