by Garvin Karunaratne

Message for Sri Lankan readers

Sri Lanka with other Third World countries has achieved a status of high indebtedness due to following the neoliberal policies embedded in the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF. . In that process its assets and riches are being sucked dry by multinationals, International banks  and Developed Countries. Earlier, the countries had established a development infrastructure to bring about production which has been abolished or made defunct by the machinations of the IMF. However details of that development infrastructure can be of use to develop ailing Great Britain. As far as readers in Sri Lanka are concerned this paper discloses the great value of that development infrastructure and the role that it can play again  in rejuvenating the development  of our Motherland, if that were to ever happen.

Lessons for ailing Great Britain from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

by Garvin Karunaratne

Gone are the days when Great Britain ruled the waves. Then it was truly an Empire where the sun never set. Money in gold and pounds sterling flowed from India-  when the East India Company defeated Shiraj Ud Daulah, the ruler of Bengal. the riches that poured to Great Britain were enormous- Pounds 2.7 million to Great Britain and 1.2 million distributed among the officials.. Between 1757 and 1815, 100 million pounds went from India to Great Britain. This was growth for Britain but destitution for India”(From: Karunaratne: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development) The colonies were made to grow coffee,  rubber, tea and other products that were required for the industries in Great Britain and the goods so manufactured were sold back to the people in the colonies. Britain gained from the trade of tea and coffee. That was the principle on which the colonies were run- to keep the colonies clamped  in poverty with the riches accumulated in Great Britain. With the capital so created Great Britain  was able to build up a Social Security System and a first class National Health Service for its people.  The skyscrapers in London and cities like Liverpool were all built on the capital received from the colonies.

Then Great Britain had great politicians- that could rule the waves and also great administrators.  When the people in Sri Lanka rebelled in 1818  a scorched earth policy was put in force- destroy everything, cut off every tree in bearing and shoot to kill every man.  In my living memory- my holidays were spent on Estates owned by British imperial planters. My uncle was a Head Conductor- that was the highest rank a local could aspire to and I have seen the Superintendents at work. They worked with an iron fist- their word was law. Back in the UK too there were great rulers. It is on legend how Sir Winston Churchill acted to win the World War II. Once Great Britain did not have iron to make weapons. Out went the order, remove all iron gates, iron fences in London. That was done overnight. By the time the owners got up the iron was in the smelting pot being turned into weapons.

Sad to say, those days of action are gone. I have been a student at universities in Edinburgh and Manchester and have worked in London, in Manchester and Edinburgh . Today Great Britain is today full of professionals who can talk,  argue,  present facts in a most articulate manner but to get down to action it is NATO- no action talk only.

The Cities, once the doyen of the World, are now riddled with crime. Cressida Dick, The London Police Chief stated that there are “190 gangs fuelling the violent crime wave,” with 123 murders in 2017. As reported in The Telegraph of 20/10/2017, you are six times likely to be burgled in the British Capital than in New York”- both have a population of 8 million. Many are the No Go areas within Cities. This has been caused by the economic downturn- unemployment and also due to cuts in funding for the Police. Half the Police Stations are closed down and the police cadres  reduced.

When the British people voted to leave the EU because they have had enough of playing second fiddle to Germany and France and found that the EU system was only leading the country no where, the US President Trump advised Britain to go it alone- not to go on bended knees to the EU. Instead the Prime Minister Theresa May went for the last two years on bended knees to the Leaders of the EU and got no where.

Wither bound Great Britain?

In my own life as an automobile owner – all my earlier cars were made in Great Britain- a Hillman Minx,  a Humber Hawk, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Morris Oxford. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in the Sixties, Mr Dudley Senanayake used a Humber Hawk. His Humber Hawk was  brand new. On official visits I as the  Commissioner of a District followed his new Humber Hawk in my ten year old Humber Hawk. That Humber Hawk was a dependable, comfortable great car, comparable to any BMW  today. Yet Britain lost its grip on manufacture. Now Britain does not make a single car. The Land Rover and a few other makes are all owned by foreigners. British workmanship has eroded to nothing. Britain has become a nation of talkers. As a Social Worker in Manchester, a Senior Community Worker in Edinburgh and as a Lecturer at Westminster we did well in providing services, but the economy has grounded to a halt. Today building homes and apartments is talked of as development. There is little talk of manufactures.

