Relishing on the liberal electoral process and propaganda machinery, political parties of the country over the years have been painting a promising picture of the prosperity to the voter to capture their vote. Once secured power, the promises were easily forgotten. Decades of experience with different political regimes have more than demonstrated the appalling gap between promise and performance- unfortunately never as at present. The widespread excruciating misery before our very eyes bears witness. Had a people-centred development program been effectively implemented, the country would have been spared the humility being thrust on her even with a minimum essentials becoming so hard to come by.
While a struggle by some frustrated youth has been going on for some time, the country is being pushed into a state of severe economic hardship. A well-articulated development program with a clear national vision is a sin quo non, to qualify for bi-lateral and international financial support to address pressing needs on financial, and economic fronts.
In this backdrop, it is opportune to examine The Tipitaka, wherein a similar situation is reported, which points formulae for good governance. Kutadanta sutta in the Digha Nikaya illustrates the past story where the life of ordinary masses were threatened due to economic hardships. The ruler of the land being unaware of the people’s difficulty, used to carry on with the State affairs unperturbed, later changed the course adopting a people friendly vision and a development strategy that was found to be beneficial to the entire society.
The incident referred to in this discourse is a birth story where the Bodhisatta was born as the Chief Minister of great king, Mahavijitha. It happened that once in a frontier region of the kingdom, there erupted an agitation by the masses. The cause was hunger due to shortage of basic necessities. The masses lost all forms of livelihood- their crops failed, animals famished, those engaged in self occupations had no access to raw materials and so on.
The masses were idling with no productive work, so that they resorted to stealing, robbing from those who have excess food. Those traders passing through their territory with loads of food were looted and harassed. This caused fear, anxiety among the people and that led to a breakdown of peace and harmony in the society. This state of affairs is named “dassu khila”, a piercing peg, which caused disruption of peaceful living in the region.
The king and the council of ministers were unaware of the struggle. Their priority was conducting the annual event – a sacrificial ceremony involving hundreds of animals and a variety of rich food items for the performance. The king was also praised by the ministers of the likely gains - fame and prosperity to the kingdom. The Chief Minister who is the Bodhisatta, took a different view.
He drew the King’s attention to the Dassu khila, (an agitation by the irritated masses). The Chief Minister while praising the concept of a sacrificial ceremony proposed that it would be most productive if it be carried out as a means of appeasing the agitating masses in the frontier region. The proposal embodied a strategic plan with a clearly spelt out action Program, covering three areas:
Food production
This strategy aims at increased food production by making available the inputs such as seed, planting material, tools and implements and so on for those who were engaged in farming.
For those engaged in animal farming to be buttressed by providing basic inputs like gracing fields, captive areas for animal breeding and so on.
Both these groups of farmers must also be given support until such time that their activities are accomplished and yield is ready for harvesting. The farmers must be ensured that they get their daily bread until they reap their harvest. Specific Pali phrase used to stress the importance of this aspect is “bijabhattam anuppadetu”.
Market place for produce
The next important Action in the program deals with the yield. Here, the “role of the buyer/purchaser” is crucial and it is the responsibility of the State to facilitate with funds/resources. The harvest goes through a series of stages involving post-harvest preparation/processing/preserving and so on facilitating a variety of labour intensive activities where women, children and elderly could be engaged as part time occupation. This activity is mentioned in the discourse by the Pali term “sakamma pasutā” which means avenues of opportunities for self-employed. Those engaged in trading plays a central role in moving the stuff from the sweatshop to the market place. The Pali phrase used in the text is “pābhatam anuppadetu”, which means the traders be given choice to take action at will, so that no hurdles will be there to sell the produce.
Role of the State official
The third most important action area is the role of the State official. They are accountable for the final outcome of the production process while personally attending to see to the success. Their role entails Supervision, Review/Evaluation and Adjustment as necessary, as it is put in the modern planning jargon. The services of the State official is so crucial that they are to be paid additional allowance to meet the expenses to be incurred visiting outstations. Pali phrase used in the text read as the “bhattavetanam anuppadetu”
Sri Lanka has over the past four decades resorted to the adoption of numerous development strategies and programs. However, when evaluating and analysing the outcomes of these planning efforts, many glaring drawbacks are visible and a few critical ones can be listed as follows:
Lack of a clear and well-articulated national vision for social and economic development for the country.
