A Beggar’s Wound ( Higannage thuwalaya)

The disparities of wealth increase in a dynamic growing, enterprising economy. They shrink when the economy stagnates.

by Victor Cherubim -Sep 7, 2018

( September 7, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) One of the lessons in life is to know what power naturally does to people in high places, for ordinary citizens to imagine, how if they have the power they too can make the most of it. Regrettably it does not work like that.

The poor are somehow saddled due to their status in life, to have great expectations of a life of abundance someday? They try to blame themselves and put it down to fate? They try to buy “vasanawa,” with whatever little they can eek, rather seek out of existence. But all the time it evades them. They live eternally in hope.

A “higannage thuwalaya” never ever heals? Or so they say. It aptly describes why a problem is inflamed.

What does it feel to be poor? 

“Few, save the poor, feel for the poor,” says L.E.Laundon and “Plenty makes us poor” says, Dryden. So what is to feel to be poor? Is it poverty of aspiration, is it something else?

There are people who are poor because they don’t have enough to live on. There are

people who are poor in spirit, because they are without hope. Yet people move in and out of being poor in the strictly financial sense, all the time?

The disparities of wealth increase in a dynamic growing, enterprising economy. They shrink when the economy stagnates. In the last many, many years, we have had controversy following.

“This is how I will make my country rich by 2025” 

This was the message of Prime Minister, Ranil Wicremasinghe stated when he attended the recently concluded “Indian Ocean Conference in Vietnam last week of August 2018. “Our economic policy, Vision 2025, is firmly embedded in several principles, including a social market economy that delivers economic dividends to all”.

The Big Picture 

Power is associated with the Big Picture Vision. But it is not enough to recite the vision, we need to be able to illustrate why achieving that vision is essential, explaining how it is going to happen and be able to take responsibility in its execution, especially when the people of the country, need a sense of direction.

What are the common obstacles to deal with this vision?  

Governments all over the world have a tendency to put too much importance on “anchors,” whether it is the Big Deal or the Big Picture. They manage situations by the ideas of anchoring our policies to what has been tried and tested in many Western Nations. What works for France may not work in Sri Lanka? We are all human, but our culture, our civilisation, our Buddhist philosophy is different. We hope to join ASEAN someday soon. We are not Singapore, nor do we want to be like Singapore? We must have our own identity and proudly we have centuries of civilisation to take our cues.

Often, we tend to give disproportionate amount of importance to what has worked as anchors for other nations. It may work; it may not work for our people. This is one major obstacle to our progress, for our prosperity in the future.

If we take an example from a business proposition, in the purchase of a property the anchor is the price listed as the sale price of the property, others look to their budget as anchor. Still others may have other considerations as yield on the investment.

One way of solution is to list the needs of our country twenty, thirty odd years on and also list the obstacles and challenges we will face. Once we understand what is going to be in our way to achieving our Big Vision, we consider various options, along with the pros and cons of each option. This process forces us to slow down, but simultaneously have “creative visualisation” and consider the situation twenty odd years down the line, instead of getting side tracked by one potential option or piece of data information we have at our disposal.

I am fully cognisant that I am simplifying the process of decision making for an individual and what I consider is essential for governance of a nation. In both situations, we dare not fall by the wayside? We need articulate a vision, a pragmatic plan of action.

Richardo Hausman Professor of Harvard University states today’s technology is composed of three elements: tools, codes and knowhow. He states Sri Lanka’s growth is constrained by weak growth of exports in the last 25 years. He maintains hiring foreign expertise to cure our skills shortages that prevent industries from expanding.

Other obstacles to cure our self inflicted wounds? 

As a small nation, and like all small nations, we assert a sense of overconfidence or excessive optimism or belief in our own judgment. Assessing how to improve the standard of living of our peoples is not an easy task. This does not mean we should not be confident in making plans for our future.

How do we cure our overconfidence? We tend to think “the world is our oyster”. We hardly think through the downside potential and impact of our Big Vision. We dare not give our vision a reality check, to avoid rush decisions.

Whilst we think years ahead, at first we need to give some thought to things over which we have no control. or seem to have no control at all in the present. We attribute these as “Acts of God”. As an island with many rivers, many dams, much rainfall, the first thing that comes to mind is better water resource management. We need a complete rethink of land use. We are very susceptible to disasters such as mud slides, floods and even drought. Our Kings of Old relied on tanks and reservoirs for better water management, because they believed that “disasters were man-made.”

What did we see after the torrential floods in Kerala recently? Gates of dams were opened which had reached dangerously high water levels. They were cited by authorities as an absolute necessary measure to control the floods. Water released from dams ravaged homes and businesses alike. The years of neglect of dams should never have been allowed. They were too full causing the disaster. We should take a lesson from Kerala and prepare well in advance for a calamity of such magnitude. Reservoirs should be drained gradually and much sooner due to our fragile ecology.

On the reverse side of this conundrum, we have seen wastage and division of what little resources we possess in our land? Take for example the division of our small nation, into two nations, two ethnic groups, creating development in one part at the expense of the other. We talked about nation building but never saw the short sightedness of our development policy. There was indeed virtual starvation of resources, including water resource to the parts of our land which needed it most. Today, we are coming to realise that development of the whole of Sri Lanka is an absolute necessity for our survival in the years to come.

Other obstacles to progress? 

Our mindset has to change with the changing times. To succeed and compete in the world of tomorrow, we must find advantage over our competitors. We also need to reward the knowhow of our people and take stock of what we are good at over centuries. It is so much more than undercutting competition. We must add more value in our products and services we produce. We must offer superior quality, as well as exceptional service in a demanding world order. It is as Lord Buddha said centuries ago: “it is only from a state of consciousness that worthwhile peace emanates”.

This will lead us to action and produce result, a plan of action, not just words.

Besides, “Beggars can be choosers.” Wounds do heal if attention is given on time.