Paradise can be regained

Tissa Jayaweera

History : Many talk of the past history of over 2500 years, the glory that it was when per capita of Ceylon was greater than Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Korea. How many know that Lanka has the only tree with a birth record, the largest man made clay brick structure is here and we had a great irrigation history, discoveries of the recent past prove Lanka being a country rich in agriculture. Agriculture alone cannot make a country.

There should be agriculture, industry and services working together for Lanka to be a part of the developed world. Take the countries quoted above. The leaders selected by the people had a vision for the country.

They started to develop from the late 50s and early 60s while we started to destroy ourselves during this period. It was country first for the leaders of those countries.

Singapore had nothing, Japan was destroyed by the war and do not have much raw material, Malaysia and Korea were the only countries that has resources. All of them overtook Lanka and Lanka has no alternative other than to look at them now and try to be them after 47 years of retardation.

Fortunately for the few intellectuals left in the country, the country has now taken a new turn to grow at 8% + If the figures released and published by the Central Bank are true and correct, the country is heading in the right direction once again after a 90 degree turn done in 1977 from a Poor nation with sacristy of food, milk, essential products, to an open economy still criticised by our left oriented friends who ware Omega wrist watches, branded clothing and carry the latest Mobile Phones with GPS.

Take the new giants of growth, China and India. Largest Communist country and the largest Democratic country both grow at 9% + for the past few years. Their leaders have changed but their policies and visions for the countries have not changed.

China does not have the problems of terrorism, religious clashes, strikes that India has, or bombs as faced by India. Natural disasters are common to both. Both have a population of over one billion people to feed, clothe, house and employ. 30% of population, aprox 300,000,000 + million people live with an income of under 1 USD a day. People die daily due to hunger, sickness or cold or heat during winter and summer.

Both claim to be self sufficient in food and are large exporters of food. There is no record yet of a death due to hunger, cold or heat in Lanka.

Where have we gone wrong? Where was the vision of our leaders? What was the vision of our leaders? The vision of our leaders was, get back to power at the next election. Change the policy to suit the masses not the country.

We are a great country, we gave free food, now we give free education, books, health and many more even not affordable by rich countries. We even go to the extent to pay wages to people on strike and do not report to work in addition to their leave entitlement.

That is why they are rich and we still beg from World Bank, IMF and any bank or country. We are literate. 96% +. Are we educated? "No". We have lost out to countries that were inferior to us in 1960 that are now developed.

Foreign universities have branches here to take students to their countries. Students go for education to inferior countries than us. Why? we concentrated on literacy through a dead language, which is not among even the 50 spoken languages of the world.

Some learnt Russian, Rumanian, Chinese to obtain higher education prior to 1978. That trend is now lost. China, Russia, Latvia, India, Nepal, Malaysia and the rest of the world offer Degrees in English and our students are being sent by their parents who can barely afford to do so, to obtain degrees in English.

The so called International Schools breed students to enter overseas universities or to be employed by Blue Chip companies that use English as a medium of communication with the rest of the world.

The state schools are yet to start education in an employable language. The not so well to do Mahapola students have to have protest marches, fast or demonstrate to be employed by the state after a Degree with free education in a language of a world minority. Tamil is among one of the 50 most spoken languages of the world. It is in the spell check of computer, not Sinhala. Less than 8% of population is fluent in Tamil.

We have an Executive President elected by the people at a Premedical Election and a Government elected at a General Election by a majority of the people.

As true citizens of Sri Lanka, let us bury the hatchet. Let us collectively find a solution for terrorism. We are not the only country battling terrorism. There are many more.

Those with a vision keep on developing in spite of terrorism. Let us find solutions to be self sufficient in food, become an exporting nation from the present importing, open more universities to keep our students in the country to educate them in a world language to make them employable as intellectuals.

Of course we need the farmer, carpenter, mason, plumber, electrician, welder and driver. Let us make them educated too, intellectually, agriculturally and technically qualified farmers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, welders and drivers.

We do not have a brand image. Only image we have is LTTE and terrorism. We did have "Ceylon Tea", "Ceylon Sapphire". We have a strong export industry manufacturing for others labels. India, China have built brand image for their product. India is having big time advertising for Tea in USA. I was in Kazakhstan recently and was very proud to find Dilma alongside Lipton in 5-star hotels.

Politicians change your attitude. Let us all be Sri Lankan. Not be identified by ethnicity or religion. Set an example, buy local goods, eat local food, use goods and equipment made in Lanka to steer Lanka to be the great nation it deserves to be.

Future of your country is in the hands of all living in the country for the next generation to live and survive in dignity. Sri Lanka is a land like no other, country like no other, people like no other, religions like no other, climate like no other and politicians like no other.

Let us re-establish paradise.