Do Sri Lankans know to value their work?

There is focus on Sri Lanka for many reasons these days. Still despite the doom and the gloom the island stakes a claim to be one of the major tourist attractions among tourist destinations. When tourists are pouring into this nation in their numbers we get to hear economist Steve Hanke rating Sri Lanka among the 15 most miserable nations.   

This is the nation that ignored warnings of experts when danger was imminent and there were concerns regarding terrorist attacks, economic failure, losing GSP Plus etc. Sri Lanka had to face the consequences as a result of choosing to be blind to some truths. Now there is a warning that we are among 15 nations which are termed as miserable. One of Sri Lanka’s prime focuses these days is on debt restructuring and the present government is working on this steadily and has received assurances and support from other countries. Any person with some education would know that when time comes to start paying debts or restructuring debts it calls for instilling financial discipline all-round. In other words; or in householders’ jargon the time has come to really tighten our budgets. But can merrymaking Sri Lankans well and truly cut on spending? Just a few months ago we read in newspapers that though the revenue generated through income tax on the sale of liquor by the exercise department had dropped by 12.2 % the consumption of illicit liquor had increased by a staggering 300%. This calculation was for the first two months of 2023 compared to the same period last year. Another two areas where Sri Lankans see much of their spending going is on travelling and partying. The first quarter of this year included the April holidays and the Sinhala –Tamil new year: hence this is the time when most financially undisciplined islanders start pulling out their credit cards.   

It’s after April that Sri Lankans see the slump. Misery arrives on the doorstep. There are shortcomings at home and most often children are at the receiving end. How many families have given priority to sending only their brightest child to school; which leaves another family member with no chance of schooling. Hanke’s ratings take into account other factors like, unemployment, inflation, bank lending rates and GDP per Capita.   

In this backdrop one has to focus on the issue in the health sector such as lack of medicine, the non-availability of doctors; when they go on strike. The prevailing health risks on patients due to lack of vital drugs has really eaten into the minds of the people. Wonder why this aspect of health wasn’t included in that index used to name the most miserable countries in the world!  

Another factor that must be considered with regard to the people’s misery is the return to parliament of a large number of lawmakers who were dead scared of their existence during the aragalaya (revolution). Lawmakers’ houses were torched and some even fled the country. The president at the time, who fled to Singapore,, was allowed to return to Sri Lanka.   

Miserable is the word that sums up the people’s feelings when one saw the former Central Bank Governor being cleared of alleged charges, lawmakers being cleared of court cases and how politicians in parliament enjoy luxuries at the expense of the people.   

Still these wasteful ways are not practices limited to parliamentarians. Monday to Friday people work like galley slaves in private sector companies and even some of the state institutions that really serve the people and feeds the economy. What can be termed as an irony is that some of the lazy people in this country having wasteful ways that surface during the weekends. Recently a close colleague of this columnist aired the view that Sri Lankans don’t know or refuse to see the ceiling for spending when they have to party or have a wedding. So who is to blame?  

In times of misery one has two main options. One is to have religion or philosophy which serves as a stick to lean on. The other is to shift to top gear ad work twice as hard. Most Sri Lankans prefer the first and would even indulge in religious rituals and even witchcraft. A handful of educated people would place their bets on hard work and would even go to the next level revving up their work volume.   

A British visitor, who has business interests here, spoke to this columnist about a catchphrase of the Sinhalese which is ‘nikan innawa sir’-which translated into English reads ‘I’m just idling sir’. He had met a villager in the central hills and this Sri Lankan was standing near his badly maintained vegetable plot in the morning. When asked what he was doing, snap came the answer “Nikkan Innawa Sir”. When asked whether he was employed the answer the British national got was ‘no’. The efforts taken by the British national to justify that the man didn’t need a new job and only needed to attend to his plot of land with new found vigour fell on deaf ears. Some months later the British national had met the villager in Kandy town and upon inquiries as to what brought him there the villager had said ‘Nikkan tawumata awa sir. “I just came to town sir”. After much probing the Englishman found out that the villager had visited the town to get his broken spectacles fixed and to buy the newspaper. The problem with Sri Lankans is that they don’t know to value their work and that’s a major cause for misery.