Garvin Karunaratne, PhD Michigan State University*
The DDCP
was the major development programme undertaken by the Government of Prime
Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayake during her 1970-1977 rule.
This was
also the first major islandwide development programme ever to be implemented in
Sri Lanka. Earlier there was the Rural Development Programme and the Small
Industries Development Programme which were smaller programmes aimed at
rejuvenating the rural areas with small industries and Powerlooms. However, the
DDCP was far major in scope and the Government had high hopes of great success.
The Government head hunted the most eminent economist on the island, Professor
HAdeS Gunasekera the professor of Economics at the University of Peradeniya. A
new Ministry of Plan Implementation was formed under the Prime Minister
Sirimavo Bandaranayake and Professor Gunasekera was appointed as the Permanent
Secretary to the Ministry. The importance given to the programme was such that
helicopter travel was authorized for him.
The main
aim of this DDCP was to bring about employment for the youth. The aims, in the
words of the Budget Speech of Dr N.M.Perera, the Minister of Finance;
The main
objective of this programme is “to create employment opportunities in the
rural areas and 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
method was to enlist the support of all officials and elected personnel in
every Division. In detail,” An entirely new structure for planning is
being established (within which) each local authority will be the focus for
development planning and plan implementation. Popular participation will be
secured through the Divisional Development Council in which the elected organs
of the village, the cooperative society, the cultivation committee, the village
council will have a planning and coordinating role in the overall development
of their area.”.
The DDCP
was a crash programme to create employment for the youth. The target was to
create 100,000 jobs in the first year.
The
Government enlisted the services of the Government Agents to implement this
programme. Even before the Ministry of Plan Implementation recruited graduates
as Development Assistants and Planning Officers the Government
Agents selected the best officers who were working in the District and the
programme was immediately commenced. I was serving as the Government Agent of
the Matara District.
There was a major setback because of the Janata Vimukti Peramuna(JVP) Uprising on April 5th 1971. This took on the form of an attack on all Police Stations and army units. It was an attempt to capture power in a single day like what Fidel Castro did in Cuba. The JVP controlled the hinterland- the rural areas and had their kangaroo courts etc. and it took a few months for total order to be restored. The JVP had been instrumental in working for the SLFP – for Mrs Bandaranayake at the 1970 election and the DDCP was a programme that was specially meant to provide employment to the youth. No reasons were given for the sudden uprising but it was found that the North Korean Embassy had spent a massive sum of money at this time and there was some evidence of some connection with the Uprising. The Government closed down the North Korean Embassy. This was an unfortunate episode that delayed the implementation of the DDCP for months. Since that day officials travelled the least possible and further all investors- estate owners, rice millers etc.who had made rural areas their homes left for security reasons to the cities.
The
development councils were formed in every division. The Councils comprised all
officials and elected officials of cooperatives, cultivation committees and
local government institutions. The Head of the Council was the Divisional
Revenue Officer(DRO) of the area. He was given a new designation of Assistant
Government Agent. Meetings were held and the Councils identified small scale
industries and agricultural projects- farms which were funded and commenced all
over the island.
In
Matara District, in addition to a number of agricultural farms and small craft
type of industries, the Councils suggested many industries and feasibility
reports were prepared and approval sought. It was generally difficult to
get approvals a few small industries were approved and the Ministry made an
allocation of funds to buy the machinery, put up structures and also funds to
pay a stipend to the youths till the projects were established and incomes
generated.
I
suggested that a Mechanized Boatyard should be approved to be constructed at
Matara on land bordering the Nilwala River. A Feasibility Report was drafted
and submitted. The Ministry called me for a meeting where the Director of the
Fisheries Department was also present. The Ministry officials were not
interested and there were objections by the Director of Fisheries. The meeting
was ultimately put off for another discussion on another day. This was
the first cooperative industry to make seaworthy 30 foot long boats and perhaps
the Ministry was worried that it could be a failure and be a blot on the
Ministry. Anyhow after a major battle, we obtained approval and the boatyard
was established. It was a great success.
The
Councils were agitating for more industrial units and we suggested that at
Deniyaya we could establish a Water Colour Industry making watercolour paint
boxes. This was import substitution in action because at that time Sri Lanka
imported the bulk of our watercolour requirements. The Ministry submitted our
Feasibility Report to the Industrial Development Board(IDB) and a meeting
was held at the Ministry. The Ministry agreed with the IDB recommendation
that this should not be approved because the Deniyaya area did not have any of
the ingredients that went into making watercolours. I argued that if Japan
could buy cotton from as far as Egypt, take it all the way to Japan, make
textiles and market the sales back in countries as far as Egypt, we too could
do it. We were at an advantage because our country itself needed the
watercolour paint boxes. I lost the battle. The Ministry was amply
satisfied with the small craft type of projects and the farms that we had got
working.
However,
we wanted to do better. I suggested a Dairy Project in the Deniyaya- Mawarala
area where we will get Estate owners to plant grass on all their unused land.
