Magsaysay Institute of Transformative LeadersChennai. India. 2012 May 3-7.

Some Reflections on approaching urgent development problems

I wish to thank the Chairperson and members of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for inviting me for this Inaugural Conference of Transformative Leaders. Also I wish to congratulate the Foundation for establishing this new Institute to reflect, exchange ideas and experiences and express their views on contemporary global problems. I am happy that this conference gave me an opportunity to see Dr. M.S.Swaminathan and his Institute once again and pay my respect to him. As both of us are octogenarians it is important that we meet as often as possible and enhance our health and life span to serve the world a little bit longer. Similarly, it is always an inspiration for me to meet the Board and staff members of the Foundation as well as our dear fellow awardees.

I received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1969. While this award gave me recognition for the work we were doing, it also thrust upon me as the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement’s principal initiator a great responsibility. Of course such a prestigious Award inevitably raises jealousies among people who do service to others with ulterior motives. However as my motivation to serve was a spiritual one I had the courage to bear all the difficulties I had to face from such people.

After the Magsaysay award I have received 27 International awards up to this year. Some of these carried a monetary award. I did not

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use any of these moneys personally for me or the members of my family but invested these for the promotion of the Sarvodaya Movement and its objectives. With the Magsaysay Award prize money I started the first ever Development Education Training Centers and programs in Sri Lanka. Similarly with other award moneys I established Vishwa Niketan, an International Peace and Meditation Training Centre, established a Sarvodaya Trust Fund to give recognition yearly to those who had contributed to promote Humanity, Development and Peace in Sri Lanka and to encourage spiritual awakening and inter-religious and inter-racial harmony.

From the time we started the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka in 1958 up to today, that is for over fifty years, we have followed a non-violent path to bring about social, economic and political justice to all people nationally and globally based on a strong spiritual, moral and cultural foundation as relevant to each community joining the organization. Development Education at all levels, a variety of programs pertaining to all the six sectors mentioned above and establishing the needed organizational structures were the three means with which we implemented all our activities to bring the transformation we believed in. Sarvodaya always upheld the principles of people’s fullest participation in development, protection of environment, maintaining an ecological balance, minimum use of non-renewable fossil fuel-based energies, simple styles of living, and community self-governance especially pertaining to economic activities and good governance.

At the same time Sarvodaya right through opposed the use of nuclear energy, measuring people’s economic wellness by the

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macro-measures like Gross National Product, Per capita Income and Growth, destruction of forests, chemical pollution of soil, water and air, and multi-million dollar macro projects, global investors grabbing our lands and so on, all these carried out in the name of rapid development of our country. We believe that increasingly centralized political control and militarization of our country in spite of the fact that we faced an unprecedented terrorist attack for three decades do not augur well for our people. We have to devise and innovate new non-violent ways to combat poverty and terrorism and maintain law and order.

During the past five decades we have been accustomed to hear various models and plans advocated and targets set by the technocrats and bureaucrats of United Nations’ specialized agencies, the World Bank and other global bodies to solve the basic problems human society is facing. First it was UN development decades. Then a Year or a Decade was allocated for every conceivable subject such as poverty, health, education, environment, water, sustainability, housing, and so on and lots of funds were allocated and spent to achieve these goals. Undoubtedly certain benefits came to the people in certain sectors like health but the over all global problems, according to my view, remain the same or got more aggravated.

Now the latest popular phrase the Institute has selected for this conference is “Advancing the Green Economy and Inclusive Growth” – Fresh Solutions to Asia’s Urgent Development Problems.

As a voluntary people’s participatory development organization or a civil sector body the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri

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Lanka has always functioned within the laws of the country never resorting to anti-government or violent or power political activities. Therefore, whenever a government approved UN initiative was implemented we cooperated fully with them if they were within our development goals, philosophy and principles. The latest example is Millennium Goals, which is slowly getting ignored today. With every change in our governments’ and UN or World Bank officials’ priorities, we in the voluntary or non-governmental sector cannot change our goals or priorities which are long term ones. Ours is a long term approach principally based on values such as Equal Treatment and Justice for All, Non-Exploitation of the Poor and Protection of the Environment and Ecological stability. After all when we consider what is expected of a Green Economy, as we understand it, is the same we have been trying to practice for over fifty years. My honest opinion is that the need of the hour is a radical transformation of the thinking on the part of decision-makers from the national level to international level.

We cannot any longer look at our local problems in isolation from regional or global contexts. They are all interconnected and interdependent. The terrorism that prevailed in Sri Lanka is a good example to illustrate this. It was promoted, supported and sustained by interested parties outside. Therefore, while we give our consideration to local and regional factors we should always perceive these problems from a global perspective. This is the reason why I cannot answer the four questions relating to Green Economy paused by the organizers of this conference. I am a strong believer in a global approach.

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During the 54 years of evolution of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement we have gone through several stages in the pursuit of our goals. First of these were educating and demonstrating to the people and decision making authorities, that by revitalizing ancient spiritual and cultural values and harnessing the voluntary labour of the community and the local resources most of the basic needs of the people could be satisfied. Up to 15,000 villages out of a total of just over 30,000 in the country Sarvodaya demonstrated that the proper utilization of the biggest resource in the nation, namely, people’s labour can bring about a tremendous change in their villages. Secondly we succeeded in building physical, social, organizational and legal infrastructure for almost half the rural if communities in Sri Lanka which could have been used to educate people to practice sustainable development. Thirdly at the national, provincial and legal levels Sarvodaya established relevant specialized services in fields such as alternative energy systems, appropriate technologies, skills in building needed financial capital for the community, providing legal education to create awareness of people’s rights and responsibilities and so on.

As I see the biggest obstacle in the realization of these lofty goals set up by UN is the obstinate policies of central authorities who pay scant respect for real people’s needs, their wisdom, expectations and participation in policy formulation and their implementation. They control everything for some time and go away giving their places to others.

Under these circumstances the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement inaugurated a national awakening Movement two years ago called Deshodaya to bring about a non-violent transformation in the

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consciousness of the people, the way people perceived the economy and the political structures through which people seek to experience good governance.

I am annexing to this paper two documents, namely, Sarvodaya Approach to the New Century – Deshodaya National Assembly, and our latest Annual Report for your perusal at your leisure. Thank You.

By Dr.A.T.Ariyaratne,Founder and President of Sarvodaya Inc.,Email: atariyaratne@gmail.comWeb: www.sarvodaya.orgMobile: + 94 777 899 196Sarvodaya Headquarters,No.98,Rawatawatta Road,Moratuwa.SRI LANKA

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