Features
Trust between two elites when financial discipline is lax
By Usvatte-aratchi
‘The executive of the modern state is nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.’ The Communist Manifesto (1848)
‘… where political and business elites are intertwined in corrupt dealings, each reliant on the other’s power for survival… the downfall of one party can drag the other down with it.’ Precarious Ties, …. Meg Rithmire (2023).
‘For Japan issuing public debt … colonial government bonds.’ In defence of public debt’, Barry Eichengreen and others (2023), p.75.
Meg Rithmire teaches at Harvard Business School. Her recent book, read in light of Marx’s deep insights in 1848, enables a clearer understanding of the volatile political situation in our country and several others. It is far superior to concepts like ‘crony capitalism’ and ‘state capture’ in understanding major political developments in some societies. Rithmire examines relations between political elites and business elites in Indonesia during the Suharto dispensation, in Malaysia during the Barisan Nasional Coalition, and in China in a recent period of growth. I am not equipped to comment on her work, as from where I live, access to the literature and discussions on the subject are entirely sparse. So far as reading is concerned, I live in a bit of a hellhole. I would rather make use of her conceptual models she builds to understand political alignments in our country. Furthemore, I am more than a bit uncomfortable using terms like elites and class, I guess, mainly because I am poorly read in those subjects. For the moment, let’s blunder along.
There is not much argument that our society smells foul with corruption, beyond high heavens, if they exist. There is ‘petty’ corruption perpetrated by those in lower levels of employment: policemen will overlook an offence when paid a small bribe to do so; a school principal will admit a student to Grade 7, because a friend of hers who works in another place asked her to do the latter a favour; and a clerk will speed up a file for final signature for a consideration. ‘Grand’ corruption is not only massive in size but also destructive of the functioning of the economy and society. Twenty percent of a $7 billion contract is $1.4 billion (Lkr.445 billion at 320 rupees to the dollar), a sum large enough, when well-managed, to maintain in luxury many sets of stupid offspring of powerful politicians. Multiply such bribes manifold over 10 years and you have the situation in Sri Lanka: a political ‘elite’ corrupt to the gills and a population with burdens of public debt, which condemns that economy to bankruptcy. The tragedy of that disaster is that the population did not understand the scale of the woeful fate that awaited them and repeatedly voted into office those same corrupt politicians. The irony of it is that those politicians walked comfortably into office in 2019 and 2020 on an ‘intellectuals’ way’ (viyath manga) carved for them by well-educated but impossibly gullible professionals. Ensconced well in power, those politicians drove the country into bankruptcy and the public into misery.
In our instance, this scale of ‘petty theft’ and ‘grand theft’ would not have been feasible without the connivance and active participation of public servants at high levels of authority and power. ‘Laxity in financial discipline’ is an inadequate ‘euphemism’ to explain the complicity of the ‘bureaucratic elite’ in the prevalence of corruption on the scale and in the length of time the phenomenon has prevailed in our society. That phrase falsely lulls us to the fancy that public service ‘elites’ looked on helpless while others committed day light robbery. Who prepared cash flow tables to estimate NPV to justify the feasibility of the Nelum Pokuna project or the Nelum Kuluna project or the Mattala airport or the broad highways (‘…where the deer and the buffalo play.’) in the Hambantota district? What was the rate of return in each? Who recommended to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to reject the light rail project which was almost a gift from Japan but carried no opportunities for bribery? Surely, public servants and not ‘Mr. 20 percent’. The practice of hiring retired senior public servants to do the bidding of politicians was critically important for scams to continue. Wishes of powerful politicians in office to place those errant public servants in positions of authority prevailed over clear and emphatic verdicts of the Supreme Court. The contrast with public servants and politicians of an earlier time is far too purple to have missed the eye of sociologists, except that they preferred to wear pitch-dark glasses.