We could get private farmers too to have more cows. The only proviso I insisted
was that we should have a Creamery to make butter and cheese. because it was
impossible to sell more milk. My feasibility report created
problems. It was argued that small creameries were not commercially
viable and the Ministry said that we did not have grasslands to feed the
cattle. It ended up with heated arguments at the Ministry. I did not know then
that Switzerland doted on small creameries.
It
was quite evident that the Ministry was not going to approve any new industry
for our District. The only sophisticated industry ever done in the rest of the
island was a Paper Making Industry at Kotmale. The Ministry told me to
get going making bricks and tiles if I was interested. I pointed out that in
tiles and bricks the private sector had already established factories in the
District and it would not be prudent to try to create a problem of
oversupply. The Ministry and I clashed not once but many a time. It
happened because once I had served as a Deputy Director of Small Industry and I
knew more about industries than anyone in the Ministry. The Ministry
never appreciated my ideas. Theirs was always on the beaten track.
The
officers at the Katchcheri were very innovative and we had many meetings.
Finally, I summoned my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, a chemistry graduate of
the University of Colombo, just out of the University who did not have a day’s
experience in chemistry after graduating. I fed him all I knew about making
watercolours. Once as Deputy Director of Industries, I had approved an
allocation of dyes to a watercolour industrialist and I had seen him making
watercolours. I knew the ingredients but not the proportions and details of
mixing it- temperatures etc. Vetus and I decided to try to find the art of
making crayons. The science teachers at the school also helped us. We commenced
work at the Residency in the evenings and came to a point where we needed
science equipment and it was suggested that we should use the equipment at a
school lab. I approached Mr Ariyawamsa the Principal of Rahula College Matara
and he readily agreed for us to use the science lab after hours. The
Science lab at Rahula was our domain from around six in the evening till
midnight every working day. The workers were the science teachers and Vetus,
the only scientists and we, myself, and a few staff officers were all
cheerleaders. The Cheer Leaders had to keep the momentum going when every
night we tried different methods and we failed every day for close upon two
months. Then Vetus got a brain wave. The crayons we made were never of good
texture and he said that I should approve his going to Colombo to his
university dons in chemistry and he was certain they will help. I readily
agreed and authorized him travelling and subsistence payment. I was happy that
he had thought of this method and I dreamt of success. Vetus turned up on the
fourth day and narrated in disgust that none of the professionals at the
University of Colombo was interested in helping him. He had begged of them but
was told to get lost. My staff officers and I were not going to take things
lying down to submission. We started experiments in earnest – from six till
midnight sipping black coffee with a sing-song once in a way to keep the
momentum going. In a month of experiments, we came across the method to make
crayons. Then I supervised fine-tuning the art again and again till we got to
be near the Crayola grade- then it was Reeves. We won the day.
Next
came- how to establish a small scale factory. I could not get approval from the
Ministry. I was certain that they will turn it down. I could have
summoned Harischandra or an industrialist and I knew many personally and could
have told them to put up a factory, but then it won’t be us. Finally, I decided
that it should be cooperative. The Cooperative Unions had funds but not
the authority to establish an industry. Then I thought of Sumanapala
Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya, who was the President of the
Morawak Korale Coop Union because he was a maverick, a daredevil type if that
was required. He was in charge of the funds at the Coop Union. When I broached
the subject to Sumanapala he readily agreed to establish a Crayon factory.
However, he had no authority to use cooperative funds for that purpose. The
Government Agent too had no authority to direct cooperatives. However for
purposes of coordination in the case of the agricultural development programme,
the G.A.had been gazetted a Deputy Director of Cooperative Development. I
usurped powers that I did not really have based on this gazette notice and
authorized Sumanapala to spend cooperative funds and establish the Crayon
Factory.
Sumanapala
needed only a nod. He got cracking with purchasing the equipment and gas
burners, recruiting youths. This was done in two days. A few rooms at the
Cooperative Union at Morawaka were cleared and the Katchcheri staff too moved
in to commence making crayons. It was a 24-hour operation, with youths working
in shifts, working under the watchful eyes of Vetus Fernando the Planning
Officer. There were Chandra Silva the DLO, Wimalaratne the AGA, Daya Paliakkara
a Development Assistant. They were all involved in the experiments at Rahula
College and were at hand went Vetus took a few hours rest. The youths had to
get trained to do every single crayon to perfection- a difficult task. It was a
hand made crayon-like most industries in China today. I broke rest on two days
till everything got off the ground. We sipped black coffee and sweetmeats
brought by Gunam Tambipillai, an estate owner who was very supportive of all
our efforts at development. Sumanapala was in his elements and in around two
weeks, Coop Crayon packets were printed and crayon packets made to fill
two large rooms.
Then I
took off with Sumanapala to meet the Minister of Industries, TB Sunbasinhe who
was surprised to see the quality of the crayons. He readily agreed to come for
the opening ceremony when we would commence sales. That was a grand
occasion. With that aura of authoritative approval, I felt safe for all I
had done without any Ministry approval.
Coop
Crayon was fully functional. The Youths managed it well. However, one major
hitch was the purchase of dyes that had to be purchased in the open market at
high prices. I approached the Ministry of Industries, the people that gave
permits of foreign exchange to industrialists- the place where I had worked two
years earlier. They said that their foreign exchange was only for the private
sector industrialists and not for cooperatives. The mandarins were not going to
bend rules. We were lost.