In 1980, in Edinburgh,   I was  the Senior Community Education Worker  in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh and  the Warden of Clovenstone Community Center. We then had a repertoire of youth and community development programmes. It is a crime ridden no go area today whereas when I was there I could travel all over even at midnight.

Then, I was also supervising a dozen  lads under the Youth Opportunity Programme(YOP) and the Special Temporary Employment {Programme(STEP) of the Manpower Services Commission, the one and only occasion when Britain tried to grapple with unemployment. The lads were to be acclimatized into community work. They acquitted themselves very well, were very useful and I was struck with their ability. They were all school leavers who failed to  enter the portals of higher studies. They were paid a stipend for two years and thereafter got lost.  The only job they found was to join the army and I later found that some lads had become cannon fodder in foreign countries- sent on gory  missions to boast the glory of Great Britain.

The  greatest programmes of the Manpower Services Commission- the YOP and STEP actually took away two of the most formative years of the life of a youth, leaving them nothing other than  to hog the queues of the Social Security System that gave them a meager living grant. I suggested that instead these youths should be guided to follow a special intensive course in a vocation of their choice- where they would be able to work towards making something that was imported. Many are the Colleges of Education  in Edinburgh that excel in providing  vocational and technical education which train youths for  a year and award them a certificate with pomp and pageantry. Left on their own to find a job in a free market economy with imports being the order of the day, they inevitably fail and have to submit to social security grants and end scraping the barrel for life.

My suggestion- and I  wrote two reports  detailing how the youths under the Manpower Service Programmes, instead of being introduced to all and sundry, should instead follow a few tailor made intensive but a short six months’ courses run by Colleges of Education in an area of their choice where they would after a grounding in basic skills and use of machinery identify  saleable items that can be made,  and make such items as a part of their course. Then the Marketing Lecturers, the professional in economics of the Colleges of Education who normally held courses in marketing on a simulated basis  with  paper and pen, chalk  and talk will take charge and get involved in actually  marketing the product made by the youths offering the chance to enable the youth to build up their abilities in the art of marketing. The Vocational Training Units in the Colleges of Education would continue to guide the entrepreneurs till they are a success. My Report was submitted to the Director of Community Education,  the late Peter Williamson, who full of enthusiasm submitted it for approval by the Education Committee of the Lothian Regional Council. It was intensely debated, but the Labour Party stalwarts wanted to put off its implementation till Labour ruled the country. That was the time when the Conservatives ruled for long.. I was given a commendation and that was all. This happened in 1981.  Labour was not elected for  a length of time. When Labour was in power again, close to a decade later,  and I was available in the UK I approached some Labour Councillors, The ones that were supportive of my ideas had left and those in charge were indifferent.

I thought I was wasting my time doing nothing worthwhile and quit to Bangladesh in two years.

Later,  back from Bangladesh, I was a Lecturer at Westminster Adult Education Institute in London- my job was in community education- to assess the needs of the community, draw up courses of study find suitable lecturers and implement them. The Institute had an array of vocational courses – in painting, ceramics, wood work etc and the trainees were trained and for practice purposes they made many a something that were never saleable. I prepared a Report where I urged that the trainees should be be more intensively trained and taught  to make a saleable product . Then the  econ lecturers of the Institute will guide them in the rigours of marketing and ultimately guide the student to become an entrepreneur.  My ideas were booted out  and that idea died a natural death.

Great Britain has in the meantime continued its way down hill.   It is no longer a manufacturing hub. Germany and France have taken over that role. Its main role is to educate others though its famous universities. These universities are more run with money flowing from foreign lands, mainly Third World countries which have been forced by the IMF to liberalize the use of foreign exchange and get into debt in the process of providing funds for educating children in foreign universities.

