EDITORIAL

Waiting for Miracles

Anyone soaking in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's televised statement last Thursday evening might have been forgiven for thinking that somehow, they had heard this before. D‚j… vu, that's what it was. The older folks among us have seen (and in the days of radio, heard) all this before. The only difference now is that the numbers in the debit column are all in the billions and trillions. Those old-fashioned millions rarely get a mention nowadays. Ever since independence, one government after another has come into office only to tell us that the coffers are empty, and that we must put our collective shoulder to the wheel to help make each other's lot better. Oh, and we almost forgot: while putting our shoulders to the wheel, we must also tighten our belts.

No doubt the cynics among the prime-time Rupavahini audience switched channels with a cynical aside that it has taken Wickremesinghe a full seven months in office to realise what the electorate knew already an year ago: that the PA had bankrupted the nation. What everyone was agog to hear was what the prime minister intends to do about it. While Wickremesinghe did sketch a few proposed solutions, there was little by way of concrete action. He promised to cut red tape in order to get the private sector moving; to minimise the budget deficit so as to reduce interest rates and stabilise the rupee; to divide Sri Lanka into five new economic zones to better manage development; and to cut government expenditure to the bone: all to the good.

There was little however, in the premier's speech, to offer the prospect that the nation would soon sleep on a full stomach. The government's biggest headache is the national debt of almost Rs. 1.5 trillion, the servicing of which is crippling the economy. All government savings such as the EPF and ETF have now been exhausted, and short of printing money and entering into an inflationary spiral, short-term options are few. Ironically, the only way to go forward is to go further into debt. For the first time in post-independence history, government has this year effectively paid public service salaries from foreign aid: that is the level of insolvency to which we have sunk. Despite seven months of UNF government and much talk of kick-starting the economy, action so far has been limited mainly to talk. This simply will not do.

To his credit, Wickremesinghe took the nation into confidence, saying that he did not seek office so as to win cheap popularity. "I might well be unpopular," he said, adding, "I took this job to improve your lives, not to become popular." As he is wont to do, he emphasised that no false promises would be made. What is more, he made no reference whatever to the People's Alliance or Chandrika Kumaratunga, choosing instead to point a finger at them only implicitly by using 1994 as the baseline year for his economic statistics. Of course, everyone knows now that things were much better, war, assassinations and all in 1994, than today.

Pointing to a Rs. 40 billion debt by public corporations, Wickremesinghe hinted that debt giants such as the Petroleum Corporation, Electricity Board and CWE will be privatised. Such actions however, will be no more than sops. The crisis that affects Sri Lanka today is one of governance and leadership. This nation can be put back on the path to progress only by the prime minister getting a grip on his government and its administration. With a majority as slender as his is in parliament, it is becoming increasingly clear that internal discipline is at an all-time low.

What the country needs most from Wickremesinghe is not economic miracles by way of pulling rabbits out of hats: everyone knows there are no quick fixes to this mess. What it needs most is a perception that an honest job is being done. After seven months in government the UNF is still to start work on a single major development project. The government machinery has seized up, and even the Upper Kotmale Hydro Project, set to start three months ago, has ground to a halt thanks to Jayasuriya, Thondaman and the Maha Nayakes. The issue is now stuck with another of those committees that are fast becoming the hallmark of the UNF administration.

With the PA it was government by commission. With the UNF it is government by committee, leading inevitably to delays in action which is the crying need of the hour.

As we have said so many times before, the need of the hour is governance and leadership. Wickremesinghe must demonstrate to the country that he is in charge. There is a rapidly growing perception that the government has no unity of purpose, no guiding policy and no drive. It is up to the prime minister to provide these. It will not do for Wickremesinghe to stand idly by as his ministers set about behaving like a bunch of thugs and hooligans. He must rein them in, direct and monitor their performance, and ensure that every ministry is doing its job. This can only be done by setting targets they must achieve within a time frame. Obstructionists and saboteurs must go, and if it brings the government down, too bad. The motto must be facere aut discede: do or depart.

The foreign investment the prime minister so desperately wants in order to kick start the economy will only come if there is a perception that quite apart from peace, the government is delivering governance. More than legislation and regulation, this involves the courage at least to pay lip service to the need for bitter medicine. The perception of Sri Lankans as a welfare-hungry and lazy workforce must be changed through recognising the need for flexibility in the labour market and the reduction of wasteful public holidays. Discipline must be enforced on the roads. Government servants must be made at least to come to work on time. Ministers must work strictly by a code of conduct. Unnecessary foreign travel whether by ministers or senior public officials must be stopped: many ministry secretaries are more abroad than in Sri Lanka. Government service should be trimmed to the bone, eliminating all unnecessary jobs. One way to do this fast would be to cancel all cadre positions presently vacant, giving only when absolutely necessary, short term contract employment rather than lifetime-tenure to government servants. This will ensure better productivity and discipline.

It is only by an exercise of leadership, discipline and governance that Wickremesinghe can make a true difference. The sands of time do not stand still, and 10% of his maximum term has already gone. Even if he cannot restore prosperity in the near term, he must establish the work ethic in Sri Lanka. It is only through labour, dedication and productivity that we can climb out of this quagmire of stagnation, and the prime minister's task is to put the nation to work, starting with his ministers. Economic recovery will then follow as surely as day follows night.