Editorial

That 5cents Worth Of Aid

Shakespeare's winter wind might not have been so unkind as man's ingratitude, but Chandrika Kumaratunga's sure is. Last week, our worthy President, who has made it her custom from time to time to shower some mirth into our dreary lives in these dark days, informed us that Sri Lanka has not received five cents in foreign aid following the tsunami. Except for the Rs 1.1 billion that has come into the President's Fund and "some money" that came into the Prime Minister's fund, we have received from the world at large only words, not deeds.

We need to take Kumaratunga seriously given she, after all, unlike the rest of us, has a make believe PhD in economics and can presumably therefore, add. Her Treasury Secretary, P. B. Jayasundera, who not only has a PhD but a certificate to prove it, recently informed parliament that the country has received $700 million in overseas cash aid for tsunami relief. Of course, a lot more assistance has been pledged, but can only be delivered after the planning process, feasibility studies and project reports are ready. People simply are not falling over one another to thrust blank cheques into Kumaratunga's hands especially now that her mishandling of the President's Fund has been laid bare by none other than the Auditor General.

Notwithstanding that, Lakshman Kadirgamar has travelled to London at taxpayer's expense to thank the British Government for their munificent assistance to Sri Lanka in her hour of need. One presumes the British alone coughed up more than 5›. Indeed, they have: in both cash and kind. But the problem for Kumaratunga is that few people are channelling their aid into Kumaratunga's fund, and for good reason, too. It was only a few months ago that the Auditor General, no less, slammed the management of the President's Fund, claiming that millions had gone missing. No one knows into whose pockets this cash went.

Foreign donors are determined that their money will go to the victims of the tsunami, and not into the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt politicians or a Bahamas account similar to the one held by the President's closest confidant, Ronnie Pieris. To this end, they are treading with extreme caution, for they have it on Kumaratunga's own word that almost everyone in this country (except her, of course), is rotten to the core: from cabinet ministers to Supreme Court judges. Who then, can they trust? Judging by the aid that has come, most donors seem to prefer to give their money directly to affected communities, either directly or through NGOs. They know that giving money to the Kumaratunga administration is about as useful as flushing it down the loo.

Kumaratunga herself has been seen in the newspapers accepting fat cheques from donors of all nationalities and complexions. There seems to be a problem in the accounts however, for she now claims she got less than 5›. Where then, did those millions of dollars go? Into whose handbags or pockets did they flow? This is something the President would do well to determine before appealing to more donors for more funds.

Kumaratunga's obsession however, is not so much about mulcting more dollars from beneficent donors as about staying in power, for which she is now preparing to hold a referendum so as to frame an excuse. She has had 10 years to abolish the executive presidency - something she pledged to do by July 15, 1995 - but has clung grimly on to its powers. Having been Executive President for a decade, little does she realise that a mandate to abolish this office would be tantamount to an indictment on her own performance. No surprise, really, given that her promise of bread at Rs 3.50 tastes sour indeed to an electorate that now has to cough up Rs. 21 for a loaf of not quite 450 grams.

So, fudging her way through, and claiming that the 400,000 people displaced by the tsunami are all happy and content now, this Mother of All Liars carries on regardless, preparing to feather her own bed at the people's expense and thereby remain in office beyond the constitutionally set two terms. And to spend Rs. 700 million of the people's money in holding a non-binding referendum: well, that's stayin' alive, Bandaranaike style.

Tsunami And The Environment

Hot on the heels of the tsunami, the Environmental Foundation (EFL) put out a glossy brochure titled, Rebuilding After The Tsunami: How To Get It Right. Its eight pages of advice were addressed to the government (and opposition), and widely circulated amongst movers and shakers, both political and administrative. The legal eagles of EFL no doubt hoped that the brochure would serve as a clarion call to the Kumaratunga administration to pay heed to environmental concerns in rebuilding after the tsunami.

They might have done better to give the costs of the brochure to the deserving poor. By executive order, Kumaratunga has prohibited construction within 100 metres of the shoreline in Sinhala areas, and 250 metres of the shoreline in Muslim and Tamil-dominated areas. How this disparity came about in a nation that claims by sovereign constitutional right to be egalitarian defies imagination. Today, almost three months after the tragedy, tens of thousands of people continue to live in tents: they are forcibly prevented from returning to their homes. Worse still, the people within the 100 metre limit (mostly fisher-folk) are now being told that they will be given seven perches and a 500 square foot house way inland - and even that is only a promise. So was bread at Rs. 3.50.

Regardless of the government's action or lack of it, it is certain that the people of Sri Lanka will rebuild. Despite government apathy, foreign donors and NGOs are pumping in millions of rupees into the reconstruction effort, an effort the government is doing everything it can to cripple with bureaucracy. The wheels of TAFREN, if they grind at all, grind exceedingly slow.

Nevertheless, as EFL's Chairman, Dr. Lalith Wikramanayake points out, we simply must get it right. Doing so however, involves more than just the aesthetics of the shoreline. It means giving people access to clean water while not drawing groundwater levels so far that even more seawater seeps into the coastal aquifers. It involves planning effective sewage disposal systems so that raw sewage is not dumped in the sea. It extends to promoting renewable energy and separating and recycling solid waste. Yet, none of this has entered the government's planning process: after all, the government has only 5› to its credit.

Sri Lanka needs to also plan and brace itself for the enormous surge in demand for building materials, something that has already begun. The impact on natural resources will have far-reaching environmental implications. If the millions of cubes of sand needed for reconstruction were to come from rivers and coastal sand-dunes, the environmental consequences could be worse than those of the tsunami itself. We need to look to mining offshore sand, assuring both environmental and engineering safety. We need to watch for the demand of limestone, which already claims tens of thousands of tonnes of coral annually off the south-west coast.

And even as environmental tragedy looms, the Central Environmental Authority is paralysed. Its chairman (none other than Tilak Ranaviraja - Kumaratunga's jack of all trades and master of none) is at odds with its Director General, Manel Jayamanne, a professional planner. Its Director, Ashley de Vos, a staunch Kumaratunga acolyte, is also president, Wildlife and Nature Protection Society.

Nevertheless, among the environmental NGOs, it has been only EFL that has made a serious attempt to make post-tsunami Sri Lanka a better place. And they have their work cut out for them: right on the beach at Unawatuna, well within the 100-metre zone, the government is now constructing a factory, with the blessings of the CEA, Ashley de Vos and all. With 'guardians' such as these - and with PERC about to sell the Eppawela phosphate deposit and the Ministry of Finance poised to sign up to the American tropical forest act - it would seem that the zealots of the Environmental Foundation have their work cut out for them in keeping the Kumaratunga administration from making even more of a pig's breakfast of our environment.