In a few
days, a brain wave struck us and we went to meet the Controller of Imports,
Harry Guneratne, Harry was authorizing imports and confided that he was
approving foreign exchange to import crayons. We argued that if he only gave us
an allocation of a twentieth of what he would approve for the import of crayons
to import dyes, he could cancel all imports and save the rest of the allotted
foreign exchange. This had never been done earlier but Harry was an immediate
convert. However, he said that this was the first time that such an allocation
was made and wanted us to approach his Minister and get his approval.
Minister Illangaratne not only approved it but also insisted that we should
open a crayon factory at Kolonnawa his electorate. This detail has been
included to show how we can save foreign exchange through establishing import
substitution type of industries.
Coop
Crayon was developed fast by Sumanapala and he stepped it up to have
island-wide sales. All the units I had established in industries and
agricultural farms were active and in good health. Coop Crayon and the
Matara Boatyard were at the top performers in entire Sri Lanka.
In
another year in April 1973, I left the Administrative Service to proceed to the
UK for further studies. Sumanapala handled the Coop Crayon well. The other
industries and employment ventures were well looked after by Vetus and the
Katchcheri staff.
Then in
1977 came the General Election where the Government of Sirimavo Bandaranayake
lost and the United National Party under JR Jayawardena won.
Before
long President Jayawardena caved into the IMF which insisted that if he needed
Financial Aid, he had to invariably follow the IMF’s Structural Adjustment
Programme. (SAP) The main condition was that the Government could not handle
any commercial undertakings. Everything that the earlier Governments had done
in the name of commercial undertakings, to create employment etc had to be
totally abolished. The DDCP industries and farms were totally abolished and
hundreds of youths were inevitably consigned to the scrap heap of unemployment
and poverty.
Political rivalry became the order o the day. My Headquarters Assistant GA Ranjith Wimalaratne, a kingpin in industries and who handled the Powerlooms with great efficiency was a persona non grata and was hunted down. To save his life he had to forego everything and run away to Canada.
A few
years later, I met AT Ariyaratne, a senior member of the Administrative Service
and when I told him that I had last served as the GA at Matara he spoke of a
special assignment he got in 1978 when he worked as a Deputy Commissioner of
Cooperative Development. He had been assigned to proceed to Morawaka to inspect
Coop Crayon and somehow find fault with Sumanapala Dahanayake the Member of
Parliament who in his capacity as the President of the Morawaka Coop union
handled Coop Crayon. Coop Crayon was at that time in full swing with
islandwide sales and was easily the flagship industry of the DDCP. The
Government wanted Coop Crayon discredited and to also find fault with Sumanapala
for him to get punished. Ariyaratne told me that he had spent days inspecting
and auditing and could only report that Coop Crayon was a very successful
cooperative industry, with all books kept in perfect order. Sumanapala was
saved from a sojourn in the gallows. Ariyaratne was not an officer who would
stoop to create evidence to put a person into trouble at the bidding of someone
in authority.
Under
the DDC Programme the Divisional Secretary at Kotmale successfully established
a Paper Making Factory using Waste Paper. Sad to say even today there is no
waste paper to paper or cardboard making factory in Sri Lanka.
Instead we collect waste paper and waste cardboard and despatch it some
30 ,000 tons a month to india, get them to make cardboard and buy cardboard from
the. Surely, we need to have our heads examined!
In 1977,
the new Government of President jayawardena in order to get foreign
loans, caved in and on IMF advice destroyed all that we had created to
bring about youth employment. The Matara Boatyard where youths built seaworthy
inboard motorboats- some 40 every year and earned good incomes was scrapped and
the valuable machinery was neglected, sold and also left in the scrap heap.
Coop Crayon was stopped. All other industries and agricultural farms were
stopped and a few hundred youths lost their jobs. Getting loans was the
priority, and the UNP Government did not care whether youths who earned a
living were destined to the realm of poverty. The aim was to satisfy the IMF.
The IMF barked orders to be carried out.
The UNP Government of President Jayawardena played poodle to the IMF and did
everything that the IMF wanted it to do. As far as the DDCP was concerned all
industries and agricultural farms were abandoned and the thousands of youths
involved were destined to unemployment and poverty. Imagine what the youths who
were making crayons felt in Morawaka, what the youths fromMorawaka who were
selling crayons at both Alimankada and Pamankada felt and the youths that were
making boats felt at the Matara Boatyard felt when they were ordered to close
down and get lost.
I hope
to see a development programme that is better than the DDCP in the new
future.
That is
the only hope for our Motherland.
These words come to you from a Sri Lankan administrator who once in 1982 and 1983 was working as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower in Bangladesh, who was able to obtain approval to establish a Youth Self Employment Programme, and within two years did create the Programme and trained Bangladeshi staff to continue it- a programme that has guided three million youths into self-employment, which is today the premier employment creation programme that has withstood the sands of time.
*Garvin
Karunaratne, PhD Michigan State University
Author
of How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (Kindle/odages:2017)
How the
IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of
Success(Kindle/Godages:2006)
