Anura Dissanayake addressing Toronto gathering – (Pic. newstrails.com)
The current problem in Sri Lanka has been created by opportunistic politics of 70 years and in order to find a solution to the crisis affecting the country, the political battleground has to be cleaned to promote civilized politics.
Today, politics in Sri Lanka is a very profitable business turning paupers into millionaires overnight, says a leading politician in the county addressing a gathering of Sri Lankans in Toronto on April 14, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year Day.
Member of Parliament Anura Dissanayake, leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), who has been representing his party in the parliament for two decades says these pauper-turned tycoons had thrown the country into total disarray, creating a mountain of foreign debts breaking down the economy with no relief for the majority of the people who lead a hand-to-mouth existence.
“The country has been ruled by two parties for the last 70 years by politicians who have no policies, no self-respect or no sense of responsibility. The corrupt nature of Sri Lankan politics has made our younger generation hate the chaotic system with a passion,” said the leader of the party which functions as the viable third option in Sri Lankan politics gaining in popularity.
On January 8, 2015 the victorious presidential candidate was listening to election results hiding in a coconut cultivation in Dodangaslanda and after winning the election he addressed a press conference saying that if he lost he and his family would have been ‘six feet below’. “The same person got together with the man who was to destroy him, to form a government on October 26 last year. Can this type of politics be called civilized?” Dissanayake asked.
The events during the 52 days from October 26 showed the country to what low level the politics had descended to. In the race to find 113 seats to form a government the two parties were offering as much as Rs.500 million for a potential crossover MP. Some changed camps, while some even demanded money to stay in the same party! These events did not happen in secrecy. Everyone in the country knew what was happening behind closed doors.
“Some MPs willing to make money spent day time at Temple Tress (official residence of the prime minister) while the same people spent the evenings at the president’s residence. Some hanged around the Kollupitiya roundabout trying to guess which way the ball was rolling to make a final decision to crossover.”
Today what the country needs is a totally different policy to develop the economy and improve the quality of life of the common man.
The JVP will hold a major event with the participation of the National Intellectuals’ Organization to discuss future policies of the party. NIO is a national front grouping intellectuals, technocrats, artistes, trade unions, students’ organizations and many other professionals in the nation
Presently, giant construction projects have been described as development. Development of a country is not turning it into an asphalt jungle. Today every ministry is engaged in giant construction projects. “That’s where the money is. Can you call this development? Real development is investing capital on a people-friendly projects to enhance their welfare and productivity.”
“Today the reasons triggering clashes between the president and prime minister of the country is over their contest to share construction projects to make hay while sun shines. I will be speaking about this clash in the parliament soon with proper evidence.”
The minister in charge of police built an ultra-modern facility in Anamaduwa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe said while opening it, that development has come to the area. “How can opening up a police station be described as development? In reality, the number of police stations has to be reduced. Today there is better communication, better roads with modern vehicles for effective policing covering larger areas.”
The minister of public administration is building a district secretariat in Gampaha at a cost of Rs. 400 million. He has launched projects to build new provincial council buildings and many more secretariats. The western province provincial council building was constructed at a massive cost with chairs costing Rs.150,000 each. The PC meets only for ten hours a month for two days.
The widest highway in the country is in rural Suriyawewa. In the evening, by the side of this modern six-lane road, school children sell fruits to help the survival of their families. This is a classic example of how the so-called development has failed to bring benefits the people living in the rural areas.
Today 48 per cent of gross national product is concentrated on the western province. North Central Province records only 4 per cent while Vayamba and south provides 9 per cent each. Uva where there are large swatches of fertile paddy lands records only 4 per cent. There are two aspects of development. It has to grow and expand and it is not right when a higher percentage is concentrated in the western province which includes capital Colombo.
The development is lopsided and does not concentrate on benefitting the poor farmers who are burdened by debts and without transport facilities to sell their products or with no proper storage facilities. “Today there is a high suicide rate among Jaffna farmers. The main reason is inability to pay back their loans. Without developing the agricultural sector it is impossible to help the common man.”
Today 28 per cent of manpower is engaged in agriculture but its share in the gross national products adds up to a meagre 7.8 per cent. Economic sectors like fishery, small tea holdings, small export crops, gem mining and other grass roots industries have to be developed to improve quality of life of people engaged in these areas.
