The primacy of equitable growth

Progressive sections in this country would have found it deeply gratifying that the government is taking cognizance of the need for inclusivity in its development programme. This was a principal theme of Deputy Finance Minister Gitanjana Gunawardena's budget speech, for instance, the text of which we reproduced on this page yesterday. Among other things, he pointed to the progress Sri Lanka is making in the direction of the UN-sanctioned Millennium Development Goals for the world community. It is our earnest hope that 2012 would be an year of development. While it is the eradication of terrorism, under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which has made possible progress in the economic field, we believe the country should from now on accelerate its development drive, for, economic advancement, correctly understood, is the key to future socio-political stability. Very particularly, the economic growth that is being generated needs to be equitable in nature because material advancement to be fully meaningful should be equally distributed among the country's populace.

Besides, such development needs to be inclusive. That is, the development process must not only have the participation of all sections of the people, irrespective of man-made barriers, but it should benefit all of them in equal measure. This is development in the real sense of the word and this is what we need to collectively strive for.

Over the past couple of years, the state has facilitated the development process by going in for large scale infrastructure development, Connectivity between population centres, towns and villages is being strengthened as a result of this and there is no doubt that, overall, the people would gain by this infrastructure boom. For instance, agricultural produce must be transported to the metropolis and towns with the least delay and our newly established highways and revamped and expanded road network would facilitate this process.

But material advancement also brings mass expectations and hopes of continuous economic and social advancement. While achieving development is a tough challenge for developing countries, the handling of the 'Revolution of Rising Expectations' could prove equally daunting. If not wisely deftly handled, the latter challenge could have destabilizing consequences for a country.

This is the reason why the growth process of a country should prove to be widely inclusive and bring within its exhilarating onward thrust all sections of the people and ensure that no one misses out on the benefits of material advancement. Essentially, this is what development is all about and this should be the prime focus of the government in the days ahead.

Taking the development process to its logical conclusion by making it all inclusive and integrative in its impact is not distant from the prescriptions for reconciliation advanced by the LLRC; it would be realized on reading the final report brought out by it. The key to a stable polity is the combination of growth with redistributive justice. The latter process should be so thorough that no one should believe that he or she is left out of it. If these aims are fulfilled there would not be any grounds for ethnic disaffection or any other disgruntlements of the kind.

The government needs to very consciously address this task. If inclusive growth and development, correctly understood, were the foci of governments over the years, there would have been no grounds for ethnic disaffection or socio-political upheavals of the kind which were witnessed in Southern Sri Lanka in 1971 and 1989-1990. Unfortunately, governments chose to be negligent on this score and the country had to collectivity suffer the consequences.

Therefore, the state needs to be strongly committed to inclusive growth. It calls for decisive piloting of the country by the government towards egalitarian aims and social justice. Given the unassailable position of the government, all of this lies within the realms of the possible.