{"id":89921,"date":"2019-06-05T22:34:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T04:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89921"},"modified":"2019-06-05T15:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T22:28:00","slug":"from-third-world-to-nowhere-a-pathetic-journey-1960s-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/05\/from-third-world-to-nowhere-a-pathetic-journey-1960s-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"From Third World to Nowhere: A Pathetic Journey 1960’s- 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The one and only aspiration of all Third world nations is to fast\ntrack their nations to the First world status but it is realized only by a few.\nIn our lifetime that dream-objective was realized by Singapore, Malaysia and\nSouth Korea in the Asian region. Talking of Singapore in particular it was not\nthe Western template of democracy that brought that nation to the fore and if\nnot for Lee Kuan Yew who was a democratic dictator that country also would\nprobably be in the hopeless situation that we are in today. The Singaporean Prime\nMinster, in his memoirs referred to the fact that he took that country forward\nby a process that he described as ‘guided democracy\u2019 relevant to the culture of\nits civilization. I would describe that process very briefly in a few terms:\nvisionary, scientific-rational, policy driven, unwavering and corruption free.\nThese principles were adhered to, with an iron fist. He tolerated little\nopposition and in fairness to the man, it was in the face of good scientific\nrational argument. Used the jails and deportation frequently. The western press\nridiculed him relentlessly, and he fought them ‘legally’ in the courts a number\nof times. The lesson is abundantly clear to us. Had he pandered and kow-towed\nto the pea-brained petty politicians, like the ones we have in abundance about\n8000, Singapore will never have marched from $ 400 per capita in 1960 to\n$39,000 today.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago we had the elections in Australia and the spirit of a\nholiday hovered over us. I thought for myself that Sri Lankans in the mid\nnineteenth century were also in that kind of mood. The country ready for the\nprivileges and perks of a robust democracy that Australia is enjoying today.\nCompulsory voting in Australia creates this voting day a public holiday where\nmany voting adults come with their children to the booth on the way to the\nbeach. Having voted, duty fulfilled as discerning citizens, they leave. At the\nbooth are various political people handing out how to vote cards and though it\nwould have been interesting if they argued but they don\u2019t. Disappointed, that\nthey seemed to be on such friendly terms, gently smiling all round, the\nmomentous day becomes one of stillness and observation. Most people took cards\nfrom different sides as if they were voting for all parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the sidelines were fundraisers for many whose objectives are to\ncelebrate democracy, encourage participation and offer support for community\ngroups. These fund raising sausages are called democracy sausages. The cake\nstalls added to the carnival atmosphere and playful spirit. The cake stalls\nsell Malcolm (Turnbull) Turnovers, Bill (Shorten) shortbreads and Jacqui\n(Lamby) Lambingtons named after celeb politicians. This Saturday festival of\ndemocracy has brought the unity of a motley crew of many tongues united by one\ncommon language, English.  Was it the\ncommon language that brought them together? I firmly believe so: over hundred\ndialects and ethnicities, united by a common language to rejoice equally the\nspirit of the nation. What liberating potential!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come 1960’s Sri Lanka. Our university life started on a similar\npositive note. Our entry into the university in the early sixties was the\nbeginning era of a turbulent period in the political history of the nation.\nMuch has been written on the emergence of developing countries from the yoke of\ncolonialism in the Asian African continent but there were a myriad of other\ndomestic issues that were handled badly, which divided us. The turbulence was a\ntemporary set back we thought. There was so much untapped potential in the\nnation that will ultimately rise up to the task. We were convinced that young\npeople with self-belief surrounded by leaders with indomitable will could make\nit happen. The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through generations, as Prime\nMinister Lloyd George said, were the work of small nations. The birth of a\nmodern nation was imminent we hoped. Sadly our hopes were dashed. Divisiveness,\nugliness, paucity of vision enveloped us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka was a country with many different languages and English\nwas still the language of the work place in the 60’s. English had the potential\nto bring together the diversity of our nation together in national matters to\nmove forward to modernity. As an international trading post and even better\nthan Singapore\u2019s geographical location, it was the language of an international\nhub, if not we would not make a living. Lee Kwan Yew had the vision to see the\nfuture and introduced teaching of the mother tongue plus English to all schools\nin Singapore. He warned the Chinese not to play politics with the futures of\nthe next generation and deported a few of the Malay rabble elements. But our\npoliticians made language a political issue. In a multiracial, multilingual\nsociety English was the only acceptable neutral language. Any serious dialogue\non national matters need a neutral language. Besides, English language would\nmake us relevant to the world.  Lee Kuan Yew\nsays that if he had made Singapore monolingual in their mother tongue they\nwould not make a living. More importantly he says that; ‘becoming monolingual\nin English would have been a setback. We would have lost our cultural identity,\nthat quiet confidence about ourselves and our place in the world’. He knew that\nin any case you couldn\u2019t make people give up their mother tongue. How\nvisionary? There would be unending chaos as happened in our country. He did\nface a formidable protest about bilingualism. The very vocal Chinese rebelled that\nthe children would not master either of the languages but the results proved\notherwise. Unlike Singapore our educational policies did not move with the\ntimes. Sri Lankans lost the opportunity to move from the Third World to the\nfirst much earlier than Singapore. Today we are in a right royal mess. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr D.Chandraratna The one and only aspiration of all Third world nations is to fast track their nations to the First world status but it is realized only by a few. In our lifetime that dream-objective was realized by Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea in the Asian region. Talking of Singapore in particular it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-donald-chandraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}