By Garvin Karunaratne
The experience of the
Divisional Development Councils Programme(DDCP) of Sri Lanka(1970-1977) is
currently of great importance in today’s situation of unemployment and also the
inability to import goods due to the lack of foreign exchange. This is because the DDCP is a programme
that really creates employment. Further it is important to note that the DDCP
was entirely implemented with local Rupees.
Foreign funds were only required to import dyes for the Crayon Project
and the amount of dollars spent to import dyes saved a vast amount of dollars
that would have had to be spent on importing crayons. The DDCP is a blue print that can be
immediately implemented almost entirely with existing staff and it can get into
production mode within months.
There
are very few employment creation programmes in the world. What one can find are
training programmes which provide training but do not include placing the
trained in an income generating project, including guidance till the project-
either on a self employed basis or a cooperative endeavour, is successful. The
DDCP included all the elements of vocational training in an on the job manner
and active intensive guidance, ending in the trainee becoming self employed or
cooperatively employed in production. The key element is that success was judged
in terms of commercial viability.
Another important factor in assessing the DDCP
lies in the fact that the DDCP created employment for the drop outs of the
education system. In any country, the education system provides knowledge and
training and those who are very successful enter the universities or institutes
of higher addressing the current situtaion of unbemployment and education to
attend to further studies. The next lot that get pass marks at secondary
school, but fail to enter further studies enter the job market and find
employment. Those who are not successful in the education system and who do not
get pass marks are classified as the drop outs and they continue to do menial
jobs or continue to be unemployed, scraping the barrel, for life. The DDCP
dealt with. the youths who are in the third category- i.e. the drop outs and
therein lies its greatness.
Training on the job, ending in being fully
occupied in a cooperative enterprise, or being self employed, in both cases
being engaged in income generation activities is what the DDCP attended to. The
fact that drop outs of the education system were concentrated on gives the DDCP
a great place among development programmes.
The DDCP was the flagship of the Sirimavo
Government of Sri Lanka during the period 1970 to 1977. It had very wide and
visionary aims in keeping with the Manifesto of the United Front that won the
1970 parliamentary election . It was ” to transform the administration
thoroughly, make it more democratic and link it closely with the people”
As stated by Dr N.M.Perera, the Hon. Minister of
Finance, in the Budget Speech 1973: The main objective of this Programme is to
create employment opportunities in the rural areas through small scale projects
in agriculture, industry and the provision of infrastructural facilities, making
use of the resources available locally: increase national production and
involve the people in national development work.”
The chief aim of the DDCP was to create
employment for the youth. As stated in the 1970 Budget Speech it was ” to
fulfill the aspirations of thousands of young men and women for whom life will
lose all meaning unless they can find a useful place in our society.”
In actuality the DDCP was a crash programme with
the objective of creating 100,000 jobs within the first year of the new
government.. It was a socialist government that took office in 1970 and in
keeping with the aims of the Government as reflected in The Five Year Plan of
1970, the aim was to lay the foundation for a further advance towards a
socialist society”.
Professor H.A.de S. Gunasekera, the eminent
professor of economics at the University of Peradeniya was handpicked to lead
the programme and he was appointed as the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry
of Plan Implementation. The main charge of the Ministry was the implementation
of the DDCP.
The DDCP got off to a grand start. The Ministry
of Plan Implementation was specially created for the purpose of planning and
implementing the DDCP. Great prominence was accorded to the Programme. Even a
helicopter was placed at the disposal of Professor Gunesekera, for him to
travel to the various Districts. This was the first time that an administrator
was accorded this privilege.
At the District level, the Government Agent, the
head of the District was held responsible for this programme.
A Divisional Development Council was established
in each division and these Councils were chaired by the Divisional Revenue
Officer, later renamed Assistant Government Agent. A number of Graduate
Assistants were posted to each AGA area and there was a Graduate Assistant for
each Council. The Graduate Assistants were recruited specially for this DDCP.
This category was recruited from among unemployed graduates.
