Flutters of flag and pangs of hunger

Friday 4th February, 2022

The government has pulled out all the stops to hold the Independence Day celebrations on a grand scale while the country is sinking deeper into crisis. Today, political leaders will arrive at the Independence Square, in their limousines, puff out their chests and sing the national anthem with gusto. There will be a colourful parade with the military flaunting its assets. A fly-past will be the main attraction of the event. Political rhetoric will burst forth. We see this grand show year in year out.

Sri Lanka could hardly afford today’s big show. What is there to be celebrated, anyway? Funds for the ceremony have come from a depleted Treasury struggling to pay for food imports. The country remains underdeveloped and a huge burden on other nations; it borrows from even its developing world counterparts! Essential commodities are in short supply, and many people are skipping meals.

The celebration of ‘Independence’, however, is a time for reflection. Perhaps, the fate of the Trincomalee oil tank farm exemplifies the predicament of post-Independence Sri Lanka better than anything else. In early 1960s, during an SLFP-led administration, we were able to buy this strategically important asset built and owned by the British, but successive governments failed to maintain it, and today a part of it has been leased to India, which has also acquired a sizeable stake in a joint venture to manage the majority of tanks. A UNP government built the Gal Oya reservoir with local funds, but today not even a sewer could be constructed without foreign aid. Instead of rehabilitating ancient irrigation tanks and canals, and building new ones to feed the hungry and achieve national food security, projects are being launched to convert tank bunds into jogging tracks.

The current foreign currency crunch, which has crippled the economy, has come about as successive governments since 1977 have got the country’s investment priorities wrong. There is a tall tower in Colombo City and it is illuminated from time to time as if to glorify the monumental stupidity of our rulers who in their wisdom borrowed heavily from external sources for its construction, not caring how they were going to pay back the loans. The tower, too, is also likely to go under the hammer before long.

There has been no long-term strategy or a sustained effort to develop the economy and achieve the much-needed fiscal consolidation. Instead, vital assets including those built with borrowed funds are being sold or leased to raise funds for debt repayment. As for the debt crisis, the only solution that all governments could think of is to borrow more, and the self-proclaimed patriots who have been at the levers of power have not cared to make a serious attempt to break this vicious circle. They, too, have feathered their nests while wrapping themselves in the flag. It is popularly believed that if they were made to return to the state coffers a fraction of what they have helped themselves to and stashed away in offshore accounts, the country’s financial woes would disappear in next to no time.

Time was when Sri Lanka exchanged its rubber for rice from China, which is today donating rice to help dull pauperised Sri Lankans’ pangs of hunger. There have been some achievement, but, overall, we have lost our way.

The challenge before us is to retrace our steps, figure out where we took wrong turns, and forge ahead in the right direction as many other nations have already done. Easier said than done, but there seems to be no other way.