PM’s lament

Thursday 4th November, 2021

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his speech, at a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the SLPP, in Colombo, on Tuesday, struck a responsive chord with the public. Among the main takeaways from his address were his declaration that all constituents of the ruling coalition were of equal importance and should be treated as such, and his call for action to be taken to eliminate the factors that had led to an unusual increase in the emigration of the country’s youth. Recalling how the youth had embarked on a wall-painting spree, giving expression to their renewed hope through the medium of art, immediately after the 2019 regime change, the PM said it had to be found out whether the same youth were now queuing up to obtain passports and visas to leave the country. He should ask his eldest son, Namal, who is the minister in charge of youth affairs, to make inquiries.

It is good that at least one government leader is concerned about the prevailing green card frenzy and has woken up to the need to do something about the mass emigration of the Sri Lankan youth. The question however is how the government proposes to tackle the problem or whether it cares to do so. What drives the youth away is their disillusionment with how the country is being run and attendant frustration.

It is said that old birds cannot be caught with chaff. But this is not true of old Sri Lankan birds, as it were, where politics is concerned; it is as easy as falling off a log for politicians to fool elderly electors, who are hidebound and impervious to reason as regards their political opinions and allegiances. But young Sri Lankans act intelligently; most of them do not hero-worship politicians. Therefore, as for Sri Lanka and its politics, the aforesaid adage should be changed to read ‘you cannot catch young birds with chaff’.

Some senior members of the public consider the country’s youth as a ‘gaming’ generation hooked on screen-based entertainment. But young Sri Lankans are capable of rational thinking as evident from their critical views expressed via social media platforms and the way they ridicule politicians and other such high-muck-a-mucks. They give vent to their pent-up anger via iconoclastic yet creative social media posts which apparently facilitate the canalisation of aggression.

When politicians’ sons and daughters live high on the hog without exerting themselves, and indulge in a vulgar display of opulence and profligacy, thanks to their parents’ ill-gotten wealth, the frustration of the ordinary youth is something to be expected.

It cannot be overstated that the most valuable asset of any nation is its youth. No country can achieve progress while doing precious little to eliminate the factors that cause the emigration of its young citizens. The way to prevent the mass emigration of youth is for the rulers to act in such a way as to convince them that their future will be secure here. Mere rhetoric or laments will not do. Those who are flaunting their popular mandates have to fulfil their pledges, especially the one to develop the economy. Economic development is not something that can be achieved through more borrowings or the sale of state assets. Development eludes the countries that fail to curtail waste, eliminate corruption, enthrone accountability and improve their ease-of-doing-business rankings.

On seeing so many nitwits go places by virtue of their political connections, the educated, intelligent Sri Lankan youth must be feeling just like the proverbial camel, which, seeing its dung float in front of it in a stream it was crossing, wondered, “How come what should be behind me is going ahead of me?” Something must be done about the political dung racing ahead of the educated and talented Sri Lankan youth.

The least that the present-day rulers can do to usher in progress and keep the youth from leaving the country is to have educated, intelligent, competent men and women of integrity in key government positions. Most Sri Lankan youth are aware how brilliant ministers and administrators in other countries such as Singapore are, and that unless this country, too, has men and women of such calibre at the levers of power, development will continue to elude it. When semi-literate individuals sans any talent who take to politics because they are not qualified to be gainfully employed in any other field are elevated to vital positions, it is only natural that the educated, intelligent youth lose hope and leave the country in droves. You cannot run steeplechases with donkeys, can you?