Popular participation was foremost in the mind
of the Government. As Peris and Nilaweera state
” these councils were expected to enable popular
participation in which the elected bodies of the village- the cooperative
society, the cultivation committee, the village council could have a role in
planning and coordinating the overall development of the area.” (Rural Poverty Alleviation in Sri Lanka, 1983)
The Plan also included organizing agricultural,
industrial, fisheries and other income generating projects and for obtaining
the maximum participation of the people in the planning, operation and management
of the projects. The Divisional Development Council was the method of eliciting
the participation of the people in planning their own development.
The monthly meetings of the Council were held
regularly and were attended by all the officers at the divisional level,
representatives of all village level bodies and also by officers from the
district level. Thus it was a body that could attend to the total planning of
all development tasks at the divisional and village level.
Each Council was allocated Rs. 200,000.00 to be
spent within the first two years. Of this, 35% was earmarked for agricultural
projects. However specific approval had to be obtained for each project from
the Ministry of Plan Implementation and the feasibility of each project was studied
in great detail. Special grants were given amounting to 35% of the total cost
including capital costs and working capital. For instance in the case of the
Gohagoda Agricultural Project of the Kandy District, an average project, the
capital cost was Rs. 65,000.00, the working capital Rs. 34,000.00 and the grant
allowed was Rs. 32,000.00. By 1976, the penultimate year of this Programme, as
much as Rs. 127 million had been spent on various projects.
While it was hoped that the Councils would be a
coordinating body for all development work it was also projected that each
Council would have to initiate and manage special projects where youths would
be offered employment. What was new in the DDCP was that new projects were to
be approved where youths would be enlisted, trained and guided to be employed
in income generating projects.
In these projects, the youths were to work with
community support where community leaders would help the enterprises. Earlier
there were multipurpose cooperatives at the village level with an apex body- a
cooperative union at the divisional level. What was new with the DDCP was the
thrust of community cooperatives at economic development. Earlier the multi
purpose cooperatives only attended to the distribution of essential food, the
purchase of paddy, providing credit and supplies for agricultural pursuits. In
addition there were industrial cooperatives established for making furniture
and for crafts. There were Power Looms
established on a cooperative basis.
The Achievement
By 1972, the DDCP was implemented islandwide. By
1973, 590 Councils were fully established and these Councils had submitted 1900
projects proposals of which 900 projects were approved and special allocations
of funds were made for their implementation. All these projects were planned
from the grass root level. These projects comprised 341 agricultural projects,
512 industrial projects and 47 infrastructural projects. Nearly 2000 acres were
brought under cultivation, 68 poultry projects with a bird population of
150,000 were established and this enabled 7904 persons to find employment at an
expense of Rs. 4.2 million. Over the period 1970 to 1976, a total of Rs. 127
million was spent and 33,271 jobs were created. Some of these offered only part
time engagement.
The work of the Councils concentrated on
developing these projects. The role of planning and coordinating the total
development in the division gradually receded to the background and was
ultimately forgotten. The Assistant Government Agent of the division already
attended to the function of planning and coordinating all development work at
the divisional level. He continued to do this work. Projects were planned and
established in all districts. There was a duplication of work because many of
the industrial projects approved for the Divisional Development Councils were
in crafts, an area that also came under the Small Industries Department. There
were a few non craft industries like ceramics. In agriculture, the thrust was
at establishing cooperative farms and this was a new feature. The services of
the Department of Agriculture was obtained for this purpose. In most
agricultural and industrial projects the youth workers were able to draw good
incomes.
Of special mention is the Paper Making Project
in Kotmale in the Nuwara Eliya District where paper and cardboard making was
commenced using waste paper and straw. This was a success till it was closed
down by the new Government of 1977 which ran down the working and the
achievement of the DDCP purposely.
In the Galle District progress was made in
agricultural farms and in the manufacture of farm implements. The Baddegama
Assistant Government Agent, Wilson Perera was provided with four Graduate
Assistants and 12 Project Officers. The latter were officers with experience in
the particular vocation whose services were sought and they had been seconded
for service for the DDCP. Their task was to work with the cooperative workers
on a participative basis, teaching youths the essential elements of
entrepreneurship in producing and marketing the products. It was hoped that the
youths would eventually acquire the ability and capacity to manage the
cooperative industry or agricultural farm on their own on a commercially viable
basis, when the Project Officer would leave them and revert to their own
substantive post or be posted to lead another DDCP project. Thereafter the
youths were expected to function on their own steam.
