Harnessing national unity for economic growth

To promote growth, one of the prerequisites is to unify the country’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious population behind the developmental effort.

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The government has made a commendable start by convincing all sections of society that they will be treated as equal citizens with no discrimination. In the past, the war and the ensuing political instability kept foreign investors away. Even though more than 16 years have passed since the end of the war, foreign investment has still not materialised on the scale seen in much of the rest of Asia. Among the many reasons for this reluctance for foreign companies to invest have been high levels of corruption which the government is tackling in an exemplary way and bureaucratic delays, which, unfortunately, appear to have worsened.

But just as crucial to the country’s abysmal failure to attract foreign investment has been the failure to heal the wounds of war. This is evident in the recurring sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The government, therefore, needs to show the same level of commitment in dealing with the several UNHRC resolutions, notably the 2015 Resolution 30/1, followed by Resolutions 34/1, 40/1, 46/1 and 51/1 that the country has been compelled to deal with since the end of the war in 2009. Unfortunately, the indications are that the government believes that following the IMF prescriptions is more important for the country than the UNHRC recommendations. The sense conveyed is that IMF outcomes are top priority while reconciliation obligations have been put to the back-burner with the engine of development working on half-burner.