A PARADISE ON STEROIDS
Many indicators suggest that all is not quite well in paradise isle
This nation is blessed with hospitable and resilient people, an enviable geographic location and a landscape that boasts just about everything that travellers from many other nations envy.
It has overcome adversity many times over since gaining independence from colonial Britain in 1948, floating as it has in the choppiest of waters in numerous ‘sink or swim’ scenarios that have by and large been created by the people its people have voted into power.
In slang speak, ‘steroids’ includes a popular descriptive idiom used to describe exaggerated hyper-powered versions of everyday things, which may depict the state of the nation at this critical juncture.
On the economic front, the balance of payments continues to hang on a cliff edge – at least partly due to the conflict in the Middle East – with the trade deficit at risk of ballooning against a backdrop of high oil prices and external reserves also on the fiscal watch list. All of this amid yet another spike in inflation and a currency that continues to lose ground.
Meanwhile – and amid a raging dengue epidemic – controversies surrounding the nation’s governance and justice system have turned the spotlight on constitutional reforms while little if anything has been heard about the government’s overarching promise to abolish the executive presidency.
The government’s election manifesto also pledged a renaissance that would transform Sri Lanka into a thriving nation.
But while the anti-corruption crackdown steamrolls into overdrive, the nation has witnessed unrest in a number of prisons, and reports of a thriving underworld, drug cartels and other criminals have taken centre stage in recent weeks.
As one Sunday broadsheet put it recently, “Asian criminals are betting on Sri Lanka.”
It reported that “Sri Lanka is investigating online gambling operations as the South Asian island and its Port City Special Economic Zone gain ground as a safe haven for criminal syndicates…”
The rot has even spread to the game Sri Lankans love with the recently concluded Lanka Premier League (LPL) getting off to an inauspicious start when a co-owner of arguably its premier franchise was arrested over allegations of plans to fix matches.
And the fact that the LPL, which completed its sixth edition on 8 August, has failed to catch the eye of the nation’s rich corporates and celebrities – including past cricketers of repute – tells a story, as did the empty stadiums around the country during what should be an annual showpiece of our cricketing talent.
So while the citizenry waits to see the light of day – and the ‘beautiful life’ that they were promised at election time – far too many of its talent continues to fuel an unprecedented brain drain in search of saner pastures.
If there is light at the end of the dark tunnel we’re in, we have yet to catch a glimpse of it.
– Editor-in-Chief
