“State of the nation” at Lanka’s 75th Independence anniversary

Dayanath Jayasuriya
(ed.)(2023) Sri Lanka @75: Perils of Complacency in a Fragile Nation, Delhi: Har-Anand Publications

Book Review
Paul Carmichael

Professor of Public Policy and Government
Director of the Centre for Public Administration
School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences
Ulster University
Belfast.

This book is the latest in a long string of publications penned or edited by its eminent author, Dr Dayanath Jayasuriya. Through his multi-faceted career in public service, including his appointment to the President’s Counsel, as well as corporate leadership, both in Sri Lanka and internationally, Jayasuriya is ideally placed to bring to bear a wealth of experience, while prevailing upon colleagues from his extensive networks developed over half a century, to contribute to this collection of essays and reflections.

To that end, the assembled works represent a sober assessment of the ‘state of the nation’ on the 75^th anniversary of its independence from British colonial rule, with thoughtful, considered and sometimes provocative contributions from leading thinkers, public servants and others in positions of influence.

The book consists of three principal sections. In the first, entitled ‘Articles’, there are six substantive chapters, each authored by distinguished academics or practitioners, two of whom are emeritus professors. In turn, the chapters consider: developments in the economy; aspects of education policy; the health service; the legal system; the constitution; and the Tamil struggle and related civil war. To varying degrees, these contributions are supported by tables, charts and other information to underscore the arguments being advanced.

The second section is entitled ‘Comments’ and contains six much shorter contributions, ranging from two to no more than four pages apiece. Each submission offers a pithy reflection on, respectively: the changing role of the central bank; foreign policy; religion, law and constitution (by the Editor); the status of women; recent developments including the flight of President Rajapaksa in 2022; and the stock market.

The third section comprises a series of 10 annexes, all prepared by the Editor himself. Annex one provides a select bibliography, enabling the interested reader to pursue their curiosity through other publications, grouped by topic. Annexes two through 10 provide commentaries (originally published in the Press) on a range of issues in Sri Lankan public life over the period 2020-2022.

After over 30 years of having been gripped by a brutal terrorist campaign and civil war emanating across the entire island from the troubled far north around Jaffna, which itself occasioned a government counter-insurgency initiative frequently decried for its ferocity, Sri Lanka emerged into a post-conflict period in 2009. In different circumstances, it might have aspired to resume an undiluted focus by the state on social and economic improvement that had characterised its early days as an independent sovereign nation.

However, while the anti-terrorist drive was successful in eradicating the most obvious source of the insurrection, the legacy has been a bitter harvest of festering grievances on which new dark forces have fed gleefully, stoking fresh resentments borne of atavistic rivalries. These, together with a catalogue of unwise decisions, corruption, nepotism, rigid bureaucracy, ineptitude, racial divisions readily stoked by the scurrilous, and all lubricated with a financial system over-exposed to foreign loans with their punitive conditionality – all of which constitute “missed opportunities and colossal blunders”, to quote the Editor – have served to sap the capacity of successive governments to effect the range and scale of changes so desperately needed and sought by the population.

Add in the fact that a unitary form of government which, at best, fails to meet the needs of minorities and at worst, provides fertile ground for inter-communal ethnic and religious discord, strife and violence, and it is little wonder that the early hopes of those who campaigned for the end of colonial rule to create a sovereign country that could take its place among the nations, must surely have been dashed.

After all of that, mounting economic strains helped precipitate a debt default, the first in the nation’s history, in 2022. That, and the aftermath of successive traumas since the 2004 tsunami and then the covid pandemic of 2020, both in its direct effect and through the global disruption to travel, trade and tourism it wrought, have compounded the crisis.

The resultant backwash from international creditors, exacting impossibly heavy conditions for continued financial relief, has occasioned seismic social and economic dislocation and suffering across the country, as well as political instability, with chaotic scenes ensuing as mobs rampaged around the capital city, Colombo, and including the unceremonious storming and sacking of the President’s official residence, before his hasty flight into exile in 2022.

It is a tale of unremitting woe, and the reader could easily be forgiven for concluding that the candid analysis of all the contributors must leave one pessimistic as to the future prospects of this proud nation and its people. Together, the various authors don’t mince their words in highlighting the multiple shortcomings of those individuals and organisations that, through their actions and inactions, words and deeds, have served to exacerbate difficulties instead of fulfilling the proper role of leadership through bringing cool minds, careful analysis and measured commentary to help diffuse tensions, and chart viable pathways to a more sustainable future for the country.

The fortitude and enterprising culture of the population, tested by calamities both natural and man-made in origin, but having proved resilient in the face of such adversity, leaves the country facing formidable challenges but not so downbeat as to have sunk fully into an abyss of despondency, a failed state in the making. Thus, while not seeking to gloss over the scale of what must be done to effect positive and sustainable change and recovery, the reader can find some cause for hope among these pages.

With quiet and patient resolve, buttressed by an adherence to sound husbandry of the economy and the nation’s finances, and eschewing the dogma of both extreme dirigisme on the one hand and laissez faire on the other, a ‘middle way’ might yet be found, blending proactive state intervention in a supportive partnership with free enterprise, as well as a vibrant third sector of community and voluntary organisations that can yield progress in securing sustained economic growth, social justice and well-being.

To achieve this desirous state of affairs, the country is not without advantages. It is fortunate to have an education system which has achieved much in the years since independence, helping to liberate the talents of the people and providing a firm foundation for future economic development. With strong, autonomous, and independent institutions, protected by the rule of law, as free as possible from the temptations of corruption and depredations of politicians, intent on self-interest and amassing personal fortunes from their fellow citizens, there may yet be grounds for optimism about the future.