Needed people's vigil

As reported in our lead story yesterday (December 19) Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake has drawn attention to a conspiracy to undermine State revenue. His speech deserves serious consideration by all those who are committed to the well-being of the country and the economy.

State revenue is derived principally through measures outlined in the Budget. Thus undermining State revenue means sabotaging the implementation of the Budget that is approved by the legislature. Since the sovereignty of the people rests in the legislature through their elected representatives, undermining or sabotaging the budget means undermining the sovereignty of the people. This in turn means undermining democracy.

That such a situation will have serious consequences negatively affecting the country's economy and development is clear. Though undermining State revenue through curtailing taxation may seem to be momentarily and superficially beneficial to individual sectors or people at large, its long-term effect is very often detrimental to the country and its people. Let us reflect a moment on the true significance of such a situation.

In order to implement the welfare or development projects undertaken by the Government a sudden and unexpected downfall in State revenue in one or more sectors should have to be compensated either by new taxation or curtailment of expenses elsewhere. It means adding more burdens on the people or withdrawing their welfare facilities.

For example, either the Samurdhi poverty alleviation program has to be curtailed or the fertilizer subsidy has to be reduced or withdrawn, or defence expenditure has to be pruned or some development projects have to be stopped or suspended to balance the government budget.

Repercussions on the public from all such remedial measures would be harmful. It would mean the intensification of the country's debt burden, the perpetuation of terrorism, increase in the incidence of poverty etc. Further, the erosion of democracy would give way to the emergence of anarchy making the country ungovernable.

A brief retrospective look into our post-independence history would show that the dramatis personae in the developing scenario is not much different from those involved in the political destabilizing of the regime of S W R D Bandaranaike and Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike's United Front Government of 1970-77. They are the Western oriented conservative elements disillusioned with the progressive orientation of the Government, especially its deviation from the traditional subservience to the dictates of the imperial master and the pursuance of an independent foreign policy with emphasis on developing stronger relations with India, China, Iran and other Third World nations.

Though the conspirators have donned saintly garbs and appear to pose as champions of the poor, the people have not forgotten their anti-people and anti-poor policies, their reckless offering of natural resources of the country to the imperial masters sale of home silver for a farthing and their enrichment at the expense of the people.

The conspirators are working on a broad strategy encompassing all fronts. The attack on State revenue is just one aspect. They want to peel off the economy like peeling an onion piece by piece so that ultimately nothing will remain.

The conspiracy has to be defeated. It could be defeated. The only way to do so is to raise people's awareness and their vigil. The people are not with the conspirators. Yet they are still unconscious of the danger of conspiracy and are lying dormant. That is why they could dupe certain sections under pseudo-democratic slogans. They still prefer to utilise unrepresentative channels for they understand their weakness among the masses.

The need of the hour is to take masses into confidence, tell them the truth, win their confidence and mobilise them to defeat all conspiracies, overt and covert, internal and external.

Since the conspirators have their global allies there is an urgent need to identify and neutralise them. It would also necessitate the identification of our global allies. Our foreign policy as President Mahinda Rajapaksa has correctly emphasised is one that makes friends with all nations while maintaining a strategic special relationship with our South Asian neighbours. It is one that does not compromise our sovereignty and asserts our independence and dignity. However, we need a centralised approach in this respect. Foreign policy should be the exclusive domain of the President and the Foreign Minister and the proliferation of foreign policy spokesmen and experts could lead to a situation where diverse and contradicting signals could reach the world complicating our external resources.

An area in which we should exercise extreme caution is our relations with India, which has assumed a delicate character in view of the humanitarian mission to defeat terrorism and the opportunistic policies of politicians in Tamil Nadu. If every Tom, Dick and Harry starts India bashing to please certain particular audiences or according to their personal relations the country would be the loser. While we cherishly guard our independence we should also understand the geo-political realities and make the best use of them to promote our national interest.