This liberalization of the use of foreign exchange and taking loans to pay the loans  was the method by which the Third World countries  were  brought into control as “colonies” once again. This story of how the sovereign countries were once again colonized” is detailed in my book: How the IMF Sabotaged the Development of the Third World.(Kindle/Godages)

Now  the Superpowers are fast losing ground.  . .Britain cannot cope with the hordes of EU immigrants from backward EU countries in search of gold-like the story of Dick Whittington. So are also immigrants from African and Asian countries that somehow struggle, come in boats and brave the seas to settle down. The administrative might of Britain is reflected in the fact that almost a million immigrants who were once documented cannot now be traced. Sadly immigration is out of control.

Little do the Superpowers realize that this mountain of immigration as much as two million to Germany, over a million to Great Britain and millions to other European countries and yet continuing was  really the result of the EU, stalwart countries, Great Britain and the USA(the Super Powers) imposing  the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme on the Third World countries, liberalizing the use of foreign exchange, imposing the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF on those countries which  crippled the development causing  abject poverty with a mass of people who cannot find any means of income/employment. It is they that will go to any extent to get to the rich Developed Countries- they are all economic migrants.  This migration will never end.. (See my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternate Programmes of Success.

The  citizens of Great Britain decided to get away from  being a member of the European Union. Having joined later, Britain had to play a second fiddle  to both France and Germany.,  The people had got sick of Britain as a member of the EU because immigrants from the poor countries of Europe have swarmed in droves, enjoying the social security system  the health services, with Britain failing to cope.     Great Britain   voted to leave. Instead of acting on it in a straight forward manner, calling it a day and going it alone as advised by  President Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May went licking the boots of EU leaders to get privileges for Great Britain.. She came   back empty handed, ridiculed and ignored.

Is there a way out. Can Great Britain become great again and it is for this cause  that Lessons from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka become valuable.

Before the IMF purposely made the Third World indebted, these sovereign countries  were in good economic health- managing on a sustainable basis. The countries managed to run with the incoming foreign exchange, carefully handling it with foreign exchange and import controls and executing development programmes to enable  production and poverty alleviation..  The Super Powers  made them indebted by forcing them to liberalize the use of  foreign exchange- import everything, plush cars- live beyond their means and gave them loans at low interest with even periods of no payment- to entice them, leading them to become indebted, These countries were developing their infrastructure to bring about development, alleviating poverty.

There were many successful infrastructure development programmes, all in disarray today and abolished because the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme banned the Public Sector from attending to development tasks. That was to be done by the Private Sector. That paradigm never worked because the Private Sector had as its motto to make profit.  Development of the country was not in their repertoire. Added was the provision that interest rates had to be high- as much as 25%- putting off all entrepreneurs. Imports from the Superpowers poured in  and development was put on the back burner.

There are a host of successful programmes to talk of.  The Agricultural Marketing Programme of Sri Lanka- purchasing produce at high rates- higher prices than what was offered by the traders, direct from producers and selling in the conurbations at low rates, compelling the private sector shop keepers to sell at low prices was an acclaimed success., It arrested inflation. It had a Cannery that produced many items that stalled imports.  There is the Handloom and Powerloom Industry of Sri Lanka and India that saw to make the countries self sufficient in all textiles.  Thre is the Comilla Pprogramme of Rural Development in Bangladesh which brought about full employment and doubled the yield of paddy in Kotwali Thana in the Comilla District of Bangladesh.  There are more such programmes which have become defunct due to the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme.

:Let me detail two such programmes where I myself created and established them as successes.  This is important because none can say that I speak from hearsay- without facts. Here I was in sole charge in the design and implementation and no one can doubt the success recorded.

Onbe such programme is the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh. I left my post in Community Education in Edinburgh to assume duties as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor in Youth Development in Bangladesh. The Ministry had an array of youth activities in social,  and cultural areas and also provided vocational training to 40,000 youths a year in an array of some thirty vocations. It also had the political wing- the Jatito Juba Sangstha. Like in all countries youth work is highly tainted with politics. I was taken all over Bangladesh and became acquainted with the entire works.

