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by Ravi Perera

A Vietnamese was so poor that the only way he could survive was by going to prison where he would at least get a meal. To go to prison he had to commit a crime. He had an idea. He went to the town center and started shouting " The General Secretary of the Communist party is an idiot ".

The man was promptly arrested and given six years, one year for disturbing the peace and five years for revealing State secrets!

President Chandrika Kumaratunga speaking at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Singapore has accused the rich countries of being hypocrites. She has pointedly referred to the contentious issue of agricultural subsidies that the rich countries provide their farmers while, many international lending institutions, of which they are the major shareholders, demand the reduction or removal of agricultural subsidies in developing countries. The President also questions the yardstick by which development is assessed in poor countries and also pleads for debt forgiveness.

Right through her political career President Kumaratunga has displayed an annoying inability to separate domestic politics and personal matters from national and international issues. Whatever the forum she does not hesitate to score points against her local opposition, often at the risk of diminishing Sri Lanka's image and undermining our interest. This is an unfortunate trait in a national leader and trivializes the important office she holds.

One assumes that national leaders are intelligent and act with the nations interest at heart especially at international forums. But sadly this is often not the case in Sri Lanka.

Although Mrs. Kumaratunga is now before the public bar she is not the only leader to have abused the privileges their office bestows. Starting from the time of independence most of our leaders have made a mockery of the concept of public office and have often turned them into politicized private domains. There is no need to labour the point, the state of third world countries tell the story of their leaders. But how eager they are to point at the mote in the eye of the Western countries while completely ignoring the beam in theirs!

We are indeed fortunate that the rich countries that we so readily malign do not in turn examine our level of hypocrisy.

It is always comforting to blame someone else for our discontent. Colonialism, neo-colonialism, multinational companies, evangelical movements and a host of other things generally associated with the West have been blamed for our problems including chronic absenteeism at work! Our inability to address our problems, reluctance to work hard and the refusal to "grow up" as a nation are responsible for our current state far more than external factors.

The immaturity of our policies can be seen from Mrs. Kumaratunga own statement in Singapore. While accusing the rich countries of hypocrisy she in the same breath begs them to forgive our loans! Even a small boutique keeper from Attanagalla will know the folly of calling his Bank manager a hypocrite before requesting him to renegotiate his overdue loan.

The Western governments will of course look after their national interest. Why is it so difficult for our leaders to understand this? Any government's number one priority is its national interest. At the same time, we must not forget that the rich countries do give us a lot of help.

And obviously, as a nation we do not or cannot help anyone else. But what will happen say if our government were to gift US $ 10 million to a famine stricken Eritrea?

Our poor workers will be up in arms! Why help some strange country when there are so many deserving causes right here they would ask, quite rightly. Similarly, the rich countries, which are democracies, are also subject to various pressures from their electorate.

There are realities that transcend the world of words. Let us look at some random statistics from the world of economic and social realities. Netherlands with a population of approximately 16 million has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US $ 430 billion while Pakistan with 143 million has a GDP of roughly US $61 billion. Not a single Arab country has an elected government.

The rich countries are also the least corrupt. The percentage of the GDP contributed by agriculture in North America is only 2% while it is 25% in South Asia. The other day I learnt that less than 10% of Indians who go abroad to study return home. These figures and facts tell a story, in their different ways, of success and riches on one side while on the other of failure and privation. Whatever the dominant ideologies of the third world may proclaim people often vote with their feet. Today they all go only in one direction.

We all know that developed countries with a large farming sector often subsidize their farmers and also use tariff to protect their market. The farming lobby is very powerful especially in the United States and most governments have to accommodate their wishes. The problems that the farmers in rich countries face are quite different to the ones that our farmers face. These countries have big scale industrialized farming and the farmer has to borrow huge sums to be in it. The vagaries of commodity prices could affect him adversely if there is no governmental interference. And of course the rich countries can afford the money they use to subsidize their farmer.

Now, our farming by contrast, is a small-scale labour intensive effort. Statistically, we are also somewhat inefficient, in that our farmers produce less than the world average per acre in most crops. From his tiny farm he can barely manage to make his ends meet.

He is also often in debt and very much a victim of price fluctuations. Obviously he too needs protection and subsidies. No one can object if we subsidized our poor farmers with our money. But the question is, can a nation, which is heavily in debt already, subsidize its farmer with borrowed money. In other words, is it good economic management to subsidize apparently inefficient subsistence farming with money we have to borrow?

The President's comments about the unreliability of economic yardsticks appear to have been an effort to depreciate the much-applauded economic turn around that has taken place under the present government. Just denying realities will not make one's wishes come true. Statistics however unpalatable reflect a reality.

No one claims that economic measurements currently in usage are the best yardsticks of development. In the absence of better methods these are used with general acceptance. But we must let our common sense guide us in these matters. Can the President deny that this year we have had more tourists coming into the country than say in the year 2000? Is it not obvious that more tourists means more money spent in the country and consequently more economic activity?

The issues that the President spoke about in Singapore therefore are not as simple as she tries to make them sound.

Undeniably there are many things that rich countries can do to alleviate the misery that has become the lot of many in the poor countries. Poverty, especially in countries in the African continent and South Asia has reached alarming proportions and needs immediate attention. There are more than 1,091 million people in South Asia living on less than US $ 2 a day. These people need help.

Financially helpless, socially static, geographally isolated and culturally trapped their lives really are wretched. They live in countries weighed down by ancient feuds, antiquated social systems and dysfunctional economic models. Their leaders by and large are inadequate to the challenges of modernizing their societies. The rich countries maybe hypocrites as our President has labeled them. But the poor in our country desperately need their help.

The fate of the poor Vietnamese man in our story probably would not happen to us here because we are a democratic country, however imperfect. But the Vietnamese has one very precious consolation. He did not vote for the General Secretary of his Communist party!

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