How The Old Economic Triad Is Becoming The New Cockup
Rajan Philips
Land, exports and infrastructure: How the old economic triad is becoming the new cockup
The process of colonial economic development is common knowledge. Vast stretches of land were consumed by the development of plantation agriculture producing tea. The tea plantations were export oriented, while the plantation labour was immigrant-based. The colonial government used tax revenue from export earnings to build infrastructure – roads, rail, ports, electricity, and water & sanitary services – primarily to service the plantations but extending the infrastructure across the country. The process limped along after independence with inconsistent and ill-executed modifications: land alienation for irrigation and agriculture for internal colonization and food production (under UNP governments); crude attempts at industrialization via state corporations (SLFP governments): and ‘open sesame’ after 1977 (totalitarian presidential governments). But the old economic triad is becoming the new cockup and in unprecedented ways under the stewardship of the Rajapaksa government. How so?
The change from the old triad to the new cockup could be illustrated by the four bottom line considerations of social, economic, financial and environmental impacts. It is fair to say that the articulation of land, exports and infrastructure in colonial times was primarily based on financial considerations. The analyses of social, economic and environmental impacts did not figure as prominently as financial considerations, nor were the methodologies for analyzing and dealing with those impacts available in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But these methodologies and practices are now standard practice in public policy and public investment in most countries. They were standard practices in Sri Lanka too for the first three decades after independence but not anymore.
