Increasing divisions between the haves and have-nots
In the wake of its resounding victory at the March 17 local council election, the government is reported to have decided to set up a powerful Metropolitan Corporation to oversee the work of Colombo Municipal Council, the Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council, the Kotte Municipal Council and others in the greater Colombo area. Questions are raised if this go against the principles of de-centralization.
We in Sri Lanka today seem to be lacking in historical perspectives. That means we do not seem to have learnt our lessons from the war which ended in May 2009. The concern is that one of the root causes of this was the failure to de-centralize or devolve power especially to the ethnic minorities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
About 20 years ago, Dr. Shelton Wanasinghe a well known public servant turned international civil servant, at a forum to discuss the concept of the Constitution and de-centralization said that within Sri Lanka much could be done at grassroots level in local areas by the people there and for the people there.
We need to ascertain if this will help in making economic development people-centered or service-centered and help or hinder the process of finding a solution to the crisis that led to the southern and northern youth insurrection from the late 1960s. Thankfully, in recent times the divisions are not so much minority versus the majority as it has been for decades, but more so to divisions between the haves and have-nots.In 1994 the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration said it would have an open economy with a human face, which meant effective steps for a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.
In the context of the wide and growing gap between the rich and the poor, can centralizing economic development really help the poor?
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