An interview I gave to a Sri Lankan paper, where I pointed to the lack of an evidence-based policy debate on economic issues in Sri Lanka, seemed to have struck a chord. An economist friend wrote, "When we speak out we are labeled as ‘terrorists.’" The head of a Colombo-based think-tank, the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), wrote "Your comments on the lack of an evidence-based economic debate in Sri Lanka is hitting our email networks and websites, and is something we’ve been discussing for sometime within CEPA, in the wider context of development and poverty eradication. Accordingly we decided to shift the focus of the year’s Annual Symposium on Poverty Research, and to organise it around "Communicating Research, Influencing Change". Recently, I was reminded of this episode when I saw in a Sri Lankan newspaper the picture on the left with the caption:

Which way the economy…?

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

"Which way is Sri Lanka’s economy heading; up, down or out of the window?" seems to be the question raised by World Bank Country Director in Sri Lanka Naoko Ishii to member of the Economic Council Dr. Saman Kelegama after the launch of his book ‘WTO and South Asia’ on Friday. Pic D. Banduwardena

The picture and caption elicited the following insightful comment from a colleague:
" I suspect this means that the media has (1) a lot of interest in the topic of the economy and of reforms, but little serious information or capacity to write in an informed, well-reasoned way, and (2) that each media outlet is afraid to write/talk about the economy in their own name because they fear they would be singled out and possibly victimized. So there is both a capacity and a critical mass problem (i.e. absence of safety in numbers)...Meanwhile, the media is hiding behind the Bank to actually pass on important coded messages not to us but to the government. But this further exacerbates the "low-level dialogue trap," since these somewhat mischievous reports of one-on-one interactions between the Bank and policymakers in Sri Lanka create no legitimate public space where other media or observers can engage. This suits a myopic government, but not the country."