The development work done in Baddegama Council
area included establishing a cooperative farm with 60 youths . At the very
inception a neglected old farm was taken over. Its factory was repaired and a
part of it was converted into residential quarters, 12 acres of neglected
rubber was rehabilitated and tapping commenced, 40 acres of neglected tea was rehabilitated,
20 acres of jungle land was cleared and coconut saplings planted, 50 acres of
neglected paddy land was rehabilitated and brought under regular cultivation.
In addition, in 1975, a housing scheme was launched for the cooperators.
Similar farm projects were established in most Districts.
The Baddegama Farm Project was a great success
till it ran into political problems. The DDCP was a socialist concept and
engineered by the Marxist group of Ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers. These
included Dr N.M.Perera, the Minister of Finance. These Ministers left the
Government in 1975 and thereafter less emphasis was Placed on this Programme.
The DDCP was implemented islandwide but I will
confine myself to detail what was achieved in my District, Matara, to
illustrate what the SLFP and its ally the LSSP stood for.
In the Matara District, where I was the
Government Agent many projects were planned and implemented. The projects
included garment making, batik dyeing, crafts, pre-stressed concrete, sewing
industry projects etc. The sewing and craft projects were a replica of what was
done by the Small industries Department.
A Batic Dyeing Cum Sewing Project was initiated
in Morawaka where employment was offered to twenty girls. Batic Dyeing Training
was at that time not done by any State Department or institution and it
continued to be within the private sector with a very high margin of profit. The
Sewing and Batic Dyeing Unit was a great success.
In agriculture in the Matara District, virgin
crown land was identified, jungles cleared, the land graded and brought under
cultivation. A number of farms were established and the cooperator youths drew
good incomes by cultivating cassava, ginger and other crops for which there was
a market demand. The youth cooperators were taught details of crop planning,
preparation of the land for cultivation, planting, , crop care, harvesting and
marketing. All of these aspects were taught on the job as they engaged in the
various tasks. The entire approach was participatory as detailed earlier in the
case of the Baddegama Council in the Galle District. The aim was to make the
youths think and thereby enhance their ability and capacity to get to working
on their own. This included training in the management of every aspect of their
cooperative enterprise.
The Councils in the coastal
areas of Weligama, Matara and Dondra had submitted projects for making inboard
fishing boats. It was difficult to obtain approval for these projects from the
Fisheries Ministry, the one Ministry that should have been interested.. Two
projects for Matara and Dondra Councils were approved with the greatest
difficulty. The Boatyard for Matara was established in 1972 and manufactured
twenty four, 30 ft inboard motor boats a year. This was the first cooperative
boat building project in the entire island and the cooperator youths were
taught full details on the job from the selection of timber, tracing the
templates, seasoning timber, cutting and fitting the timber and fixing the
engines etc. The trainees had been trained in carpentry and they learned the
manufacture of the boats on the job. The boats were sold to fishermen in
cooperatives. This Boatyard Project was ably handled by the Assistant
Government Agent, Ran Ariyadasa and Kumarasiri, the Graduate Assistant. This
industry was an acclaimed success till it was closed down in 1978 by the newly
elected UNP Government which wanted to discredit the DDCP.
Other important industrial units established
included a Hand Made Paper Unit at Yatiyana, an industry that has survived to
this day(2009), recycyling used paper from government offices. At Kekanadure,
an industry making agricultural implements was established in a village which
was traditionally associated with the industry. This industry exists till
today(2009).At Talpawila training in pottery was imparted to youths and a
pottery industry was successfully established.
A Pre-Stressed Concrete Factory was established at Talpawila which made
concrete pipes and posts of all types. This industry exists and currently
employs 40 youths.
The Morawaka Council submitted a proposal to
establish a Water Colour Paint making project, A Feasibility study was made by
the Industrial Development Board at our request. The project was aimed at
avoiding imports. There was no resource in the area for this industry other
than labour, but that was the strategy used by Japan and Singapore in their
industrial development. The Ministry of Plan Implementation rejected this
application. Instead of import substitution type of projects the Ministry of
Plan Implementation was advising us to concentrate on brick making, tile making
and crafts- the areas where the Small Industries Department had made inroads
with great success.. In the private sector there were plenty of tile and brick
making factories. The Ministry was not interested in establishing any
import-substitution type of industries. Though we had submitted various proposals
for Import-substitution type of industry they were all thrown into the dustbin.
