“For all of us born in Sri Lanka and living in this time, this is our destiny, our calling- to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of re-making Sri Lanka.” This is a quote from a ‘committed’ Sri Lankan, who prefers to remain anonymous, for, in today’s world criticising the government can get you into trouble. On the other hand too much praise too can lose a few business pals.
His points, contained in a letter featured on the adjoining page, suggest that rather than mourn, groan or grumble, Sri Lankans should do their part in making this nation the paradise it once enjoyed – before the war.
To some extent that is true and Sri Lankans should be seen as doing rather than letting others ‘do’, then sit back and criticize.
The Business Times over the past year also had its share of brickbats thrown at us, saying we are too critical and not positive particularly on the stock market, development and business. However to these ‘readers’, we say: Please read our columns and stories closely and you would find the balance and objectivity that is required. For example when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began enforcing settlement deadlines and changing the goalposts, this paper was critical, and said such changes were unfair to investors. But when market manipulators ganged up against the SEC’s plan to deter inside trading and manipulations, the paper sided with the SEC.
No market can survive on manipulation, insider trading or ‘pump and dump’. Though the ‘removal’ of the SEC chairperson and the director-general was expected to ‘boost’ the market, according to influential investors, that’ didn’t happen. The new SEC chief (Thilak Karunaratne) believes over-regulation is negative and won’t help the market to develop, a point that the Business Times has also said in the past. Regulation, however, is important and necessary to ensure a level-playing field and when these rules are applied, they must be applied equally to all. Let’s hope the market will settle down this year and bring the necessary returns to deserving investors.
The Business Times-RCB poll this week has raised some interesting issues, one in particular which caught our interest and has been a hotly debated issue over the past year: the country’s high growth rate.
While the Central Bank has been announcing impressive economic growth figures, economists have begun questioning these, asking, “From where is this growth coming?”
Some of our respondents in this week’s poll raised the same concerns, particularly since many of Sri Lanka’s key export markets (Europe and the US) are adjusting lower, earlier forecasts on growth in 2012. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is forecasting higher growth this year.
Another comment from a respondent that drew attention was that while the government was doing a lot of good work, this was negated to some extent by corruption, waste, a lawless society, intimidation and harassment by influential parties. A weak opposition has also allowed the government to continue without a fuss. At a recent discourse in Colombo on poverty, the audience raised issues with the reliability of government data and statistics on per capita income, the poverty line and inflation.
One of the biggest debates this year has been transparency, accountability and good governance in government.
Unfortunate indeed, given that for many driving across the country, there is a lot of development to see and many new roads to go on. Road development, without a doubt, has been the cornerstone of the government’s development drive. A speedy completion to the long-awaited southern highway (a treat to drive on and see the ‘real beauty of Sri Lanka’), rapid progress on the Katunayake highway and the circular roads and now plans to begin the Colombo-Kandy highway, are great positives in the development success.
That success, to some extent, has been clouded by corruption, intimidation, poor decision-making (expropriation laws and the disastrous pensions bill) and the latest A’ level examination fiasco. For the government to win the ‘love’ of the people (apart from winning elections which to a large extent is helped by an incapable opposition), it has to score well on all fronts.
The government has the power, resources and dynamism to transform Sri Lanka into a economic powerhouse in Asia if decision-making is transparent and not influenced by political considerations.
Thus on that note, we wish all our readers a pleasant and trouble-free 2012. |
E-mail
