In spite of the political rhetoric, most people in the country seem to be worried about their future prospects.
This is largely due to the prevailing state of governance and the persisting ethno-religious tensions in the country. There are several dimensions to the present crisis.
Firstly, even after five years since the end of the war, the political elite seems to be clueless as to how to establish permanent peace and national unity.
Secondly, in spite of physical infrastructure development, there is no clear national perspective on the future of the country’s economy.
Thirdly, the State sector has doubled in terms of employment over the last decade but there is little tangible improvement in State services at least partly due to the fact that inadequate public funds are too thinly spread across state institutions, be it education, health or social services.
The only visible development appears to be the unprecedented expansion of a largely parasitic class of State functionaries imposing a heavy burden on the hapless masses due to inflationary pressure it exerts on costs and prices.
Fourthly, while abuse of power by the political class has increased everywhere, the law and order situation has deteriorated, creating problems not just for the ordinary people but for law enforcement officials as well. And finally the State has failed to address many of the issues that the people are adversely affected by, be it the rising Cost of Living, environmental pollution, corruption or increasing
traffic congestion.
There is an emerging consensus today that the abolition of the executive presidential system is the first thing we should do, before we worry about anything else. Given the obviously authoritarian tendency inherent in the Executive President ial system, democratically minded people would have no difficulty in agreeing with this idea.
But, people in this country were let down by former and present leaders not just once but several times. So, political leaders in this country have no credibility to go before the voting public and promise that again. In fact, almost all front running political leaders cannot expect the people in this country to have any trust in them. So, the challenge before the opposition is to find a common candidate whose main objective is to abolish the Executive Presidential system and pave the way for the restoration of the parliamentary system of government.
"The members of the political class and their retinue have easy access to public funds and do not feel constrained by the acute economic problems that the ordinary people face on a daily basis"
As regards democracy and good governance, we need to learn from the past. A simple change of regime could do little to change the way the country is governed. If we take the main opposition, we witnessed how the country was ruled for seventeen years by the post -1977 UNP regimes.
Corruption, abuse of power, election riggings, etc were not uncommon during much of that period. Moreover, many front running UNP leaders had absolutely no shame to abandon their voters and join the present regime for no apparent reason other than the lure of ministerial positions in the present government. So it is always advisable to mistrust many of the politicians of the leading political parties and demand institutional and legal safeguards against abuse of power by politicians.
Abolition of the Executive Presidency system is no doubt an important step in the process of democratization. Yet, we should have no illusion that reverting back to a parliamentary system of government led by a Prime Minister is a panacea for all ills. For we are saddled with a number of long standing and new structural issues that need to be addressed simultaneously. What are these structural impediments to development and good governance? They can be discussed under the following themes.
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State bureaucracy
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Structure of the economy
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Human resource development
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Research and development and Knowledge management
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Devolution of power
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National Unity: Management of ethno-religious diversity
It is obvious to anybody in this country today that we do not have an independent and professionally oriented bureaucracy.
Politicians have taken the upper hand and public officials are often not in a position to act independently and impartially. Most of them want to survive and protect their positions. Nor do they have adequate resources at their disposal to do very much to benefit the wider public. Meanwhile, the military is increasingly crossing the political and civilian lines and this has created anxieties in the minds of many people.
Today the structure of the economy is highly skewed in favour of service industries and this has resulted in the neglect of productive sectors of the economy. The widening gap between the real economy and the money economy has resulted in wide income disparities. While a large majority of people are struggling to buy their basic necessities, a small minority of people live in luxury, building large mansions and buying luxury cars. In particular, the members of the political class and their retinue have easy access to public funds and do not feel constrained by the acute economic problems that the ordinary people face on a daily basis. The rich are no longer embarrassed by their obscene wealth.
It looks almost as if the leaders have given up on the widely accepted path to sustainable development in favour of an unpredictable short cut to economic growth via tourism, export of labour and expansion of service industries like construction and telecommunication.
Yet, we cannot ignore the fact that the countries that are economically successful today did not find a short cut to development. The educated youth in this country by and large face a grim future, and are in search of opportunities outside the country.
As regards the politics of development, Sri Lanka represents a paradox. On the one hand, Sri Lanka continues to be highly centralized politically, in spite of devolution of power on paper and, on the other hand, there is hardly any systematic national planning. Much of what is happening in the name of development is ad hoc, uncoordinated and fragmented.
"People in this country were let down by former and present leaders not just once but several times. So, political leaders in this country have no credibility to go before the voting public and promise that again."
In conclusion, it is appropriate to say that the country is faced with a number of economic, political and social challenges and the only way forward is to address them in a systematic manner. Yet, it is doubtful whether the citizens of this country perceive their predicament in a realistic fashion, without
being misguided by narrow
political interests.
Ironically, it is often the narrow political interests that are presented to the wider public as the collective interest of the country. It is this confusion, created largely by partisan media institutions, that overshadows social and political discourse, often with disastrous consequences.