I therefore decided to plan and establish a cooperative industry on my own. I
was ably assisted by the Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, who happened to be a
chemistry graduate and Chandra Silva a resourceful officer who was the District
Land Officer. He was working on the DDC Projects in addition to his duties. A
graduate trainee Dayananda Paliakkara was specially selected to handle this
task.
In my work as the Deputy Director of Small
Industries I had approved many new industries to be established and I had
directed all my officers that they should investigate when they go for
inspections and be certain that the entrepreneur actually manufactured the
product. On my inspections too I saw that the items were really produced. This
was done because there were people who pretended to have industries in an
attempt to secure allocations of foreign exchange, import and sell the goods in
the market instead of engaging in production. I had approved an industry to
make water colours and was familiar with the process of manufacture. According
to my opinion crayons was allied to making water colours. I decided that this
could be an area for action. At that time easily 90% of the country’s
requirements were imported and if we succeeded we will be creating employment
for the unemployed and at the same time cutting off imports. The import content
of the ingredients was easily less than 20% and this looked ideal..
After we had done some initial experiments and
was hopeful of success, we had to obtain the services of a laboratory. I spoke
with Mr Ariyawamsa, the Principal of Rahula College, the premier educational
institute in the District. I knew a number of science teachers at this College,
who offered ideas. Mr. Ariyawamsa readily agreed to allow us to use the College
science laboratory for experiments to find out the technical process for the
manufacture of crayons. We were also helped by the Science Inspector Mr.
Rajapaksa. I had heard about the working of the Land Grant system in the USA
where the Universities offered their technical expertise to bring about
national development.
Pooling the knowledge of every scientist that
was available, led by our Planning Officer,Vetus Fernando it did not take long
to find out the exact proportions of each ingredient that had to be used and to
arrive at the real process of manufacture. The process was gradually mastered,
but the crayons were not firm enough and Vetus Fernando, the Planning Officer
who happened to be a chemistry graduate of the University thought it best to
obtain the help of the Chemistry Department of the University of Sri Lanka,
from where he had graduated a few years earlier. Vetus spent a number of days
beseeching and begging his professors but none of them were interested in
offering any advice.
If any one of the dons had to spare an hour or
two to have a careful look, to think of how it could be solved and try a few
experiments- that was all that was required. This was a situation where a Land
Grant University like Michigan State would have taken on the mantle of
development very willingly. But sad to say our Universities are more engrossed
with training graduates rather than been concerned about the role they could
play in the development of the country. We continued experiments at the Lab at
Rahula College and mastered the art of making crayons in around a further month.
Once the process of manufacture had been
finalized I had to decide how we would proceed with the manufacture. It had to
be a cooperative structure. Further it had to be done with a great deal of
secrecy because I was not expected to be establishing new industries without
the approval of the Ministry of Plan Implementation. Though as the Government
Agent of the District I controlled vast funds; each vote had a definite remit
which had to be meticulously adhered to in spending. Finally I decided to trust
Mr Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya, an electorate
in my District. He was also the President of the Morawaka Cooperative Union and
in that capacity he had access to the funds held in the Cooperative Union which
we could use as capital for the necessary expenses. However he had no authority
to use the funds for a new industry. This was a deadlock that had to be
surmounted.
As the Government Agent of the District I was
gazetted as a Deputy Director for Cooperative Development. This had been done
with the idea of the Government Agent supervising the Assistant Commissioner of
Cooperatives and the work of the Cooperative Department in the District for the
purpose of implementing the agricultural development programme. I usurped the
full powers of a Deputy Director of Cooperatives and ordered the President of
the Morawaka Cooperative Union to use funds available with the Coop Union and
establish the industry and get down to manufacturing crayons.. Sumanapala
Dahanayke the President of the Coop Union, the maverick he was, readily agreed
and we got down to establish the industry. Twenty unemployment youths were
recruited and the Coop Union purchased the necessary equipment. More youths
were employed for packing and handling.
