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| Sunday, 27 April 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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10th death anniversary of President Ranasinghe Premadasa : Reclaiming the Premadasa legacy by Sirisena Cooray, Chairman, The Premadasa Centre The sound of the explosion which killed President Premadasa on May 1st, 1993 heralded not just the death of one man but of an entire nation. On April 30th 1993 Sri Lanka was a land of promise, not just for the handful of powerful and well connected but mainly for the absolute majority of the people, people neglected and marginalized for centuries because of birth and economic conditions. In the Premadasa years the have-nots had something, not just economic benefits and opportunities, but a sense of dignity and hope for the future. 10 years later Sri Lanka is a dying land, dying of inefficiency, of inconsideration, of inaction on the part of the rulers and despair on the part of the ruled. The only way forward for this country is the continuation of the Premadasa policies and programmes, especially in the sphere of development. But his path was abandoned by his successors even before the mortal remains were cremated and never reclaimed to this day. Is it surprising that Sri Lanka lost its way?
A sense of disquiet about the state of our country has been my constant companion since the death of my leader and friend Ranasinghe Premadasa. It was when I re-visited the Maligawatte hospital which was built by Mr. Premadasa in the late 1960s that I realized the magnitude of the defeat our country has suffered in the decade since the assassination of President Premadasa. For the last 10 years this hospital which is situated in the heart of Colombo and in the most populous electorate in the country, has been neglected and its urgent appeals for help mostly ignored. Its plight was symbolic of the rut Sri Lanka has fallen into since the death of President Premadasa, of the lack of concern about the fate of the country and the lives of the people displayed by the leaders who succeeded him. Adjacent to the hospital was a community centre built by Mr. Premadasa. The PA government pulled it down supposedly to build a kidney transplant facility funded by the President's Fund. Today that land lies bare except for some debris, another casualty of the abandoned war against poverty, hunger and disease. I decided that the 10th death anniversary of President Premadasa should be commemorated in a Premadasaist way - by doing something for the people he loved, the people he worked for all his life. And by proving, as he did throughout his life that where there is a will there is a way; that financial problems need not be an obstacle to development work if leaders are committed, innovative and efficient. What better place for that than Maligawatte, the city he caused to be created out of a mire, the location of the first Premadasa development miracle. Some years ago, the Premadasa Centre prepared a detailed National Plan for the country, dealing with the main problems and offering concrete solutions. Today there is an even greater need for such a plan. Use the Pradeshiya Sabhas and the Provincial Councils as the basic unit. Identify the problems and identify the resources at these two levels. Then identify ways in which the resources can be utilized to address the problems. At the end of it there will be a comprehensive national plan capable of dealing with some of the urgent issues of the country and people. The problem is not the lack of resources but the lack of idea, of commitment. Advertisements are not ideas. Speeches do not denote commitment. And you can fool the people with neither. Because they know, they feel, every time they try to make ends meet, every time they use a public facility. And their patience is wearing thin, especially when they see how the politicians of all parties pamper themselves and their kith and kin at the expense of the country. When they see that the money that is not available for the continuation of President Premadasa's free school uniforms programme is available to import luxury vehicles for all the parliamentarians. Or when they see the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. For the last 10 years the Premadasa Centre waged a lonely struggle to honour the memory of President Premadasa. That was a time when his own party abandoned his name and his legacy the PA and the JVP uttered a million lies to denigrate his memory. In June 1997 I was even imprisoned unfairly, on trumped up charges to prevent the commemoration of the birth anniversary of the late President, I remember with gratitude all those who stood with us during those long years. And I am happy that the government has at last decided that Ranasinghe Premadasa, the second executive President of Sri Lanka, deserves to be commemorated with a state ceremony. But the best way of honouring Ranasinghe Premadasa is to reclaim his abandoned legacy. The cessation of the war is certainly a positive development. But there is a growing sense of fear that this government is mishandling the peace just as the previous government mishandled the war. And unfortunately the government has not succeeded in addressing these growing anxieties of the masses. This is dangerous since these anxieties can be used by various extremist elements to create disturbances in the South and divide our society even further along racial and religious lines. The government has staked everything on peace. There are no fall back options, no development projects, no pro-people programmes. If the peace process fails, the government will fail since that is the only thing the government has been going for. The South is yet to see even a glimpse of the much talked about 'peace dividend'. Instead of the expected dynamism we see stagnation. The country is at a standstill with no economic progress, no improvement in the living conditions of the masses. No wonder people are losing hope. There is only way out - the policies and programmes of Ranasinghe Premadasa. He demonstrated how a poor, wartorn country can achieve economic growth without placing burdens on the already overburdened people and without selling every single national asset for short-term gain. That is because he believed that "development in any sense should help people live" and knew that only such a development can strengthen the democratic system. Reclaiming the Premadasa legacy and with it our future as a just and prospering nation would be the best way of honouring this great leader who dedicated his life for the advancement of his country and his people. |
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