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| Sunday, 30 April 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Colombo! Do
yourself a favour
by Kumar David The talk in town is that Vasudeva will be elected Mayor, but it is unwise to be complacent, so the denizens of the city should turn out in strength and do themselves the favour of ensuring his victory. They also need to give him a sufficient working majority on the Council to get on with the job - no need for huge majorities since a strong and responsible opposition is necessary for the mechanism of checks and balances. It is a pity that the UNP is not contesting in open formation because it would be good to give it the thrashing it deserves. No offence to the able Mr Sirisena Cooray, but this party has run the city for the last 50 years and its legacy of patronage and shady deals matches the putrefying garbage and fetid sewers that are its other bequest to a long suffering citizenry. Colombo is a multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan city and Vasu can be everyone's Mayor; it is heartening to see the enthusiasm with which the Muslims are coming out in his support. The city's Tamil voters are subdued these days; perhaps for fear that the violence in the North and East may spill over. However, they would be much safer with Vasu at the helm because he has always opposed racism in politics. Furthermore, his party, the DLF, is opposed to the concessions made in Mahinda Chintenaya to the JVP-JHU Sinhala nationalist line and rejects the unitary state concept. Placing 'everyman's candidate' at the helm should be the city's answer to the narrow nationalism, of both varieties, that sullies our political landscape. Vasu's platform brims with ideas, and that's welcome, but it is worrying that he is attempting to bite off a lot more than he can chew. Much of the election manifesto deserve to be lauded as fundamental to good city governance; eliminating corrupt practices, better waste management and garbage disposal, improving public health facilities, municipal housing and roads, these are good and are doable. Committing to a mono-rail system, making essential drugs available to all, legislating on vehicle emission and environmental policies and getting the country out of its suicidal English and IT downward-spiral, well this is rather a tall order for however Worshipful a Mayor. Why mono-rail? For a start, why mono-rail? It looked nice during a visit to Bangkok is hardly good enough. Colombo needs, and needs very badly, a mass transit railway system but mono-rail is usually light transit, a supplement to the metro, and by itself quite inadequate to break the back of the transport chaos in the city. Committing effort and resources to a shadow solution will only derail and delay grappling with the real one, and committing to a choice of system before studying all options is like the proverbial cart and horse story. The KL Monorail System for example describes itself as follows: "the development, operation and maintenance of a monorail system that will provide inner-city public transportation to the central business, employment, hotel, shopping and tourism district of Kuala Lumpur". Clearly this serves a different purpose from Colombo's mass needs. Bangkok is even more limited and has been plagued by difficulties from the time of project planning and financing. Many others are toy systems - Disneyland, Las Vegas, tourist spots. That Vasu is seriously interested in issues and not where the next bribe is coming from is such a refreshing change in our benighted city that one is reluctant to criticise, but let's plough on with Colombo's transport problem. What Colombo will eventually need is a moderate to heavy two-rail metro system from the northernmost parts of the city, via the Pettah-Maradana bottleneck and through somewhere in the proximity of the Galle Road-Havelock Road corridor to the southern suburbs. There is a need for perpendicular spur lines and these may be mono-rail, but the critical thing is to get started with the backbone, even if in small sections. Much of a metro in Colombo may have to be subterranean though some portions could be above ground. Subways are extremely expensive and require good ventilation in tropical climates. However, the best time to build a subway is when labour costs are low. London, Paris and New York did it several scores of years ago, Hong Kong a few decades ago and now many other cities in China are following suit quickly. Colombo had better make a start before wages become prohibitive. A transport Master Plan has to be developed and systematically executed. There have in fact been a few previous studies and this is probably the way to get started. Execution needs work teams There are other items in the election manifesto as well which need a rethink or seem fanciful and lie outside the remit of city governance. Putting the Senaka Bibile guidelines on drugs into the rulebook, enhancing labour productivity, national emissions regulations, English as a second language proficiency and waking up to the fact that IT has arrived, would all be nice. That they find a place in a municipal election manifesto is probably more to do with frustration and despair that successive national governments have done nothing, than a statement that the Colombo Municipal Council will transform the nation. The biggest challenge that a new Mayor with such an ambitious manifesto will have on his hands is putting together a team. The tasks are varied and multidisciplinary, the managing all these municipal functions requires a range of expertise - enthusiasm and a nervous energy cannot be substitutes. It's going to be a long hard slog starting on the morning after the polls. Building capable teams at all levels and giving them the right supports is as important as zeal. The candidates on the electoral list are a mixed bag; not just the PA list but all the lists. Therefore, enthusing and empowering municipal workers and employees and building competent teams should be part of the all round strategy. |
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