Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has dismissed western models for development that give precedence to industrial growth and outlined a strong agriculture based development model influenced by traditional Sinhala Buddhist doctrine.
“We must have a Sri Lankan model,” he told Forbes magazine in an interview on Friday, August 28.
“I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” Rajapakse said.
Sinhala Buddhist socio economic doctrine favours small farms run by peasant households, most of whom will resort to the traditional technology of cultivation.
An idealised and harmonious society centered on the tank, the temple, and the paddy (rice) fields is the most desired form of a Sinhala Buddhist national existence, according to a leading scholar.
Rajapakse’s vision of a strong agriculture based developmental has its roots in this doctrine, the Buddhist scholar said.
The implementation of this model in the past decades entailed the transplantation of large number of Sinhalese peasants to ‘border areas’ of the northeast, leading to colonisation of Tamil traditional homelands, he added.
In addition to dismissing socio economic development through industrialisation, Rajapakse, in his interview with Forbes, also rejected the need for a conventional political solution to resolve the decades long ethnic conflict.
The President suggested that improved economic conditions would be sufficient to address Tamil grievances.
“Without development, there won’t be peace; we must develop the economy,” Rajapakse said.
Reconciliation with Tamil communities in the island’s north and east, he added, meant providing basic needs to them such as electricity, water, shelter, education.
“They (the Tamils) want to start their paddy fields, go back to their farms,” he said.
Belittling the grievances of a Nation that has lost tens of thousands of people in a brutal war and is being incarcerated enmasse, by suggesting their grievances are just economic is not the way for reconciliation, said a Tamil political commentator, responding to Rajapakse’s comments.
Meanwhile, whilst countries across the globe turn towards increased communication, improved transportation and open access to build their economy, Sri Lanka is following its President’s vision in the opposite direction.
For example, the country will “not open up closed roads” despite defeating the Tamil Tigers because this could “cause the economy to collapse” claimed the country’s Prime Minister.
"Do you remember what happened to the Soviet Union under Gorbachev? He opened the roads immediately and what happened? The entire country collapsed. We can't afford to do that," Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told a business forum in Colombo, according to Lanka Business Online.
Reflecting government policy, even the major A9 highway linking Jaffna to the south, which was opened to much fanfare nearly six months ago, has seen little traffic as vehicles are denied permission to travel along it.
Sri Lanka is not only rejecting Western development and modernisation models, but also its investment, reports noted.
Sri Lanka ranked 111 out of 179 on economic freedom according to the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.
The Index slammed the country for its roadblocks to foreign investment, its financial system and its opaque property laws. With scores of ministers and 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce employed by the government, Sri Lanka was one of the world’s most administered countries, the Index said.
Transparency International placed it between India and Pakistan as one of Asia’s most corrupt economies.
The World Bank measured the ease of doing business around the globe and ranked Sri Lanka 102nd out of 181 countries, knocking it for its tax regime, legal system and will come,” Rajapak0D
However, despite shunning western models of development and modernisation, Sri Lanka still seems to crave Western money, noted a Tamil commentator, referring to increased tourism developments.
Whilst making it difficult for western investors to invest in the island, Sri Lankan government wants to increase revenue it receives from tourism.
Tourism is seen as an industry that would be compatible with Sri Lanka’s development model, requiring no industrialisation or open access.
Sri Lanka has embarked upon building a 175 million dollar luxury tourist resort in the offshore tracts of the Dutch Bay in Katpiddi, according to reports.
The narrow stretch of land lying between the Dutch Bay and the Indian Ocean will have 60 chalets and 20 villas in the first phase, costing 1000-1500 dollars per night and will have 80 villas in the second phase to be sold to Arabs, Europeans and Sri Lankans as holiday or retirement homes.
The Katpiddi region of the North Western Province was part of the Tamil homeland and even now is a territory of Tamil speaking people.
Neil de Silva, chairman of the project refused to say how much the investors paid for the land to the local people.
