Lanka has only one way out
of bully boy India.
ASOKA S.
One needS to face brutal facts of life no matter how hurtful they can
be, and brutal facts hurt almost always. World's richest man for the
13th year running Bill Gatos's no 1 rule of life is that life is not
fair and accept it and work this unfair system.
Once upon a time until recently India was a rag tag poor nation of
one billion people where cows, bulls and buffaloes fought each other
with men and women in an attempt to share the broken down roads immaterial
of traffic rules. When President Jayawardene liberalized the Lankan
economy in late 1970s many Indians headed south to do duty free shopping
in Colombo as Indian economy was suffering from an overdose of Soviet
style socialism.
That was then. Today's India is far different. Since liberalization
in early nineties India has been on a steady path of gigantic economic
progress thanks mostly to a dynamic IT industry, outsourcing and of
course fueled by the billion human market.It is widely believed that
in a decade or two India will replace many European countries as one
of the most powerful economic powerhouses of the world. Every major
Capitalist Giants such as Microsoft, GE, GM, Mercedes, Dell, Coca Cola,
IBM, and scores of other billion dollar companies are flocking to India
to do business.
No matter what happened in the past the fact is India got its act right
and is well on the way to economic superstardom. It got so powerful
that it has come to dictate where the war weary poor neighbor Sri Lanka
should shop for its arms. Sri Lanka is in great distress and hurting
bad due to a brutal war waged by a megalomaniac in the name of a so
called freedom struggle coupled with opportunistic and incompetent Leaders
from the South. President Rajapaksha is a very troubled leader stuck
between all the big boys including India dictating rights and wrongs
while Rajapaksha try to steer Lanka into peace and prosperity weathering
all the political storms from other parties and some within his own
party. A very tough job indeed.
There is only one way Sri Lanka as a nation can stand on its own without
bully boy India pushing us around. That is get our own house in order
and push for rapid economic progress. This means more and more and more
investment from the labor expensive rich countries just like what India
is doing.
This means also a lot of discipline in the government. Get rid of useless
non productive ministers and streamline down to a few but effective
ministers who will push for rapid investment and growth. Granted it
is difficult to get investors to war troubled Sri Lanka when there a
lots of peaceful countries around where their money can be invested.
The ministers have to be all businesslike geared purely for attracting
investment even if one forth of Lanka has to become a Free Trade Zone.
Ministers should be busy building the country rather than wasting time
and hard public money on opening ceremonies, weddings and useless foreign
travel. People who don't understands hard realities of 21st century
economies should not be nowhere near the cabinet. This includes a lot
of socialists who still believe government should own all business activities.
These individuals live in the economic medieval and are people of a
bygone era. Even communist China and Russia has today become as capitalist
as USA where the free market thrives. To say the least even Chairman
Mao's communist China has a thriving stock market valued over several
trillion dollars.
These are brutal facts Lanka has to face and of course brutal facts
hurt.
President Rajapaksha being a man of common stock and the South probably
understands more than most about hard economic facts and the power of
investment by huge corporations. Vietnam, Bangladesh and even Sudan
is making great strides on this front. The difference is Sudan has turned
to the East for its investments; i.e., the new Asian Tiger economies.
Leave the War in the capable hands of General Fonseka and have the
cabinet focus on rebuilding Lanka's economy. Once you achieve a level
of wealth where we don't need to borrow for our food or arms, the bully
boys are likely to let go their strangulation. Remember nobody touches
the wealthy because wealth brings dignity and power.
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