The industry was established and we got down to
the making of crayons; labels and boxes were hastily printed and crayons
packets were produced to fill a large room. This was done very quickly, working
day and night because secrecy was a prime necessity. It was a grand task where
every one- officers and cooperators pitched in to work as a team- working day
and night. If the Ministry of Plan Implementation got wind of the project they
could stop it forthwith, hold an inquiry and punish me. The task was to
establish the manufacturing unit, make good quality crayons and to show them to
key Cabinet Ministers and get them involved so that they could stand up for me
in case I ran into a problem for acting
on my own without Ministry approval. The Minister for Industries Mr
T.B.Subasinghe was surprised when shown the crayons that were produced and
readily agreed to open the sales. With that we felt safe. With the inauguration
of the sales, the industry came to the open and the success in production and
sales amply justified the fact that no Ministry approval had been obtained. The
Ministry of Plan Implementation had to eat humble pie and finally the crayon
factory, established without authority in a most clandestine manner, gained the
full approval of the Government. Ultimately the Coop Crayon industry
established by Sumanapala Dahanayake in his capacity as the Presidenbt of the
Morawaka Cooperative Union produced around a tenth of the crayons that Sri
Lanka required. became the flagship
industry of the DDCP.
The only import item in the ingredients that
went into the manufacture was dyes and at the initial stages we obtained dyes
at black market prices from the open market. The Ministry of Industries was
requested for an allocation, but they said that they had no foreign exchange to
be allocated to cooperatives for this purpose. An year earlier as Deputy
Director of Small Industries I was personally in charge of allocating foreign
exchange for small industries and I could have given an allocation for any
cooperative. The personnel in the Small Industries Department and the Ministry
of Industries were not prepared to bend the rules for the sake of national
development. Finally we had to beseech the Controller of Imports, Harry
Guneratne. The Controller of Imports allocated funds for the import of crayons
and readily agreed to my suggestion to allocate funds for the import of dyes
and to reduce the allocation for imports accordingly. Guneratne had the
capacity to understand that in a crayon the import constituent was only 5 to
10% and he was making a real saving in foreign exchange to the extent of 90%.
The Minister of Trade, Mr T.B.Illangaratna, whose authority was sought, too readily
agreed. He was surprised with the quality of the crayons and it ended with a
request from him that we should commence a crayon factory in Colombo. We put
off that request for the moment stating that we would do that after our crayon
industry was fully established on a commercially sound footing.
This crayon industry was a grand success which
paid up the total outlay in the first six months of its operation. After I left
the Administrative Service in April 1973, the industry continued under the able
direction of the Government Agent of the District and Sumanapala Dahanayake the
President of the Coop Union till 1977 when the new Government interfered. Any
good industry established by the former government was anathema to the new
Government and the new Government sent a Deputy Director of Cooperatives,
N.T,Ariyaratne with specific instructions to find fault with this industry so
that they could take action against Sumanapala Dahanayake, the President of the
Coop Union, the earlier member of parliament, who had established the industry
under my direction and had with the youth cooperators managed it in a
commercially viable manner. Mr Ariyaratne had found the industry in proper
order fully commercially viable and reported that the industry was an asset and
this saved Mr. Dahanayake.
However, the crayon industry had to close down
due to the onslaught of imports under the free trade policies of the new
Government. At its heyday from 1972 to 1977 this crayon industry did produce
around a tenth of the crayon requirements of the country and it could easily
have been developed to produce not only the country’s entire requirements but
could have even be developed to build up an export trade.
. In any country when a successful industry is
established it should be closely supported and guarded in the national
interest. Not so in Sri Lanka, when political rivalry raises its ugly head..
As stated earlier the Marxist Ministers led by
Dr N.M.Perera leaving the Government in 1975 led to the Government de-
emphasizing the DDCP. With the free market and liberalization policy followed
by the new Government the death knell of the DDCP was sounded. In the Budget
Speech of 1978, it is said that though as much as 2619 projects were approved,
666 projects never got off the ground and of the balance approximately 700
closed down by 1976, of the remaining 700 only 5% were found viable, and as
much as 72% of the agricultural projects had failed. This was more a part of
the tirade that the new Government had toward the DDCP flagship of the former
Government.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Many are the weaknesses and the strengths of the
DDCP.
