Lesson from South Korean official

Although it is not surprising, it is sad that the reprimanding of Sri Lankans as a whole and a politician in particular by a Korean official for not being punctual and not keeping promises, did not draw attention of the people, at least to the extent that the video of a former Parliamentarian and a dog has drawn these days. 

The country has so stooped to the level that nothing can move the people of it. As Sinhala saying goes stains are not visible in a dirty cloth, corruption, waste, incompetence and lack of duty consciousness are not visible or not big deals in a degenerated society. When a news item about authorities purchasing injections worth only Rs.250 at price of Rs. 40,000 was published in newspaper, it was forgotten at the very next moment. Nobody cared when it was revealed at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) meeting that the Land Reform Commission (LRC) had sold lands at the rate of Rs. 373 per acre. Nobody wants to take action against the culprits and bring laws and create mechanisms to prevent future recurrence of such frauds. 

However, the speech by President of the South Korean Disaster Relief Foundation (SKDRF) Cho Sung Lea at a recent meeting with Sinhala translation and broadcast by several TV channels must be taken note of by the people of this country. Furious by the delay by a politician to attend the meeting, the South Korean official said that if this had happened in South Korea, the relevant person would have been questioned and disciplinary action would have been taken.

“If a meeting is scheduled to be held at a specific time, it must begin at that time. Otherwise no meaning in that meeting,” Lea had lambasted. He had ridiculed the whole country by saying that lying and reneging on promises have become the norm for Sri Lankans and it has also become a part of their culture.  “As a country people should be ashamed to hear these things from a foreigner. If the people of Sri Lanka cannot change this habit, the country would not be able to maintain a proper relationship with the people of other countries” he said. This is a striking observation.  

Interestingly, he also prescribed the remedy for this degenerated mindset. “There should be a change in the education system and thereby in the thinking pattern of the people in Sri Lanka” However, as usual, nobody – any leader of the country or an ordinary man – seemed to have been moved by the South Korean official’s censure of the particular person or his generalization of the Sri Lankan people with regard to behaviour. 

Can we - even a strongest patriot – contest what Mr. Lea had observed in Sri Lankans, in respect of punctuality? It has been customary for the Sri Lanka organizers of events, private or public, to announce a prior time for the event on the grounds the participants would come late while the participants would in fact attend late arguing that the event will anyway commence late. Even doctors who do private practice heartlessly see the patients in pain two or three hour, sometimes four hours after the appointment time given to the latter. We had even Presidents who were famous for being late for hours at public events while having Presidents like Ranasinghe Premadasa who always maintained strict punctuality with respect to such events.     

Mr. Lea seems to have frustrated by the promises broken by those with whom he has been having dealings with, for him to generalize the untrustworthiness to the entire population of the country. Or, he must be a good Sri Lanka watcher. All sectors and all institutions at every level in Sri Lanka have been shrouded with corruption, waste and malpractices in which untrustworthiness is the main ingredient. 

In fact, this mindset is not unique to Sri Lanka. It is a part of human nature, one may argue. However, society has to be organized through relevant mechanisms in a manner that this frame of mind has least room to act. Unfortunately, we have been expecting these mechanisms from the same corrupt existing political set up, since Independence.