Does Sri Lanka Need a Modi?
by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne
( May 30, 2015, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) The latest issue of The Economist says: ” A year ago Narendra Modi came to office promising to bring India “good times” by which he meant jobs, prosperity and international renown. His progress has been frustratingly slow”. In spite of India doing reasonably well, helped along by the decrease in oil prices (India being a significant oil importing country), and a growth rate of 7.5% which is even greater than that of China, India lags behind in reform and openness to markets on the one hand and restrictions on domestic trade on the other. Elsewhere in the same issue, The Economist says (of Prime Minister Modi):” There are several broad concerns about his record so far. Though he seeks economic growth and national strength, he has not yet shown a clear vision for bringing these about; nor has he appointed the right ministers to deliver sweeping change. He is not speaking up enough for a noisy liberal democracy and the need to protect religious minorities, and he is not showing sufficient tolerance of criticism”.
Now let us take Mr. Modi’s positive aspects. He has proved himself a diligent and robust manager in his previous incarnation in Gujarat. He was a master at boosting investment through the implementation of various proactive and productive projects. He was (and arguably is) relentlessly pro business and has been called a modernizer rather than a reformer. He is relentlessly anti-corruption and encourages government machinery. He cannot stand ineptitude and inefficiency.
One could well argue that what Sri Lanka needs is the Modi of Gujarat and not the Modi of a continent masquerading as a country mired in bureaucracy and antiquated laws, which has a per capita annual income of $ 1732 and ranks 142 out of 181 countries in ease of doing business . However, in fairness to Mr. Modi, he has only been in office for a year or so and, to borrow the wit of Robert Frost, “has miles to go and promises to keep”…
Demographically, Gujarat is closer to Sri Lanka which has a population of 21.5 million (Gujarat has 62.7 million). Gujarat has recorded highest trend growth rate of 8.2% of per capita income (PCI) in India during 2004-2013 amid high income states, according to a study by apex industry body Assocham.
Sri Lanka’s per capita income in $2004. Gujarat under Modi prospered: Gujarat became the only state in India which has the infrastructure to provide E-services through computers to 13685 Gram Panchayats which are connected through Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN). Modi’s GIFT(Gujarat International Finance Tech-City). According to Modi, “built on 986 acres the GIFT project is setting a benchmark for the whole world about how one can deliver financial services, technological security, real time operations, multiple activities etc from a single place, at the same time”. Under Modi, Gujarat accounted for 15.14% (USD 114.52 billion) of the total investments in India, which is the highest amongst all States in India. He is credited with converting adversity into opportunities. This political thinking augurs well for any country and one must not confuse Modi with a businessman. He is a modernist politician.
Whatever type of leader a country has, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman argues that it should not be run by a businessman who has a businesslike approach to governing the country. Krugman says in his article A Country is Not a Company published by the Harvard Business Review : “Think of what happens when a successful businessperson looks at a troubled economy and tries to apply the lessons of business experience. He or (rarely) she sees the troubled economy as something like a troubled company, which needs to cut costs and become competitive. To create jobs, the business person thinks, wages must come down, expenses must be reduced; in general, belts must be tightened. And surely gimmicks like deficit spending or printing more money can’t solve what must be a fundamental problem”.
What Sri Lanka might need to elect in the upcoming election is a leadership that is committed to uplifting the poor and promotes education and skills of the people on an equal level. A leadership that participates in global trade; is in good standing with the global community and eschews corruption and nepotism. This leadership would need elite bureaucrats as aides; not opportunistic self servers. The fact that three men from humble origins and claims to honesty and integrity: President Sirisena of Sri Lanka; President Joko Widodo of Indonesia; and Prime Minister Modi of India were elected recently to leadership of three Asian countries is indeed encouraging for democracy. Two aspects of governance are critical for these leaders who are already showing signs of emulating high principles: press freedom and the elimination of corruption. Both are equally important. The latter is a more complex issue that the former.
The Report on Human Development in South Asia 1999 concluded: “Corruption is one of the most damaging consequences of poor governance. It undermines investment and economic growth, decreases the resources available for human development goals, deepens the extent of poverty, subverts the judicial system, and undermines the legitimacy of the state. In fact, when corruption becomes entrenched, it can devastate the entire economic, political, and social fabric of a country…corruption breeds corruption – and a failure to combat it effectively can lead to an era of entrenched corruption”.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, said in The Times of India: “To eradicate corruption we require individuals who are incorruptible and, undoubtedly, what produces such individuals is spirituality. There is a saying that violence begins in the mind. This is true also of corruption: corruption begins in the mind. If we can alter our thinking, we can safely say that we shall have eradicated corruption by at least 50%.
A Singaporean newspaper talked of the Modi Effect – the effect of 1.3 billion people of India on a man who left behind the leadership of a State with 62 million people to lead 1.3 billion people of a vast country, which in turn made him even more responsible and humble with a mission to uplift the masses through investment, entrepreneurship and transparency.
That is the kind of leadership we need.
