A CALL TO EXPATS

Addressing a parley in Australia, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has exhorted all Sri Lankans living in Australia to join together in building a prosperous Sri Lanka.

This echoes a call made some time ago by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who urged expatriates to join in Lanka's development efforts by lending their expertise.

This is the right time for expatriates to heed this call. Sri Lanka is on the cusp of defeating LTTE terrorism. The North too will see the restoration of democracy and with it, the need for development.

We are witnessing a massive development drive in the East after its liberation and the same will apply to the North. These projects require manpower and expertise and Sri lankan expatriates are ideally suited to contribute both.

There basically are two types of expatriate: migrant workers in the Middle East and elsewhere already remit millions of dollars to Sri Lanka every year and are now a mainstay of the economy.

The second category is those who have left our shores and become citizens of other countries. Yet many of them retain their links with Sri Lanka, where they still have relatives and friends. Some of them have obtained dual citizenship to make travelling in and out easier.

It is this group that must especially come forward at this time to help Mother Lanka. The authorities mst make an open appeal from all Lankans domiciled abroad and invite their views on how they can help Sri Lanka to develop either from those countries or after coming here.

For example, in the case of oil exploration there are many Lankans who have obtained qualifications in this sector even though Lanka's oil deposits came to light only recently. They can be invited to form a panel of Sri Lankan experts on the process.

There have been many suggestions to make the process of obtaining dual citizenship easier and immigration authorities should earnestly consider this.

The authorities should follow India's lead in this regard - Non Resident Indians (NRIs) are granted an ID and special status to keep their bond with India alive. That is precisely what our authorities should aspire to - expatriates should not be allowed to sever their links with the Motherland.

The need for planning

Science and Technology Minister Professor Tissa Vitarana made a very thought provoking statement last week. He noted that the country's planning process is very weak and needs to be strengthened. He said the planning mechanisms in other countries are strong and guided by people possessing necessary abilities. Funding is also provided adequately.

The Minister has explained the whole scenario and all right thinking citizens will agree with him - "although Sri Lanka is a democratic society where people elect the politicians, the planning process gets distorted as politicians tend to think of the next election and planning and spending are done accordingly".

This explains why Sri Lanka lags behind many other countries in the region. Some of them were dirt-poor when Sri Lanka received independence in 1948. Today, they are far ahead of us economically.

As the Minister says, a nation cannot develop without a proper, evidenced based scientific planning mechanism in place. There should be data and information to convince the public and politicians that this is how we have to progress as a Nation.

That mechanism has to be strengthened in the period ahead.

One prime example is the fact that we have made remarkable gains in education and health. This is mainly because all Governments continued the policy of free education and health, investing heavily in the two sectors.

Today, Sri Lanka's health system is nearly on par with that of the developed world.

In other words, there has been a national policy on these two sectors which every Government has honoured.

Although Governments took various decisions affecting these two sectors, they have by and large respected the policy foundations.

If we had the same kind of national policies for power generation and energy, agriculture, investment, infrastructure development, transport, public sector employment and other vital areas of the economy, we would have made vast strides by now.

If politicians and planners made a proper evaluation of the country's power needs years ago, they would have realised the looming crisis.

Alas, there was little or no planning and power plants which should have been constructed a decade ago are being built only now. We must be thankful to the present Government for initiating projects such as Norochcholai.

Planning for the future and evolving national policies which do not change with Governments are essential in Sri Lanka's quest for sustainable development.