Sri Lankans; how we have navigated the world, but continue to fail our own
I have to be brutally honest. As a Sri Lankan living abroad, it is rather heart warming to see my little country in the Indian Ocean mentioned in international news for something other than, say, alleged human- rights violations or Beyonce’s sweat shops.
This was made possible by Jeff Bezos here (you know, just the wealthiest guy in the world) when during his interview at the Economic Club in Washington DC, talks about Smart Sri Lankan guy ‘Yoshanta’ and the video went low- key viral. ‘Yoshanta’ solved a math problem he was agonising for hours and Bezos realised he was never going to be a theoretical physicist that could make an impact. And then he founded Amazon. (well not quite, but you know how the story goes.)
Turns out that Bezos’s ‘Yoshanta’ is actually Yasantha Rajakarunanayake, now a Senior Director at MediaTek, San Francisco.
The tough path of getting there
Over the years quite a few Sri Lankans have made their mark in many a field, including science and tech. In 2016, Nipuni Palliyaguru, a post-doc at Texas Tech University was part of the team that detected gravitational waves for the first time. NASA also employs a notable number of Sri Lankan- Americans, including the infamous Sarath Gunapala, Fellow of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Same goes with industry, particularly software, with companies like WSO2 founded by Sanjiva Weerawarna handling a major share of the world’s e-commerce platforms. Students from University of Moratuwa, beat all others worldwide in Google Summer of Code almost annually, despite it being no where near even the top 500 universities of the world. (it’s my alma mater too, so I say this with pride)
But why is this such big a deal?
It is a big deal because even with a medium income GDP of USD 87 Billion as of 2017, expenditure for R&D for Science & Technology is virtually non- existent. It’s a mere 0.1% and the sad little dot sits stagnant on this graph, going down, if going anywhere at all. We still rely on an archaic education system introduced by the British, that is both outdated and segregated into classes, races, genders. On top of that, students have to navigate their way through an intensive examination based curriculum, that has no sympathy to those who do not conform to it. It IS ‘free’, right up to university education, with even the poorest paying for it with their packet of milk in taxes, but that’s about it.
Both generation X-ers and millennials have spent the majority of their lives stifled by an ongoing war, between Tamil separatist group LTTE in the north and the government. Bomb blasts were commonplace in and around major towns, and did I mention they invented the suicide bomb vest?
Politically, it has been and still is chaos, even after nearly 10 years after the war ended. The system is corrupted to a level that people enter into politics just to earn money. Wait, let me re- phrase that. Just to STEAL public money. No sane, educated individual would enter into that pandemonium of thuggery, drugs and underhand dealings.
The result of all these?
Brain Drain
As much as I am proud of all the achievers stationed around the world, it is sad that Sri Lanka has been unable to retain this much needed talent for its own economic growth. The country has been unable to provide the stability, opportunities, income and quality of life that these individuals would aspire to.
And it’s not just the academics and intellectuals. With government policies changing at the blink of an eye, impractical customs regulations and taxes, and volatile foreign relations, business investments are stagnant. With lack of jobs, continual rise in living expenses and the ever- falling value of the Rupee (it just hit a record low against the US dollar this week), blue collars also migrate in search solely of a better income, often living in dire conditions abroad.
Too much history, too little of a future
Most Sri Lankans would only be happy to elaborate how we have a long history of 2500 years, how our kings built one of the greatest irrigation systems in human history and how because this is the ‘land of the Buddha’ we are culturally superior to those ‘Western folks’. Right?
In Sri Lanka, the ‘Western folks’ are bad because they drink (Sri Lankans drink a hell lot more, but mostly the illicit stuff), they wear bikinis and short dresses (rape, child rape in Sri Lanka is one of the highest in the world), but mostly because sex is a free concept. (Sri Lankans don’t have sex, babies are found on lily pads on lakes) Do I hear anything about honestly working at your job? Respecting road rules? Being respectful to all? Nope.
How we fail
Where Sri Lanka fails majorly is the forming, strengthening and maintaining autonomy of public institutions. These institutions responsible for major sectors such as education, health and infrastructure continue to be riddled by petty party politics, swaying in favour of whichever party is in power. Their resources are misused and employees polarised; those that accommodate politicians’ wishes versus the frustrated minority of honest officers trying to do their job.
This has a rippling effect over all of society reaching public services from everything to the country’s national airline to its education- governing bodies to the healthcare system to its police force. The private sector then adapts accordingly, handing out ‘favours’ to get contracts and obtain profits.
Why we fail
I believe, inherently, the majority of Sri Lankans are selfish, just plain lazy and have just no clue on how to engage with this thing called democracy. (I can say this without being politically incorrect because I AM a Sri Lankan citizen and have no intention of changing my citizenship)
We are selfish because the reason we help a stranger, engage in charity, is to obtain pin (good merit) for the next life. We give dansal (free food to strangers) just because it’s fun and maybe is a good way to portray our wealth. We are lazy in such a way that if it’s not OUR problem, it’s not A problem. This is in steep contrast to what I observed here in the US, for example, when the whole university population fought for our scholarships to be tax- free, and won. There is no sense of community and little sense of a greater cause. And we can not digest democracy because, “oh it’s so tiring to think of all these policies and issues, let me just worship this God- like politician for all eternity.”
What ifs…
We need to fix our problems of attitude, respect and value, and how can we do that? Certainly not with religion, that road has long closed.
What if, we have a police force with fit, well- trained police officers who are well paid to enforce those laws of respect and value? What if, we have an unbiased and efficient legal system that stands above all? What if, we set a minimum education level for entry into parliament, to ensure that policy- makers know their shit? What if, we create a kind of patriotism, one that teaches that service to your country in whatever job you do, will be the ultimate merit?
If we ever do succeed in this, then maybe we will be able to create a good quality of life for all. Maybe we can win life, for our own people, just as our own people have won the world. Then maybe, me with my 15 letter long surname, along with my longer- name fellow citizens will have a country that we can be proud of.