An exact replica of the political upheavals that are currently happening in Sri Lanka there were fisticuffs in the Houses of Parliament in Bangladesh and Parliament  had not met for around a year.  The Minister of Youth hosted  a Chinese delegation with pomp and pageantry at a Five Star Hotel in Dhaka and I can remember the Minister singing Amar Desh, Bangladesh” with everyone joining in. The next morning he was arrested.  In another few days the Military took over the country n a bloodless coup d etat .in one night. The Military viewed youth work activities with scorn,  Within a day or two a meeting was held to abolish or scale down youth activities with The Minister for Labour and Manpower Mr Aminul Islam in the chair. He went through the programmes that were being implemented and was very critical. Realizing me as the only outsider he called for my designation  and when told that I was the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry, asked me what contribution I could make for Bangladesh. I responded that with 40,000 youths being trained annually, with   most of them remaining unemployed at the end, we should have a self employment programme  as an integral part of vocational training to guide the trainees to become entrepreneurs The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest administrator in Bangladesh quoted the miserable failure of an ILO attempt to create a self employment programme  a few years earlier and said that I was suggesting something that could  never be achieved. I contested it and said that though the ILO failed I could assure success. My arguments with the Secretary to the Treasury and a few other Secretaries of key Minstries went on for over two hours till the Hon Minister had enough of it and  stopped all of us arguing. He said that I had convinced him and immediately approved my designing and establishing a self employment programme.  The Secretary to the Treasury said that he will not provide any funds to which I replied that I needed no new funds and will manage the additional work within the approved youth budget.  I started training the staff as well as the trainees the very next day. In the next 18 months, before I left I had established training 2000 youths and of my starter youths easily seventy five percent were all successful entrepreneurs.

I  had trained the entire staff of youth workers in economics and in the art of involving youths in self employment- building their abilities and capacity to struggle to become entrepreneurs.. This Programme is today the premier programme of employment creation the world has known and had guided two million youths to become successful entrepreneurs by 2011., This Programme today guides 160,000 youths a year. It is a hard programme that does not provide funds for nothing. It provided training and youth workers- now turned to be economic development  specialists guided them on a daily basis to success.

This was what I had suggested to implement in Edinburgh. Edinburgh’s failure was Bangladesh’s success.  Great Britain could do with a self employment programme on a national basis making what the country needs by marshalling its youths. Unfortunately youth development has been neglected in Great Britain and many cities have youth unemployment at 40%. . The Colleges of Education have talented lecturers and Community Education officials can provide expertise, but unfortunately that was not to  be.

Another true achievement comes from Sri Lanka. It happened when the Ministry of Plan Implementation refused to approve. Import substitution type of  programmes for implementation in my District. As the Commissioner(called Government Agent in Sri Lanka) of the District, I took over the leading school science lab in the evenings for experimenting  to find the art of making crayons. The Leader was my Planning Officer who was a chemistry graduate. We did a myriad of experiments for close upon three months  working locked up in the science lab and found the art of making crayons. ..

With this success I established a Crayon Factory Cooperative Industry at Morawaka in three weeks working day and night with my Planning Officer and a Development Assistant along with a few katcheri officers training youths in the art of making crayons and in quality control. It was a handmade crayon like most Chinese products today.  This Coop Crayon Factory  was a great success and became the flagship project of the Divisional Development Councils Programme , the major success of the 1970-77 Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo.

I can go on with other programmes of success but will confine myself to these  for now.

Great Britain with its excellence in expertise in Universities and Colleges of Education can easily take on the mantle to get the youths in training to get down to production and to guide them till they are successful. In the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, the premier employment creation programme the world has known the basis was that the lecturers who train the youth  will also guide them if they are willing to venture out to make things for sale. To my own knowledge the Lecturers at Colleges of Education in Edinburgh as well as at Westminister do have the ability to guide their students to become entrepreneurs. I am doubly certain of this fact. The science laboratories in Colleges of Education are far more equipped that the Science lab that I used to find the art of making crayons.  It follows that the Colleges of Education can easily find the method of manufacturing imported items and get going with establishing production cooperatives manned by youths working under the guidance of the Lecturers.

