What do we see beyond the stratum of politicians? | Sunday Observer

What do we see beyond the stratum of politicians?

3 April, 2022

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”

–John Maynard Keynes

No sane person would try to deny that Sri Lanka is experiencing deep economic problems at the moment. There is plenty of blame to go around, some directed towards the present Government and some towards the previous one.

There are some who blame all the Governments since 1948 due to accumulated effects of different policy decisions implemented in the past. Almost always, it is the politician who is at the receiving end of the blame.

Some put the blame on the deterioration of the value system in the society that creates corrupt politicians. Others blame not only the politician but also all the participants in the game of corruption, including Government officials and industry leaders.

Economic problems

This is not a phenomenon unique only to Sri Lanka. Most of the countries, including the best economies in the world, are experiencing all types of economic problems due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the constraints created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Citizens of those countries also hold their politicians partly responsible while the rest of the blame is aimed at the experts who are supposed to advise the politicians in their decision-making process.

Reasons for such economic problems in any country at any given point in time can be a combination of all the above. In order to come out of such trouble then, people will have to address all such issues, some of it at the same time and the others perhaps at different times using different techniques.

For example, there is no point in receiving foreign aid as a measure of a life-support system for the sinking economy if the issue of corruption is not addressed before that. As we have seen time and time again, most of that aid will find comfortable resting places in those corrupt politicians’ and officials’ pockets.

Simply, plug the holes in the bucket before pouring water into it. Corruption is universal and it will exist until people attain a certain level of spiritual development through which the individual could easily understand the benefits of not being a part of it.

Bribery and corruption

In the present situation we do not have time to wait till people achieve such a level of spiritual development. Therefore, as a temporary measure, at least, we will have to place our trust in the judicial system and perhaps bring in stricter punishments and more efficient methods of surveillance regarding bribery and corruption.

Assuming that the corruption is minimised and the politicians in power are ready and willing to follow the advice of the experts, (disregarding how unrealistic such an assumption could be) then the reason for an economic meltdown as the one we are experiencing now can be due to a combination of wrong advice by the experts and bad decisions and implementations by policy makers and officials respectively.

Though we may never find anyone accepting the responsibility of giving such advice, making wrong decisions, or implementing bad decisions, the fact that we are in this economic mess proves that one or more of such things have taken place.

It would be more productive to look for the reasons behind such ignorance, wrong advice, wrong policies, or wrong implementations, than looking for individuals who may have been responsible for the mess.

Because, even if we find the individuals who knowingly or unknowingly gave the wrong advice, drafted the wrong policy, or implemented policies incorrectly and brought them to justice, there will be a new set of such people to repeat the process unless we remove the root cause (s) that creates susceptible environments for such actions.

Wrong implementation of policies could be intentional or unintentional. If intentional, that means it is either a part of the plan of the Government or a corrupt official trying to gain an undue advantage by doing that.

If it is unintentional, then that may be due to incompetence of the official in charge of the process, which could often be traced back to politically biased recruitment procedures.

Wrong policy

If the politicians are trying to get a wrong policy approved in the Parliament intentionally, then it is for their own benefit or to help a selected few of their supporters who would return the favor at some point of the politician’s career.

If the expert advisers are also quiet in this situation that often means that they are also a part of the beneficiaries in the deal, or they have suggested the wrong policy due to their ignorance.

If the wrong policies are introduced unintentionally that may be due to ignorance of the politicians and their advisers. Intentional wrong doings, by whichever entity, in every possible scenario can be attributed to the corrupt individuals and a group of silent bystanders who may or may not be concerned about the devastating effects of such corruption.

If the wrong doings are unintentional, then it is mainly due to the ignorance of the politician, the advisor and/or the official. Since all these individuals are members of our society, the only solution is to make sure that we elect, select, or appoint people who are knowledgeable and capable of handling their responsibilities.

Of course, to do that, members of the society should have that awareness because, ‘what one sees is what one knows’.

One other possible reason for economic disasters like this is that the theories and models used in the discipline of economics are not really working as economists have expected.

Perhaps when Adam Smith introduced the concept of the ‘invisible hand’, in 1759, to describe unseen forces that would work for the best interest of society through individual self-interest and freedom of production and consumption in a free market economy, he may not have thought about the possibility of invisible hands looting the Government coffers.

The writer has served in the higher education sector as an academic over twenty years in the USA and fifteen years in Sri Lanka and he can be contacted at [email protected]

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