Lack of carefully selected strategies to correspond with the national vision.
No consensus on criteria to screen projects to be carried out to reach the national vision and goals.
Action performance is reported in isolation, largely on project basis.
Financial expenditure is used as a measurement of progress in production related sectors.
No emphasis given to prioritise value addition options, especially in agriculture and plantation sectors which have a greater potential in foreign exchange earnings.
No recognition of area wise spread of development benefits, streamed in the national strategic plans.
Allocation of funds for priority projects does not correlate with the national priority sectors.
It is sad to note that Sri Lanka has missed the opportunity to bring prosperity to her people over the past several decades, where her neighbours in the South Asian region bypassing her in leaps and bounds. We can take a leaf from their experience where the strategy of medium to long term plans are being adopted to guide their national development planning process.
The learning experience to be drawn from the Kutadanta sutta is crucial in several fronts, first and foremost it emphasises clear assessment of the problem at hand, like what, where, how while clearly articulating the root causes.
When the basic characteristics of the causes are known, the solutions become evident. It is a matter of their ranking based on the implementation feasibility and availability resources, first and foremost committing the local resources before searching for the avenues for foreign or local debt.
Sri Lanka’s success in adopting a home grown solution in the construction of the Gal Oya Irrigation Development Project is a case in point which should be seriously studied by Sri Lankan professionals and guide political masters.
The masses of the Kingdom of Mahavijitha faced similar hardships but were able to overcome them through a well-articulated action strategy by the Chief Minister is unique. This goes along with the current popular jargon “an inclusive development strategy”. The outcome of implementing it addresses the problem in a holistic way; the material aspect as well as an emotional aspect.
The indicators listed in the Kutadanta sutta vividly elucidate several Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) which are currently being accepted by project evaluation specialists elsewhere. The indicators mentioned in this discourse are unique and they are people focused, expressed in terms of family response and societal harmony. The Pali phrases with their content is as follows.
khematthitājanapadā–a non-agitating and a peaceful society/community.
akantakā, anuppilā manussā – a community untroubled, not distressful, and free from harassment by others.
modamānā ureputte naccanāa- contented family enjoying the playful home atmosphere with children.
aparuta gharā– free from neighbourhood threats where they keep home doors unlocked as no fear and suspicion of losing their belongings.
manne viharissanti – living at peace free of both mental and physical distress.
The overall benefits of implementing the development strategy can be enumerated as follows:
Strengthened production economy, economic prosperity restored, people’s livelihood secured, food shortage mitigated, mental fear and suspicion removed, happy family environment and a peaceful society.
What can we learn from this analysis?
Kutadanta sutta adopts a people friendly development approach by which the people are the direct beneficiaries.
The benefits spill over to the other areas flourishing trade and self-employment opportunities to people.
State officials are made accountable by giving a freehand to see to the success or delivery of the expected output.
Overall development impact is measured by using the criterion of “contented society”.
Historical evidence can be traced to the fact that the formulae cited in Kutadanta sutta had been adopted by Emperor Asoka who ruled India 250 years ago after the passing away of the Buddha. The rock edicts xv and xvi state that the intention of Asoka was to see to that his efforts are meant for the happiness of all people. These rock edit points to the vision of the King Asoka that his intention is to see to that “all people are my children (save munisa mama paja). The wish, hope and love of the ordinary masses to their ruler (State official) is reflected in the Buddhist dictum “rājā bhavatu dhammiko” May the ruler be just.
It is the responsibility of the ruler and the State officials to ensure that there are smooth ways and methods are put in place to enable the deliver the expected benefits to the people. For this it is crucial that national planning process of the country be strengthened with staff capacity to shoulder this lofty task, which has been eroded over the past several years.
Mallika Karunaratne, PhD
[email protected]
[email protected]
Member, Sri Lanka Planning Service
Retired Ministry Secretary, 2004-2010