The political arena today is filled with promises about granting relief and transforming the people’s lives with salary hikes, jobs, decreased cost of living, and tax cuts. Almost every Presidential candidate promises to provide relief, while the President claims that he can extend and expand the relief that he has already provided.

As appealing as these promises sound, none have explained how they will fund their pledges. It also shows the sorry state of Sri Lanka’s politics in the prevailing socio-economic climate. Most of these promises revolve around the most basic needs such as food, housing, utility, education, and medicine. Over seven decades following Independence, the biggest promise Sri Lankan Presidential candidates can give today is to improve access to basic needs, and that is an unfortunate situation which highlights the collective failure of successive governments. At the same time, the implementation of many of these promises are questionable because of the present economic situation. These candidates seem to be ready to spend money that the country does not have, conveniently forgetting the fact that it is that very practice that resulted in the economic crisis in the first place.

Sri Lanka’s depth of poverty is bigger than what the official statistics claim. Further the poverty people face today is different from the poverty that we knew several decades ago. It is also different from what politicians portray it to be. A good example is the Government’s claim that it has ended the era of queues. While queues may be few are far apart today, many do not have the purchasing power to keep their home afloat even with all that is available to buy on the shop shelf. What was an issue of accessibility and availability when there were queues to access them, has now morphed into an issue of affordability. The nature and gravity of poverty have also changed. According to experts, many families have had to reduce daily food intake, sometimes to two meals a day, and overall poverty has increased up to one-third of the population. Studies conducted by various entities during the past two-three years, support these claims.

Providing people with short-term reliefs to obtain essentials is a necessary response. However, that is a response to the symptoms of the issue, and it does not address the root causes of the issue. Without addressing the root causes, the impacts will emerge again and again. That is why, at least now, candidates aspiring to become the country’s leader should go beyond traditional politics based on reliefs, allowances, and temporary price reductions. They need to be better than this, and they need to come to terms with the reality that meaningful economic recovery must include robust social safety nets and programmes that are aimed at protecting the people from the undesirable impacts of the economic crisis, not keeping them in poverty.

These short-term election promises dressed up as long-term plans not having the capacity to eradicate poverty is only the tip of the iceberg. The implementation of these election promises, which whoever wins in the Presidential Election will somehow fulfil, will most likely beget long-term issues. For example, the country is not in a position to give tens of thousands of Rupee salary increments to public employees. The implementation of such will require that the Government increases its revenue by billions of Rupees, which, needless to say, will result in tax hikes, loans, or printing money. Such actions will in turn worsen many economic issues including inflation and poverty.

Therefore, instead of what Presidential candidates are promising to provide, the people should be prudent enough to ask how those promises will be fulfilled.

At the same time, the candidates should not stoop to a level where they give short-term reliefs knowing fully well that those reliefs will worsen the economic situation. Instead, while continuing their fight against each other in other spheres, they can unite when it comes to addressing poverty. Addressing poverty is an arduous mission that requires decades as well as continued and consistent efforts that transcend through many governments. That is why these candidates, if they truly care about the people and the country, should come with a long plan supported by concrete policies. 

There needs to be broad support, cross-party support for such an endeavour. Long term, impactful plans and actions to address poverty will be beneficial to both the people and rulers. We must act quickly, effectively and collectively elevate nearly one third of our population from poverty, if not we will be left dealing with the long-term impact for generations to come.