The weaknesses are many. As pointed out earlier,
the Ministry of Plan Implementation was approving only traditional and craft
type of industry and agricultural farms and was shy of approving new import
substitution type of industry. Perhaps the Ministry was frightened to march
into new areas of activity because any failure would reflect badly. Imports eat
into our available foreign exchange and also cause our people to be unemployed.
Concentrating on crafts and basic traditional industries amounted to
duplicating the work done by the Small Industries Department that had been
active earlier. The Ministry should have actually taken the forefront to plan and
establish import substitution type of industries.
Another weakness was that the Programme solely
depended on worker cooperatives and left the private sector totally alone. If
the private sector had been activated in addition, then it would have been a
case of walking on two legs.
The main weakness lies in the Parliamentary form
of party political governance system where when a new political party comes
into power it throws away all the programmes and policies of the earlier
government irrespective of successes. In the process, the baby is also thrown
away with the bath water.
The Strengths lies in the few projects that were
successful. These commercially viable ventures helped the national economy.
Their production did save foreign exchange that would have been incurred in
imports. The fact that employment was made available for the cooperative
entrepreneurs is also of key importance.
An additional strength was the educational
process of building up the abilities and the capacities of the participants and
making them self-reliant entrepreneurs, able to stand on their own feet. This
was due to the strategies of community development and non formal education
which we used. At that time administrators who worked in the Rural development
Department and that included the Government Agents of the Districts and the
Assistant Government Agents in charge of Divisions had come to follow community
development strategies and principles. We administrators had not even known the
word non formal education, but we thought it best that we work with the
trainees in a truly participatory manner, so that they could learn on the job.
In the planning and implementation of the DDCP
the Ministry of Plan Implementation did not give us any instructions as to how
we should adopt a participatory approach. However the officers under the
Government Agent included those who had worked for long under the Rural
Development Department which attended to rural development work with the
participation of the people. This Rural Development Department was our
counterpart to the Community Development Programme of India and many other
Third World countries that were implemented in the Fifties. The Rural
Development Department followed the principles of Community Development as
enunciated by the United Nations; The term Community Development has come into
international usage to connote the process by which the efforts of the people
themselves are united with those of Governmental authorities to improve the
economic , social and cultural conditions of communities, to integrate these
communities into the life of the nation and to enable them to contribute fully to
national progess. This complex of processes is then made up of two essential
elements ”…”the participation of the people themselves in efforts to improve
their level of living with as much reliance as possible on their own initiative
and the provision of technical and other services in ways which encourage
initiative self help and make them more effective.(United Nations, 1965)
It so happened that the entire staff handling
development in Sri Lanka at the District level came under the influence of the
Community Development ideas and this included the Government Agents who were
development hardened workers who had a great deal of experience. It did not
need directions on how to handle the education aspect to officers that had
attended to working with the people for decades. The result was that the staff
handpicked for the planning and the implementation of the DDCP did use the
community development participatory approach.
This included non formal education ideas as
defined by me later on: Non Formal Education comprises experiential education
processes to which people as participants are spontaneously subjected to as
they actively work on an individual basis or in any group endeavour, be it in a
discussion in the decision making that takes place in a trade union or a
cooperative. It is completely spontaneous and as the learner participates,
thinks and conscientizes, weighs the pros and cons of a problem and arrives at
decisions, knowing fully well the confrontations involved and as the
participants cooperate to face the obstacles, get used to collaborative
practices of mutual help in achieving the tasks then through these repeated
educational experiences, their initiatives develop and they become
responsible.(From Karunaratne: Non Formal education Theory & Practice at
Comilla)
This quote would encapsulate the educational
methods used by us in educating the trainees in the on the job situation in the
various agricultural farms and industrial projects. Details provided of the
projects in the Baddegama electorate in the Galle District and the Matara
District shows that educational strategies were used to effectively enable the
trainees to whet their abilities and in that process they gained the ability to
become self reliant entrepreneurs.
This educational enhancement is the strength
that should have been built upon in every development program.
In the case of the DDC Programme projects, with
an initial grant for the machinery and a paltry allowance till the
entrepreneurs derive incomes, we paved the way for the unemployed youth of a
country to become net contributors. In this process they march from being net
consumers to become net contributors. They have also in the process developed
their abilities and capacities to stand on their own feet. This is a strength
that stands in good stead.