It is necessary  to detail  another essential factor in the task of employment creation. . In Edinburgh, the most successful manufacturing industry was Edinburgh Crystal, a cut glass crystal manufacturer  at Peniquik. Established as far back as 1867, it was a show piece of Scottish workmanship. In 2006, Edinburgh Crystal was purchased lock stock and barrel by Waterford Wedgewood, another Crystal Manufacturer from out of Scotland who inherited its sales, but stopped the Edinburgh Factory. Its trained workforce of some one hundred or more were cast on the heap of the unemployed. On my numerous visits to Edinburgh Crystal I had seen the craftsmen at work. They were really skilled workmen who had been at the task for a large number of years. I consider the closure of such a vibrant and successful manufacturing industry as a national disaster.

On my inquiries I found that Edinburgh Crystal was an industry that was very hale and hearty. It was very profitable and that was the very reason why another multinational had its eyes on it. It was success for the intruder, but a great loss for Scotland.

A similar loss happened in Canada. That was Blue Mountain Pottery of Ontario beginning in 1953. Its animal figurines, vases and jugs etc adorned the show cases at Harrods and Selfridges. Though it was a profitable concern the owners were not satisfied with the profit and closed it down in 2004. I happened to visit it at its closure and spoke to the workers who were being laid out. They were  a hundred or more craftsmen destined to the scrap heap of unemployment though their products have today become well priced collectors items.. This was a great loss for Canada as Blue Mountain had finalized a rare process of fineness in pottery  which could have taken on like the  world famous Lladro of Spain.

The closure of Edinburgh Crystal and Blue Mountain Pottery, both extremely successful enterprises also brings to light the ills of the private sector. In neoliberal economics which UK follows. It has to be understood that the motto of the Private Sector is to make a profit and the development of the country comes second. That is what happened to Edinburgh Crystal. For systematic development of a lasting nature the Private Sector has to be guided by the State. It is the State that is interested in development. The State has to harness the Private Sector for development.

The answer lies in community cooperatives where the workers as well as communities tie up to establish and run manufacturing industries. Here with success the venture stays in the place of origin providing work for the people and the enterprise can be developed. It will not fall a prey to venture capitalists that may acquire and close it down.

In any attempt to bring about employment creation, it is also necessary to plan for the emergence of cooperatives where the community too will be involved as much as the youth of that community will be the workers. Then the industry that is created will have a community base where members of that community will take the lead to work with the workers to ensure success in manufacture and sales. This is found necessary because even worker cooperatives with success on their hands can  move from their area to areas of affluence leaving the area where they emerged.  In this task a major role has to be played by  Community Education as well as by Colleges of Education.

Then the emergence of successful cooperative entrepreneurs can also be assured of support from the community. In WesterHailes if by any chance my suggestions of 1980 had been approved to make entrepreneurs out of the youths in training, able experienced community members were always willing to offer a hand to make them a success. Then once an industry is established it will be the guarded treasure of the community.

An important aspect re cooperatives is that the profits go to the cooperative  and the cooperative workers. The funds in the cooperative are for future development of the cooperative enterprise. The current Model of enterprise development in the capitalist world is the public company, where the capital is provided by nonworking investors who hold shares and  the payment they expect is in the dividends. In the cooperative model there is no profit for non working shareholders.  And the total income is for the development of the enterprise. This is an important factor because in any new enterprise profit margins have to be kept low at the initial stages. Thus in  new enterprise development it is only the cooperative model that can be expected to hold water.

It was the cooperative enterprise model that was followed by Third World countries. In the cooperative model profit making is not the aim. Instead the aim is the development of the country, the creation of employment and bringing about production causing national development.

