2016 Apr 7
by WIMARSHANA
THERE IS NO HOPE FOR SRI-LANKA.
January 8th 2015 proved that Sri-Lanka perhaps won’t quite descend into being the next Zimbabwe, at least not in the foreseeable future. But this underwhelming Yahapalanaya of broken promises, the lesser evil, this is the absolute best we can hope for. For when we replaced an unabashed dictator with a man with the intellectual capital sufficient only to run maybe a sillara kade, we reached, and exposed, the limits of our civilization. It was the best Sri-Lankans could do, and, thankfully, they did it.
I am often derided as being pessimistic when I advance this argument. From an intellectual viewpoint, optimism and pessimism are only descriptors. Sound thinking demands that, with as close to perfect impartiality as we can summon, we logically follow the facts to whatever conclusion they may lead us to. If this conclusion happens to offer hope then we can merely describe it as optimistic; if this conclusion happens to be gloomy then we can merely describe it as pessimistic. In other words, sound thinking demands that we cannot start off or try to be either optimistic or pessimistic. If we do, we are in the position of a meteorologist who goes to work determined to forecast a sunny day. Most likely this will cloud his judgement—as being determined to be either optimistic or pessimistic about Sri-Lanka will cloud ours.
Of course, it is incumbent on me to justify my assertion. And in my first book Colombo: A Critical Introspection I have done so in great depth. Here I will only offer a brief explanation. Every human thing you see around you—language, organizations, technology etc.—these were all once brain waves in some human being’s brain. Hence you must accept that the limits of the human world are equal to the limits of what goes on in human brains. Excluding the influence of nature, the external can never be more or less than the internal. Similarly, a society is just a product of the prevailing content of a majority of its people’s minds (there are some exceptions to this which are outside the scope of this article). Thus the limits of Sri-Lankan society and, in a longer timescale, Sri-Lankan civilization are precisely the limits of the Sri-Lankan. As established in Colombo, the following are some of the limits of the typical Sri-Lankan:
CONSTRAINED IN THEIR RATIONALITY: Limited in coming up with and selecting amongst the best means to achieve desired ends.
ANTI-INTELLECTUAL: Believes that new and especially complicated ideas, theories and thoughts are unnecessary and impractical. And that the traditional and current stock of knowledge is more than sufficient to deal with any and all contingencies.
PETTY MINDED: Extremely sensitive and fragile. Takes everything personally. Reacts as a child would to anything that is not overtly positive.
PRONE TO JEALOUSY AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: As opposed to competing by increasing their own performance, competes by undercutting and sabotaging the growth efforts of others.
SUSPICIOUS: Adopts a default and stubborn position of mistrust of others and behaves accordingly.
MANIPULATIVE: Pursues objectives that require interactions with others by lying, exaggeration and understatement, omission and other such cunning and devious means.
INSULAR: Displays an irrational fear of outsiders.
NEPOTISTIC: Favours family and friends over those more deserving.
NOT INTRINSICALLY RULE AND LAW ABIDING: Not naturally inclined to follow rules and laws. Will only abide by rules, regulations and laws when induced to do so by rewards and punishment.
LACKS A WORK ETHIC: Will only put forth the bare minimum effort required to not lose employment. Anything more has to be induced with promise of reward.
Given these limits it is possible to make some general predictions:
THE ECONOMY WILL ALWAYS STAGNATE: Sri-Lanka’s GDP will never grow to the levels of the developed world. All economic reforms that have the potential to create significant and sustainable double-digit growth will be stymied by unions, politicians and the masses for short-term gain.
THE CANCER OF CORRUPTION WILL ALWAYS PROVE INCURABLE: From the President to the post office clerk, and the cop to the school principal—everybody will want a ‘something’, albeit the sum will vary relative to their position and power over you. Family and friends will always prosper at the expense of the talented.
LAW AND ORDER WILL ALWAYS BE LIMITED: If not Mahinda’s sons, then it will be Maithripala’s sons and then somebody else’s sons and daughters. The courts will be slow and the laws archaic. Those entrusted with enforcing the law will be at worst the greatest law breakers and at best will do little to nothing.
CHAOS WILL ALWAYS BE THE NORM: The roads will be full of homicidal and suicidal maniacs. Power outages and other utilities will regularly breakdown. Queues will never be formed. You will never be able to plan anything even so far as next week.
This is not an exhaustive list but you get the drift: Sri-Lanka will always be stuck just above the worst of the Third World. In the interests of giving a complete picture of what the future might look like, I must state despite all this life will gradually get better. It will get better out of no fault of Sri-Lankans of course. If you reach into your pocket, you will find a fantastically sophisticated device that would be indistinguishable from magic to a person living not more than fifty years ago. I am speaking of your cellphone. You see, technology is constantly advancing and, most importantly for the Third World, it is getting cheaper. And scientific technology unlike sociological technology (values, beliefs, thinking styles etc.) can easily be imported.
I can hear the comebacks now. If your comeback is to blame lack of resources—look at Japan. Japan is one of the most resource poor countries, and is regularly battered by natural disasters (where do you think the word tsunami comes from?). Whereas Nigeria is an extremely resource rich country, and it is worse off than Sri-Lanka. If your comeback is to blame colonialism—look at Malaysia. Malaysia has its problems but it is far better off than Sri-Lanka. If your comeback is to blame education—consider that education is merely a fruit of culture, and can change it as much as any fruit can change its mighty parent tree. From the textbooks to the administrators to the all-important teachers themselves, they all contain Sri-Lankan cultural DNA, and therefore cannot hope to forge past Sri-Lankan limits. And if your comeback is to blame politicians—ask yourself: are our politicians alien beings from another country or outer-space? No, they are very much fish from the same fish tank as you—infected by the same diseased water. And though you might not like to admit it, you will do exactly the same thing as they do given the same opportunity. Lastly, true to your Sri-Lankaness, you could point fingers at me—what is known as an ad hominem argument. Nevertheless, despite whatever shortcomings you will find in me (and you will find many), remember that doing this will keep my argument perfectly intact. Besides, I have done something
THE CGTW IS ENTIRELY
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