Sri Lanka should benefit from the rekindled interest in civilisational achievements and diversity of civilizations, MP Gevindu Cumaratunga has said.

The dissident SLPPer and key member of newly formed Sarvajana Balaya said so while underscoring the pivotal importance of unanimous adoption of a resolution proposed by China recently to establish an International Day for Dialogue among Civilisations, at the UN General Assembly (UNGA)

Declaring that Sri Lanka was in a crossroads and need to reexamine the country’s rich past, MP Cumaratunga said that far reaching changes were taking place at global level. The first-time entrant to parliament discussed the challenges faced by Sri Lanka, taking into consideration the Chinese proposal made at the 78th session of the UNGA.

Addressing a gathering Monarch Imperial at Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, recently, at the launch of the first draft of Sarvajana Balaya’s strategic plan for public discourse meant to promote a happy nation and an entrepreneurial state, MP Cumaratunga pointed out how the breaking up of the Soviet Union in late 1991 influenced a dialogue on civilization.

MP Cumaratunga dealt with Sri Lanka’s civilisation and entrepreneurship in the current context while comparing the Chinese and Western approach to the issue at hand.

The lawmaker compared American political scientist Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama’s assessment of the breaking up of the Soviet Union in his widely read ‘The end of history and the Last Man’ and the subsequent warning issued by American strategist Samuel P Huntington in ‘The clash of the Civilizations and The Remaking of World Order’ disputed Fukuyama’s declaration of triumph of liberal movement.

Huntington quite rightly stressed that the US shouldn’t give up military preparations at a global level as new challenges were in the making in spite of the breaking up of the Soviet Unio, MP Cumaratunga said.

MP Cumaratunga reminded the role played by Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, the late Prof. Nalin de Silva as well as Dr. Ranga Wickramasinghe, the youngest son of pioneering Sinhala writer Martin Wickramasinghe and several others including researchers at the Colombo University and Divaina in influencing a dialogue with the focus on civilisation/Jathika Chinthanaya.

Referring to the intervention made by Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera by launching ‘Sabhyathwa Rajyak Kara’ (Towards a civilizational State) in 2016, MP Cumaratunga discussed how post-Aragalaya Sri Lanka could benefit from formation of a genuine entrepreneurial state

MP Cumaratunga examined the issue-genuine entrepreneurial state- while referring to crucial role of the state and public in fostering long-run innovation-led economic growth as discussed by author Mariana Mazzucato in ‘The entrepreneurial state: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths’ published in near two dozen countries.

The MP emphasized that those who want to achieve American success they should do what the US did not follow their advice how they did it. MP Cumaratunga gave several examples of how in ancient times Sinhala kings utilized everything available for the betterment of the country. The MP said that the country should be re-built on the basis that a not a raindrop should be wasted and the government should have made the required intervention to boost the economic revival.

(SF)