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Glass fast emptying

16 Jan 2022

Mahinda Rajapaksa called on Sri Lanka this week to embrace the future with hope and optimism, and to avoid dwelling on the first two years of this administration, which he claimed were robbed by the pandemic.  It does seem rather optimistic of the former President to even indicate that better times are ahead, when the bleak times for many of Sri Lanka’s citizens seem set to continue for at least the better part of the year. And even where people muster the spirit and resilience to leave the past behind, politicians would do well to recognise that many of the critical issues we face right now as a nation have more to do with their shortsightedness and incapability than with Covid-19.  It is true that the private sector especially must look ahead with optimism and move on from survival mode to action mode. Businesses have a responsibility to their stakeholders to find ways to keep moving forward and to keep growing. But to do so, they must be supported at the very least by clear direction and policy consistency on the part of the Government. That much of Sri Lanka’s private sector has forged ahead has little to do with a supportive policy environment; instead progress has come in spite of the many roadblocks that they face due to both Government action and inaction.  Optimism will be far from our minds if Sri Lanka faces the food crisis that experts warn is imminent. A country heading to a forex crisis in the middle of a pandemic could not afford a famine for its people – which makes the decision to abruptly ban chemical fertiliser outright an inexplicably ill-timed one. The consequent yield drops that will herald scarcities and trigger soaring food prices are certainly the fault of the mismanagement of fertiliser policy. We must, I suppose, take some consolation in the Cabinet taking steps to negotiate agreements with neighbouring countries to ensure essential food supplies.  It doesn’t help matters that every essential from rice and sugar to electricity and gas are embroiled in controversy, with powerful mafias embedded into each. A challenge for the government in the coming months and years is to resist its capitulation to the mafias on the one hand and to temper the disruptive power of unions, both of which it has been found wanting.  And then there is the forex crunch. The return of tourists – while important to the huge industry it sustains - cannot magically solve our forex crisis. Nor will a restoration of remittances or a sudden upward shift in exports. Our problems are deeper, far more complex, and cannot be solved by being belligerent in how we view international agencies and donors, or by being driven by ego instead of expertise.  If attracting foreign investment is one strategy of reinvigorating the economy, then we must do more to create the right conditions for a foreigner to easily do business with Sri Lanka. The brave investor who sees the potential in Sri Lanka despite the gloom predicted by the rating agencies must be encouraged with the right incentives, less red tape and a simplified regulatory framework – Covid doesn’t need to slow down our efforts to create a conducive environment for investors; it only takes political will and an efficient administrator to put such a framework into effect.  And if, as the Prime Minister demands, we are to make the best of the coming years, then those that govern us must focus more on delivering results and recognise that it is their abject failure that allows pervasive corruption to thrive and nepotism to be omnipresent in every State institution. There lies the foundation of the seemingly inescapable and frustrating cycle of loss we face in the affairs of our state – the absence of accountability, the inability to admit failure, the wretched lack of care for its own people. With the next major election three years away, we cannot harbour too much optimism that our Parliamentarians will do what we need them to do – they will bide their time and wish for the polity to have the short memories that politicians always bank on. But Sri Lanka is no dystopian state either, as some would have us believe. It is important that we recognise that our country and those that govern us aren’t one and the same. Those lines too often become blurred, making us lose sight of what we can do as a people. There is hope and potential – and there is reason to believe in our futures.  


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