Sri Lanka has borrowed to the tune of Rs. 10.5 trillion from foreign countries and according to government auditor the worth of the assets recorded to date is only 1.8 trillion. “Where have the other trillions gone?” questioned the politician.
He gave few examples of gross wastage and mismanagement of funds. Recently an Indian company was handling the modernization of Colombo-Matara railway line with a view to reduce the time taken for the long journey. The 48-mile stretch between Galle and Matara had gobbled up $60 million. “When the project started the minister was Dullas Alahaperuma and when it ended Kumar Welgama was in charge. I asked Welgama in the parliament how long did the train journey take before the modernization project. His answer was 42 minutes. When I asked him how many minutes it takes after the modernization, the reply was 39 minutes. That means the project has taken $60 million to reduce the speed by three minutes!”
Not to be undone by his ministers, President Maithripala Sirisena has launched his own projects. “He has announced that there will be a project to reduce the train journey from Kurunegala to Habarana by 25 miles. The cost is $920 millions. The country sold the Hambanthota harbour to China for $1100 million and now spending $920 million for a railway project. The government sold a harbour to expand a railway line. Is there any sense in spending valuable foreign investments in such meaningless projects under the pretext of developing the economy.”
Another white elephant is the new Beliaththa railway line. “This line is 27 kilometres long and was constructed at a cost of $278 million. Three other roads also have been built to approach Belliaththa. Do you know how many people travel by this train?” he asked. “There are not enough travellers to fill even one compartment!”
What is the way out of current debt crisis? “The only solution is to borrow from foreign countries and invest them wisely to increase national production and pay back all the debts. I don’t see any other possible way out of his mess within a short time,” said the MP.
An invaluable asset we have is human resources which the country can harness to face future challenges. “Three main factors of manpower development are education, health and sports. In a year, 322,000 children enter school but only 28,000 go to university. In Singapore half of the children graduate from the university. We have to replan our education strategy to produce efficient manpower for domestic needs and also to export modern know-how to other countries.”
Sri Lanka has 10,192 schools and last year not a single student entered 438 schools while 137 schools recorded one entry each. 138 recorded two while 36 schools received 100,000 applications. “Today real education is outside the schools and educational institutions have become daycare centres for parents until they come home after work. Today, higher education totally depends on how much the parents can afford on tuition.”
“When we come to power we want limit a child’s education to a school within a radius of two kilometres of the residence and increase the number of graduates to half of the total who enter Grade One,” Dissanayake said amidst applause from the audience.
Answering to a question whether the JVP can increase their power by aligning with Sinhala Buddhist parties and organisations, Dissanayake said religion should be kept away from politics. “Religion is a belief but today there are cultures attached to the four main religions in the country, going beyond the philosophy of beliefs. Sinhala Buddhist nationalism is not a religion. It is a culture. The exploitation of this culture by some political factions brought about the 30-year war killing and maiming thousands of people. Promoting such lopsided parochial values without respecting all the religions will do greater harm to our future generations. Therefore, we like to keep religions out of politics without contributing to religious radicalism. Our society should be able to respect every religion and community without bias.”
Responding to a question why the JVP has so far been unable to win a sizeable majority to rule, he said ‘we never assure the voters that we can form a government’.
“When the election comes the voters’ natural choice is to select between the two major parties. There is malicious propaganda being spread about the JVP. Some say we will take over houses if someone has two. These are utter lies. But the situation is changing. We are aligned with the intellectual council consisting of leading intellectuals, technocrats, artistes and other professionals in the nation and organizing meetings in all the district forming viable economic policies to develop the country. We had a very successful meeting at Rathnapura where even the Chief Sanghanayake of Malwaththa Chapter of the area participated. He said he came to a political stage after the 70s adding that he attended the Rathnapura meeting as he was disgusted with what was happening in the country at present.”
“In June we will be organizing a major event in Colombo with the participation of the National Intellectuals’ Organization (NIO) where thousands are scheduled to attend to discuss our policies for the future,” JVP leader said sounding optimistic about the light at the end of the tunnel.
The NIO is a national front grouping intellectuals, technocrats, artistes, trade unions, students’ organizations and many other professionals in the nation. – www.newstrails.com
