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| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
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Recovery from the tsunami - Consensus on issues could unlock all doors! by Lloyd F Yapa The tsunami, which struck Sri Lanka on 12/26 last year has not only swallowed up some 30, 000 lives but also displaced about a million people. It has devastated the fishing industry of the country and the thriving tourist sector, while destroying the infrastructure in the coastal areas. It is also a fact, that the majority of the people in most of these areas are some of the poorest in the country. They could sink into deeper poverty, if an effective program of rehabilitation and development is not implemented as soon as possible. The reason for the failure of such exercises and for the country to lurch from one disaster to another is the absence of careful planning before action and of monitoring/ evaluation. Goals and objectives The enhancement of the incomes of the people in all the provinces concerned significantly as well as the eradication of poverty and (mental/physical) trauma should no doubt be the ultimate goal of any rehabilitation program. This goal has then to be translated into objectives or targets after consultation with the stakeholders and the beneficiaries. Most development programmes in our country are not prepared after attending to the latter task. They also do not indicate quantitative and time targets in respect of the desired outcomes (outputs) and inputs of investment etc, so that policymakers as well as the public could measure and evaluate progress. The next stage of the formulation of a rehabilitation program is an examination of the factors, which impel and impede the achievement of these goals and objectives to derive realistic strategies or the ways and means of implementation. The impelling and impeding factors Among the major impelling factors are undoubtedly the countrywide feeling of sympathy and empathy felt for the affected people in all areas irrespective of race or creed and the keenness to help them to recover from the shock. The other is the overwhelming willingness of the richer nations to contribute the necessary funds, management skills and technology. The impeding factors are many and daunting in the extreme. One of them is the low quality of leadership in the country. They happen to be at the top because of the weaknesses in our system of elections. To make matters worse, they have ruined the once proud and efficient public service in the country. It is these two impediments, which have bequeathed on present day Sri Lanka a heavy backlog of unresolved problems, which keep on surfacing even when the country is hit by disasters. An example is the absence of effective central or local government administrative machinery in the North and the East to tackle the problems faced by the people displaced by the twenty-year war and by the tsunami. This can be attributed to the inability of leaders to recognize national needs and talk to each other to devise practical strategies of resolving them. In a sense though, the politicians are the mirror image of present day society at large. Ultimately we may have to point the accusing finger at the system of education in the country, which turns out people without the appropriate values and the skills demanded by a 'globalized' world. Those, who are fortunate enough to be better trained, have been exiting the country in droves, leaving behind the old, the infirm and the unskilled. Another major problem is the utter neglect of the development of infrastructure in rural areas, particularly in the affected regions, until the present government noticed it and took some steps to ameliorate the situation. Strategies So what are the strategies, which can be derived from these impelling and impeding factors? The first obviously is to heed the earnest call of the nation for all the political parties to get together with a commitment not only to resolve the problems arising from the latest disaster but also the backlog, which is building up and blocking any further progress. The LTTE is keeping away from the negotiating table to resolve the ethnic conflict on the pretext, that there is no consensus for it in the South; actually there is widespread consensus except for disagreements on certain issues. This bluff can easily be called, if the UNP were to join the national advisory committee on peace set up already, without beating about the bush. Such an event in fact could, besides enhancing the UNP's own diminished prestige, unlock many doors. One of them is the $ 4.5 billion promised sometime ago, mainly for the war-ravaged areas, but not released by the international community. The other includes the substantial private sector investments held back due to lack of stability in the country. The second is to reach consensus on the specific issues, that impede not only the resolution of the ethnic conflict but also the other issues, which stand in the way of socio economic goals and objectives aspired by the people. The latter encompasses a number of high impact issues:- a) revision of the constitution to remedy weaknesses, such as the system of elections, inadequate devolution to the provinces and the power vested with politicians to interfere with the running of the public service, b) the macro and micro economic policies to be adopted including the limiting of unproductive welfare measures/ subsidies to divert more resources to capital investment in infrastructure and services (e.g. health and education) as well as liberalization of markets, especially labour and land to achieve competitiveness c) measures to obtain the co-operation of the trade unions and the (local and foreign) private sector as well as d) the specific manner of dealing with the problems created by various disasters including the latest. The latter consist of the short -term relief measures required and the medium to long term regional development plans including the institutions and the policies necessary for uplifting all the poverty stricken/ disaster affected regions of the country. These processes have to be undertaken with due care and professionalism, so that we would never have to resort to the humiliating practice of going around the globe with the begging bowl. The rest is a matter of converting the strategies to action plans, implementing them and monitoring progress assiduously to obtain results as planned. If the second strategy of reaching consensus on the main issues holds, all this is a cakewalk. In fact with the announcement of such consensus, there could be an 'explosion' of (economic) activities on all fronts! |
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