Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Squandering the opportunity of a lifetime – current leadership will be condemned in History


Make no bones about it, the MR administration will be condemned in History for errors of commission, and RW administration will be condemned for errors of omission.

Like Professor Sally says in today’s FT article,

This IS THE BEST CHANCE we have of improving the livelihood of all who live in Sri Lanka. We are NOT going to find this opportunity EVER AGAIN, as the world is in for a period of taking stock and evaluation of the fundamentals, when growth as we have known it in the past will not recur at that speed, where environmental, recycling, pollution, global warming, future of the Human Race will take precedence, and the populist but destructive dictatorships that are causing huge shifts in people between the have and have not nations, will consume all political dialog.

Before all this happens we have a honeymoon period till 2020 to get everything done. We MUST change the Constitution for the better, which will put to bed once and for all the threat of any future racial or religious strife, and at the same time institute practices that reduce corruption, give people security but balance it with giving them a degree of freedom, that brings out the best in all of us, especially in innovation, and carrying out practices that improve the quality of life for all.

The last two budgets of the new Government have ONLY caused consternation, and we must hope that the next one in a few months, will be able to completely change that round after a well thought out and researched budget, yielding as much revenue, whilst at the same time NOT squeezing the middle classes any more than at present is the way to go.


It is all about reducing the deficit, reducing wastage, making public investment productive, increasing tax yield by better collection of unreported income and unpaid taxes. Further maximizing on service exports, encouraging more inward tourism with high value tourists, directing a higher yielding remittance mix from skilled workers to deal with the drop in numbers and improving Education drastically. It is NOT rocket science, and can easily be done, if we and those who lead us put their minds to it, and not in fattening their personal pockets as is the case now. 

I have talked about leading from the front in my previous entry, about the entitlement culture, which has to go hand in hand to obtain the public's approval for a few painful short term shocks to get the engine working smoothly to go the distance.

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