EDITORIAL

Engineers, the real ‘Aragalaya’ is yours

Our country is passing one of the most difficult periods in our lifetime. Foreign exchange crisis that followed the Covid pandemic has created a huge disaster in the socio-economic lifestyle of people and resulted an unrest. Sri Lankan professionals including engineers are awaiting to say goodbye to the motherland at any moment they find an opportunity overseas. The wise sones and daughters of the country who never wanted to leave the country throughout their lives has now become frustrated about their lives here. The loss of worthy citizens to the country due to migration or permanent foreign employment will aggravate the plight of the country.

If engineers move away from Sri Lanka, most of the time they could have a higher standard of living than staying here. We can be successful within our personal family circles once we migrate or at least leave the country for an employment. However, when professionals like engineers whom to be at the driving seat of an economy of a country, leave for their own well-being due these obvious reasons, the country is at a huge loss. On the other hand, we need to seriously consider about our national responsibility to contribute this nation that nourished us since our birth. Though the there are thousands of justifications to leave the country, as engineers, we need to think whether there are any other options for us to survive and thrive while staying in the country. Blaming the corrupted and greedy politicians is easy, but we should not forget our national duty to serve our mother nation.

The trade centric economic model that Sri Lanka is following for over forty years heavily demands a skillful proactive balance of the foreign exchange inflow and outflow. If the plight of the country can be summarized into a single reason in economic terms, its nothing but the mismanagement of the balance of payment. In the known history we have become a consumer nation that hardly produce any value added nor high-tech exports. The raw primary exports will not yield the competitive edge in the modern international marketplace. In order to get out of this vicious cycle of high consumption and low exports, the input of the creative engineers is vital. Engineers should lead the national economy in front with their expertise. No country in the world has developed without developing a well-planned export sector unless it has natural resources.

Therefore, the call of the engineering fraternity today is to take the country forward by involved in manufacturing of high-end value-added products and components to the global value chains. As it is the duty of the profession, we should think of sailing the country out of this worst economic storm, rather than trying to escape from the disaster and succeed personally. This is the newer version of ‘Aragalaya’ that engineers can lead to save the country out of this situation.

Eng. Suran Fernando
Editor, SLEN
suran.fernando@gmail.com
editor.slen@iesl.lk