A lot of money has been spent both in recruitment and on salary increases.

Unless something can be done

about productivity, this isn’t going to generate funds to pay back the loans Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken
when they fall due.
It is stupid to get excited about statistics without looking into what they mean, in other words. We need to
do a bit more thinking on these issues.
Politicians will never tell us the whole story, only what shows their party in the best light. What’s more,
their focus is on the here and now. They have very little incentive to worry about sustainability. As a rule,
just looking as though they are achieving something is enough to satisfy them.
In a way, this is the cause of many of the specific problems Muttukrishna Sarvananthan highlighted.
The Government actually wants people to be dependent on its munificence. If they regard it as their
saviour - or at least the provider of the majority of the goods and services they need - then they may well
vote for it.
Of course, there are a number of things the administration really has to do.
Infrastructure has to be rebuilt. The conflict brought massive destruction to pretty much all of the
Northern Province, and for many places this came on top of years of neglect and decay. Roads need
repairing, as do schools and hospitals. Water supply and irrigation facilities have to be improved and the
power grid has to be expanded.

However, there is no reason for the permanently loss-making Sri Lanka Transport Board to run buses to
Jaffna, when there are plenty of companies and individual entrepreneurs who could do as good a job.
Similarly, the Air Force has experience in running flights, but it need not do so when there are private
operators ready to step in. As for the Army setting up tea shops along the A9, I don’t think I’ve ever heard
anything so ridiculous. Newly resettled people could easily do this while they are waiting to go back to
work in their fields, with a little assistance. Likewise, the state-owned Mercantile Bank of Sri Lanka should
be focusing on giving loans to people who are trying to restart or expand their businesses after the
conflict, not spending time and money building a hotel in Nallur.

One doesn’t need to be a committed private sector development enthusiast to understand that there is
something amiss with these initiatives.

Indeed, we are not talking about economic growth in just any part of the country. This is a region that
was held back due to the conflict. The causes of stagnation may overlap with those seen elsewhere, but
they are not the same.

The focus has to be much more on unleashing the potential of the people themselves.

Bradman Weerakoon, who was one of the other speakers at the Indian Cultural Centre debate, made
some decidedly condescending remarks about the industrious nature of Tamils in support of this
argument. But stereotypes aside, he was right. People of whatever ethnicity - Sri Lankan or otherwise -
will do a pretty good job of looking after their own future if they are given the chance.

This means involving them in the process.

One of the most important and urgent tasks in the Northern Province is the reconstruction of houses,
given the numbers that were reduced to little more than rubble during the conflict. This is something that
newly resettled people should be encouraged to do. They just need money and support in acquiring
materials. Without turning the exercise into a bureaucratic nightmare, the Government should also play a
role in ensuring that vulnerable groups like widows and orphans - of whom it would be silly not to expect
large numbers - are coping.

Above all, people need to know what help they are going to get and when they should expect it.

1
This directs us to what I think is an even more relevant criticism of the “Uthuru Wasanthaya” programme.
It is highly centralised, with decisions being made in Colombo or by its appointed representatives, none of
whom are locals.

Information on what is planned is simply not available on the ground.

This must be particularly disturbing for those who remain IDPs. Having lived through a year of uncertainty
in camps, during which period they were for some unknown reason told as little as possible about what
was going to happen to them, many of them still have no idea. They have to just wait and hope. It is
completely stupid, when the Government could easily decide on a timetable and the benefits they are to
be given and publicise it.

More generally, lack of confidence in the policy framework is behind the delay we see on the part of many
Tamils originally from the Northern Province but now resident elsewhere in the country or abroad in
coming back to start work.

The illogical restrictions that Muttukrishna Sarvananthan noted in his presentation clearly don’t help
either. Maintaining a High Security Zone where by all accounts it is not needed - in the middle of the city -
seems particularly dumb, when all efforts are being made to demonstrate that the situation is getting back
to normal. Likewise, there would appear to be no sensible reason for insisting on clearance from the
Defence Ministry for commercial goods to be transported to Jaffna and for people without Sri Lankan
passports to enter the peninsula.

Such things generate suspicion. After a long conflict, it is hardly surprising that people fear the intentions
of the Government, but this natural tendency is exacerbated by its failure to include them in decision-
making processes.

It is an environment in which the private sector is bound to hesitate.

With the administration showing little awareness of the tasks on which it should be concentrating its
efforts and even less interest in facilitating the work of others, this is rather worrying. Funds can very
easily be wasted or at least not spent in the most effective way.

Of course, this situation could be significantly improved - if undoubtedly not completely solved - with
stronger leadership at the provincial level.

All the speakers at the Indian Cultural Centre debate were careful to stress that they were focusing only
on the economy and not on politics. But of course these subjects cannot be separated. And they shouldn’t
be. How decisions are made and by whom is of vital importance. Avoiding mention of the exclusion of MPs
and other elected representatives from the Northern Province - even members of the ruling coalition - in
the effort to generate an economic takeoff, as Muttukrishna Sarvananthan did, simply will not do.

Both the UPFA and the UNP took this route in the election, it is true. But they didn’t win in the areas we
are talking about.

Politicians from the region should be given the opportunity to demonstrate that limited devolution of the
kind that is already in the Constitution can actually work, if the Government wants to stop people
dreaming of even greater autonomy.

Involving a range of actors from all the main parties in the Northern Province would help in avoiding the
obsession displayed with the public sector. Not all of them would have something to gain.

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Returning to the broader question about the direction of the Sri Lankan economy, Muttukrishna
Sarvananthan was right to draw attention to the problems that surely lie ahead if Mahinda Rajapaksa
persists with the course he set during his first term. The public sector is important, but it cannot be
allowed to grow at such a tremendous rate without any consideration of the implications. We know that it
is a problem. There are already so many people employed and yet not actually working, and the
Government continues to announce plans for further expansion. Eventually, it is going to end in a crisis,
especially when the burden of pensions hits.

This issue deserves much more attention than it is currently getting.

It is almost as vital to the future of the Northern Province as what is being done under the “Uthuru
Wasanthaya” programme. The Government can only go on doing work for as long as there is money
available, after all.

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