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It was King Solomon, the king of Israel, who onetime said, “Where there is no vision, people perish.”He was the third king of Israel, who built Israel to become a powerful nation with great prosperity. History records that many leaders from many countries visited him to learn from his wisdom and strategy.
Where there is no vision people perish
It is this statement, “Where there is no vision people perish” of king Solomon that was taken in seriously by global corporates in building their business empires to become forces to be reckoned with. It is first the artist’s impression that counts, when building a house, a bridge or a city. Thereafter, planning and working on the processes to lay the foundations and create the framework to build on follows.
President Maithripala Sirisena in his Independence Day address to the nation advocated bringing in economic, social, cultural and political transformation toward this. He also requested the nation to ponder on achievements and milestones reached as a nation in the 67 years of postindependence era, if all as the citizens of the country could be contented with these achievements. One thing is very clear.
President Maithripala has a vision for building Sri Lanka, having understood the aspiration of all the segments of our multi-ethnic and multi-religious people. Equally advantageous position he is in, as he could not have asked for a better collaborator and partner than Prime Minster Ranil Wickremasinghe, who has a technocratic mind and a very scientific approach.
Scientific mindset
Though simple and humble he is, the president was not only able to lead one of the best coalitions to defeat Rajapaksa at the recently concluded election but most uniquely for first time got the TNA leaders and other opposition leaders to participate in the Independence Day celebrations.Hopes and aspirations are high, expectations and desires are high, not only for the short-term 100-day programme that needs to be facilitated but more permanently for Sri Lanka to stand as one of the strongest nations where benefits and economic prosperity are equally shared with all the people, irrespective of their diversity and differences.
Both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe are focused on moving progressively towards achieving this goal. The role of the key government departments and other public sector institutions are critical to lay the foundation and create the framework for nation building. There has to be very scientific processes and procedures in these institutions with a well-oiled mechanism to support the progressive movement and flow to structure things.
The leadership of these institutions has to be in the hands of scientificminded professionals who understand the fundamental principles along with the practical processes, procedures and solutions.
By appointing political stooges, kith and kin, friends and supporters of the political parties as a practice in the past, will not achieve desired results and instead will continue to ruin the nation.
We have seen the past regime having people with awful track records to drive the economy of the country.Interdependent public and private sectorsThe role of the private sector business community is key i n framework creation for nation building. The so-called ‘Sura Sardial Budget’ shows how to take from the rich and give it to the poor.
The private sector is directly responsible for nation building. Over the years it is the ‘make hay while the sun shines’ approach the private sector adopted that created exclusive business engagement in comparison to greater social inclusivity through their business practices that resulted harsh treatment in the budget.
They were very narrowly focused on their own business performance and their own industry sector’s wellbeing i nstead of nationally thoughtful. Responsible and accountable revenue generation was not in their DNA. Respective chambers too should take the blame, instead of aligning their membership to look at the nation building big picture they too narrowly focused only on their business and industry sectors.
By doing so t hey completely forgot that they are operating on large economic land mass as micro entity. The private sector expertise on visioning, strategizing, planning and managing needs to flow in the fabric of the Sri Lankan economic frame work in strong partnership with public institutions.
Engaging multiple stakeholders
Like in a natural eco system, there are diversity of species in different shapes and sizes that exists and contribute to the sustainability, progress and development. Similarly, in a country too exits diversity of entities in every realm, whether it is political, social, cultural or economical.
There may be different sizes and shapes of these entities; however their existence and collaboration are vital for wellbeing of the eco system.
Therefore, in this unique opportunity, the country comes under two unique individuals Maithri and Ranil with courage of their convictions not only uniting the entire country and all of its people under one banner but also ensuring, no segment, community, sector or group is marginalized but making critical partners and collaborators in building the nation. [email protected])