The resort, expected to be ready in 2011 will be managed by International luxury hotel chain Six Senses.
“We must have a Sri Lankan model,” he told Forbes magazine in an interview on Friday, August 28.
“I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” Rajapakse said.
Sinhala Buddhist socio economic doctrine favours small farms run by peasant households, most of whom will resort to the traditional technology of cultivation.
An idealised and harmonious society centered on the tank, the temple, and the paddy (rice) fields is the most desired form of a Sinhala Buddhist national existence, according to a leading scholar.
Rajapakse’s vision of a strong agriculture based developmental has its roots in this doctrine, the Buddhist scholar said.
The implementation of this model in the past decades entailed the transplantation of large number of Sinhalese peasants to ‘border areas’ of the northeast, leading to colonisation of Tamil traditional homelands, he added.
In addition to dismissing socio economic development through industrialisation, Rajapakse, in his interview with Forbes, also rejected the need for a conventional political solution to resolve the decades long ethnic conflict.
The President suggested that improved economic conditions would be sufficient to address Tamil grievances.
“Without development, there won’t be peace; we must develop the economy,” Rajapakse said.
Reconciliation with Tamil communities in the island’s north and east, he added, meant providing basic needs to them such as electricity, water, shelter, education.
“They (the Tamils) want to start their paddy fields, go back to their farms,” he said.
Belittling the grievances of a Nation that has lost tens of thousands of people in a brutal war and is being incarcerated enmasse, by suggesting their grievances are just economic is not the way for reconciliation, said a Tamil political commentator, responding to Rajapakse’s comments.
Meanwhile, whilst countries across the globe turn towards increased communication, improved transportation and open access to build their economy, Sri Lanka is following its President’s vision in the opposite direction.
For example, the country will “not open up closed roads” despite defeating the Tamil Tigers because this could “cause the economy to collapse” claimed the country’s Prime Minister.
"Do you remember what happened to the Soviet Union under Gorbachev? He opened the roads immediately and what happened? The entire country collapsed. We can't afford to do that," Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told a business forum in Colombo, according to Lanka Business Online.
Reflecting government policy, even the major A9 highway linking Jaffna to the south, which was opened to much fanfare nearly six months ago, has seen little traffic as vehicles are denied permission to travel along it.
Sri Lanka is not only rejecting Western development and modernisation models, but also its investment, reports noted.
Sri Lanka ranked 111 out of 179 on economic freedom according to the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.
The Index slammed the country for its roadblocks to foreign investment, its financial system and its opaque property laws. With scores of ministers and 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce employed by the government, Sri Lanka was one of the world’s most administered countries, the Index said.
Transparency International placed it between India and Pakistan as one of Asia’s most corrupt economies.
The World Bank measured the ease of doing business around the globe and ranked Sri Lanka 102nd out of 181 countries, knocking it for its tax regime, legal system and will come,” Rajapak0D
However, despite shunning western models of development and modernisation, Sri Lanka still seems to crave Western money, noted a Tamil commentator, referring to increased tourism developments.
Whilst making it difficult for western investors to invest in the island, Sri Lankan government wants to increase revenue it receives from tourism.
Tourism is seen as an industry that would be compatible with Sri Lanka’s development model, requiring no industrialisation or open access.
Sri Lanka has embarked upon building a 175 million dollar luxury tourist resort in the offshore tracts of the Dutch Bay in Katpiddi, according to reports.
The narrow stretch of land lying between the Dutch Bay and the Indian Ocean will have 60 chalets and 20 villas in the first phase, costing 1000-1500 dollars per night and will have 80 villas in the second phase to be sold to Arabs, Europeans and Sri Lankans as holiday or retirement homes.
The Katpiddi region of the North Western Province was part of the Tamil homeland and even now is a territory of Tamil speaking people.
Neil de Silva, chairman of the project refused to say how much the investors paid for the land to the local people.
The resort, expected to be ready in 2011 will be managed by International luxury hotel chain Six Senses.
