A New Approach To Eradicate Poverty In Sri Lanka

By Vasantha Raja -January 30, 2015

Vasantha Raja

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake’s mini-budget (29^th) – with substantial offers to ordinary people – will be most welcome by many. Clearly, the minister must have taken the oncoming parliamentary election into account in designing the budget. However, occasional salary increases and random price-reduction of essential items are neither durable nor eliminate endemic poverty.

The new government’s 100-day program, in contrast, clearly has the potential to make a worthy contribution to Sri Lanka’s unfolding democratic revolution. But, remember, the existing constitution is a hotchpotch of uncoordinated patchwork; therefore, ad hoc changes will not be sufficient to do a solid job. Only a specially designed Constituent Assembly comprising experts and delegates from different communities, in my view, can fix the problem in the future.

Whatever the limitations facing the new administration, one must accept the fact that defeating Rajapaksas’ Mafia-regime electorally is a positive start.

The people of Sri Lanka seem to be already feeling jubilant and free, above all, fearless. This shows that the 8^th of January marks something more than a ‘regime-change’; above all, an apparent ‘leap’ in mass consciousness. In other words, Rajapaksas’ ruthless regime seems to have unwittingly triggered a social backlash that has become irreversible. Perhaps, that’s the most important accomplishment.

*Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake’s mini-budget – with substantial offers to ordinary people – will be most welcome by many. Clearly, the minister must have taken the oncoming parliamentary election into account in designing the budget.Read More