In development the private sector has to be harnessed for the achievement of development goals. In this connection a further  lesson can be quoted from Sri Lanka. In the Fifties and Sixties the Green Revolution was taking place apace in Sri Lanka and  the country did not have the capacity to mill the paddy to rice. The Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing that handled rice milling imported a few rice mills and installed them at vantage places in the producing areas. Next the Department drafted plans for the establishment of small scale rice mills and called for applications from investors.. The machinery that had to be imported was detailed and the Structures and buildings that had to be built like floor space for the machinery and drying floors were detailed. The private sector entrepreneurs were offered an allocation of foreign exchange to import the machinery. At this time foreign exchange allocations were required for imports. An investor  could come forward and was guided in the investment. I happened to be in charge of the Southern Province and many millers who came forward had to abide by the rules in installation. I supervised the rice mills being installed. The rice miller was given an allocation of paddy on a weekly basis for milling for which he got paid. This was a great success and overnight we built up a capacity to mill the paddy.

This details the  strategy for the State to play a major role in development, harnessing the investors in the country.  This leadership is essential as otherwise individual investors will not find the backing to forge ahead. 

It is also necessary that the different areas in Great Britain do decide on the  engines of growth, depending on available resources.  To start with Great Britain can be divided into England, Wales and Scotland and a group of experts covering industry, community work, engineering and education should undertake to arrive at the engines of growth for the area. For instance in Scotland, Wales and certain areas in England, tourism is an engine of growth. Accomodation has to be made available at reasonable rates. The equal of Premier Inn and Travelodge have to be opened in areas where  there are glorious views. There has to be parking places where tourists can park their vehicles and enjoy the scenery.  Further there have to be facilities provided to motorists to rent recreation vehicles, motor caravans, motor homes to tour the area. The services of institutions like the Caravan Club  with their caravan parks etc  can be enlisted. In every area a group comprising a few  community members, a civil  engineer, a representative of the Caravan Club a representative of the College of Education in the area could draw up what infrastructure has to be provided to encourage tourism.  Similar details have to be worked out on an area basis. Perhaps the City and Regional Councils  can take on this task  of development. 

Creating entrepreneurs out of the cadres that are being trained at Colleges of Education all over the UK be it at Wester Hailes or at Westminster and an attempt to establish Community cooperatives out of the trained with community expertise also playing a role perhaps is a path that can usher economic development, a long felt need.

The question of finding finance   crops up. It is my contention that money can be printed. A major drawback  if the created funds are from print, lies in the idea that this procedure can lead to inflation. Inflation has always to be avoided. It is the experience of the author that funds have to be used on a strict basis. There should not be free grants. Inflation can arise only when money is poured in freely.

An attempt should also be made to find savings in approved budgets. In the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, designed and implemented by me, the most successful employment creation programme the world has known where two million youths were guided to be entrepreneurs by 2011,  the entire expenditure in the first five years was met from savings in approved budgets. The tasks were done by revising the remits of officers, making the lecturers who handled vocational training also handle the task of guiding the trained to become entrepreneurs. This is really feasible.

 In the suggestion I had made to redesign the training programmes of the Manpower Services Commission in Edinburgh,  the extra work in guiding the enterprises would have been undertaken by the staff of the Community Education Service as well as the Colleges of Education in addition to their duties.  It is my experience in handling development work in four countries including Britain, that when something worthwhile is being attempted officialdom in allied institutions willingly handle the new tasks. They are a patriotic lot and patriotism has to be harnessed for development goals to become a reality. 

Such an attempt will bring about production, will reduce imports and  equip Great Britain to face the problems that it will have to face from a departure from the EU.

Leaving the EU alone, such an attempt at employment creation will also put Great Britain on a path to become the manufacturing hub of the world, which it actually was in the last century.

It is my sincere contention that instead of pleading  and begging from the Garniers and  Merkels, an attempt should be made to revive the British economy and things will then move in the right direction.

May this Paper be debated and the ideas suggested be changed as appropriate and developed on to enable the creation of a sustainable economy. Let me hope this could commence in a few areas  like Edinburgh or London or where there will be interested officers in Colleges of Education or Universities.

To my thinking therein lies the path for Great Britain to be great again.

Garvin Karunaratne.

M.A. Sri Lanka, M.Ed Manchester, M.Phil Edinburgh, Ph.D.Michigan State University