In Projects, the manufacture of farm implements
in Baddegama, , the manufacture of crayons at Deniyaya, the pre-stressed
concrete industry at Matara, the making of paper products at Kotmale and Matara
and a number of such industries were all well established and commercially
viable. So were many textile and sewing industries. The good number of DDCP
industries that have been successfully implemented even today(2009), defying
the inroads of imports indicate the viability of the DDCP Projects and the
underlying strategies. The main tenet was import substitution which is
forbidden under the IMF rules of the Structural Adjustment Programme, Even
today, three decades later, my blood boils when I see a packet of foreign
crayons being sold in Sri Lanka. My mind travels back in nostalgia to the time
when the crayon factory provided employment to scores of youths in making and
packing crayons and in selling them island wide.
. Establishing the crayon industry was easily
the happiest task I had done in my eighteen years’ service to my Mothercountry.
It was also the most dangerous task I had done because I was not authorized to
establish a new industry without the specific approval of the Minstry of Plan
Implementation. I had experience in handling small industries earlier and was
certain that the venture would be a success. If it had failed I would have been
demoted for certain but I was certain of success. Further I knew Dr N.M.Perera
the Minister of Finance personally as he had been a member of parliament in the
opposition in Kegalla District where I worked as the Additional Government
Agent for two full years. He gauged my ability and I became one of his trusted
lieutenants in the field of development. I was certain that he would have stood
up for me if I fell into a scrape by attempting to do the impossible which
other administrators would shrewdly avoid.
The DDCP had all the elements of a great
employment creation programme, which was lost partly due to defects in the
Programme itself , due to administrative ineptitude and partly due to political
rivalry.
What should have happened is what did happen in
Singapore. In the words of Michael Smith
The real clue to Singapore’s success has been a brave, consistent, government
generated long term industrial strategy. Professor Tom Stonier sees that
strategy as having worked in two stages, In the early Sixties the emphasis was
on import substitution. The Government had high tariff protection to help
industries that would reduce dependence on imports. In the second phase, the
emphasis shifted to export oriented manufacture. (From Asia’s New Industrial
World) Singapore has had a steady rule by a single government for decades and
thus did not suffer from political party rivalry.
Conclusion
The DDCP of 1970-1977 was a genuine attempt at brining about development. Its
achievement and the strengths and weaknesses have already been dealt with at
length.
Though certain aspects of the DDCP, like the
agricultural farms and industrial projects were a great success and could have
been easily built upon, the DDCP came to an abrupt end due to the fact that the
newly elected President Jayawardena’s Government wanted the DDCP, discredited,
annihilated and closed down. It was necessary for the new Government to paint
everything that the earlier government achieved as black as possible. This was
to get political mileage. It is sad that development in the Third World
countries does fall between two stools, whenever a new government is formed.
Development requires a long standing effort
where programmes get continuously reviewed and renewed where the dead wood is
dropped and new vistas are commenced. In any programme the weaknesses have to
be identified and annihilated while the strengths are further developed on.
This ideal is not possible in the case of a country where at the hustings an
entire government can be changed. This is inimical for development. Perhaps the
method of elections to the US Congress offers a model where continuity can be hoped
for. This is because it is only a third of its members that are elected
annually. This newly elected one third of Congress members join the already
elected two thirds and continue . Thus the development that has been achieved
is not lost.
.
The
DDCP can stand comparison to many other development programmes both in Sri
Lanka as well as overseas.
The DDCP was
the last attempt we had to create
employment and thereby bring about production that the country needed. Earlier, we had the Rural Development
Programme of the Fifties, again the Janasaviya Programme, again The Paddy Lands
Act and its cultivation committees. Political changes deprived the continued
development of all these programmes. After 1977 we had none, except for the
grandiose Mahaweli which actually deprived water to the Sinhala Minipe farmers.
It is sad that since 1977 we have not had any real employment creation and
poverty allleviation programme. It may
be a good idea to summon those veterans of the DDCP programme who are yet alive
to deliberate and come up with a better programme than the DDCP which can bring
about development today. Let me live in hope.
Garvin Karunaratne
Former GA Matara
(written in 2009, submitted with a few changes
to help the Economic Woes of today(2021)Author of
How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative
Programmes of Success, Godages, 2006
How the IMF Sabotaged Third
World Development
(2017)