Borrowing is never a bad thing in itself (Forget about Polonius. Borrowing blesseth both the lender and the borrower, although it droppeth not as the gentle rain from heaven.) It is a critically important means of mobilising capital. Banks exist for that purpose. (There was a fine account of county banks in England that collected rural savings and moved them to cities in a book (written by Presnell(?) which I read in Peradeniya.) Most corporations and most governments, the world over, have borrowed to grow and both the lender and the borrower have been richer into the bargain. Banks have thrived on those practices. In our country, political ‘elites’ and business ‘elites’ borrow to rob and steal, the people; the borrowers’ enterprises wither but the borrowers lead princely lives. It is the inexorable logic of false entrepreneurs, who with the connivance of errant politicians, rob state banks. That sort of corruption prevails in connivance with business elites although much of the wealth stolen cannot be invested in the anemic private sector in our economy. The consequent outflows of wealth give rise to severe balance of payments crises. Lax financial discipline permitted – indeed facilitated – by public servants who share in the stolen wealth made sure that those guilty were not brought before courts of law. Law enforcement offices are yet to bring to trial any of the alleged perpetrators. The government in China has convicted dozens and executed some. The recent celebrated Supreme Court trial was not about corruption. No amount of legislation can help if there is laxity in their enforcement. Political elites and business elites have connived to manipulate government financial practices and procedures to rob and steal several billion rupees from the government treasury: the treasury bond scams 2015 and 2016 are classic incidents; the sugar tax imbroglio in 2020 is another; a large number of enterprises, who with the connivance and active participation of powerful politicians, borrowed billions of rupees from state-owned banks and let them run into bad loans is still another; and distilleries and other business units that refuse to pay assessed taxes (summing to billions of rupees) but are left to continue their illegal practices using that wealth, as powerful politicians protect them is a fourth set. The impending sale of state assets will create a few small-scale ‘oligarchs’ as earlier perestroika in the USSR laid the fertile soil on which mega oligarchs germinated and thrived.
Here is clear evidence of Rithmire’s proposition. The political elite survives and prospers because the business elite promotes and sustains them; economic elites exist and prosper because the political elite repays the compliment. If one falls, the other fails. When one is threatened, the other comes to prop up the ill-affected. Some sections of the bureaucracy (another elite?) enable these practices. There are early signs of a clearer alignment of forces on lines demarcated by Rithmire’s hypotheses. The current symbiosis, while promoting the good health and robustness of these elites and providing a semblance of stability, is inimical to the good health of the body politic and economy. The well-being of our society depends on the growth of its economy and not on the stability of the status quo. It is fair to seek stability in the short term but growth in the economy in the long term is always destabilising. A telling example is the recent migration of hundreds of millions of people from the countryside to work in factories in cities in China. The Communist Party in China has provided the stabilising glue. Beggars and highwaymen in early 19th century England were symptomatic of social instability. Western Movies are about opening lands in ‘the wild West’ in the US and belong in a time when populations moved West where law and order had yet to prevail.
In the US, in the 1920s, masses of people moved north to escape the ‘Dust Bowl,’ and the appalling poverty in the South, to seek fortunes in the booming motor car industry there. When a new stabilisation emerges with economic growth, new alignments of social forces come about.
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
Govt. to initiate talks on setting up Truth Commission: FM Herath
Indonesia to support Clean Sri Lanka initiative
First batch of vehicles imported for private use, since 2020, arrives
-
Business3 days agoSri Lanka’s 1st Culinary Studio opened by The Hungryislander
-
Sports4 days agoHow Sri Lanka fumbled their Champions Trophy spot
-
News6 days agoKiller made three overseas calls while fleeing
-
News5 days agoSC notices Power Minister and several others over FR petition alleging govt. set to incur loss exceeding Rs 3bn due to irregular tender
-
Features4 days agoThe Murder of a Journalist
-
Features4 days agoExcellent Budget by AKD, NPP Inexperience is the Government’s Enemy
-
Sports4 days agoMahinda earn long awaited Tier ‘A’ promotion
-
News5 days agoMobile number portability to be introduced in June