Sri Lanka needs systems, not people

Originally appeared on The Morning

By Dhananath Fernando

Time to stop looking for heroes or magicians, and start looking for systems

The first time I saw a vending machine as a little boy I was awestruck. I insert coins and pick the product I want to consume and the machine automatically serves it! I had a thousand questions as to how it operated. First I thought there must be a man inside the machine who sees what I order and counts the money and serves me from behind the machine. I was confused as to how the machine identifies the value of the coin and notes; as a kid, I myself got the values of the coins mixed up. Since both the products and coins are together, what if someone steals the entire machine at night? How do they refill the bottles and how do they collect the cash? All sorts of questions were crossing my mind.

Later on, I realised there is a proper system established to run the vending machine with precision, like clockwork. In other words, there is a system in place to run a system. Today, when I see a vending machine I am not surprised. I am only surprised as to why it is not commonly available in Sri Lanka.

If I compare Sri Lanka to a vending machine, most often we place a human behind the machine instead of “setting a system” to run the “system”. Then, we fail miserably and wonder where we got things messed up. As a result, we fall back to square one and point fingers at each other and pass the responsibility to former politicians who have been in office and sometimes the blame game ends with the common citizen being the culprit when things go really wrong. Often we tell ourselves at crowded places: “Why can’t people just stay in the line?” without understanding that people don’t stay in the line not because they don’t like staying in line, but because of the absence of a token queue system.  

Many political scientists interpreted the mandate received by His Excellency the President as a mandate for a “system change”; to set up processes and procedures to ensure things operate smoothly and conveniently without any interruptions and delays. One common mistake we often make is just trying to establish a “system” without setting up a “system to set up the system”. It is the same as placing a man behind a vending machine instead of automating it.

Over the years, we have tried to set up the “system” just by using muscle power and brute force or relying on the negotiation skills and the influence of those with close political connections, rather than setting up institutions to ensure checks and balances. As a result, unsurprisingly, none of the systems have proven sustainable nor have they delivered the expected results. It has only given us hit-or-miss results, sometimes positive but mostly negative.

A good case study for the above would be the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka outperformed the rest of the world in its first phase. However, we have drastically lost our grip and the momentum we previously had in this second wave of the virus which is much larger in scale. When the cases were limited and numbers were small, it was at a scale where people’s skills were able to manage it with somewhat strict mobility controls.

However, we did not have the systems in place to face a pandemic on a larger scale and to study it scientifically and increase testing capacity. We diverted our focus and could not reduce the lead time for testing and increase accessibility. We did not have the institutions and mechanisms to collectively enforce guidelines to overcome a health crisis and as a result, we have to depend on our muscle power by transferring most of the responsibilities to our respected tri-forces and the Sri Lanka Police. Even after the first round experience of a Covid-19 cluster at the Sri Lanka Navy, we couldn’t avoid a second cluster in the Sri Lanka Police which was at the forefront of the Covid-19 battle according to the structure of containment.

Simply, we did not have “systems” to “set up systems” and throughout, the attempt was to “set up systems” by appointing people we believe are trustworthy and competent. Of course, appointing trustworthy skilful humans is a main element of a system transformation, but the mandate of the trustworthy people has to be to “set up a system” to “run the system” instead of just setting up the system to react based on the incidents taking place.

When it comes to business and investment, things are no different. One main challenge faced by most Sri Lankan entrepreneurs when they enter joint ventures with overseas companies is that the foreign company requests 51% of the shares. The reason is, if there is a legal dispute, being a minority shareholder, the investment would not be worthwhile due to the time and money they have to spend to resolve the case in Sri Lanka’s notoriously slow legal system. The first step to fixing the judiciary system is to have a system to set up systems and fix systems. It has to start from the top to the bottom, covering all aspects of the system.

Another common mistake in attempting to set up systems is trying to fix one system at a time. Though it looks practical, a governance system even in a small country like Sri Lanka is very complicated. Taking one problem at a time works in some cases but in this case when you take one case at a time the other systems mount an opposition to this and bring down the system that we try to fix. That is why we need rapid reform across all sectors of the governance system, setting up high-level institutions to “set the system” right.

Setting up systems starts from institutions. Those institutions should function independently, transparently, and democratically while ensuring equal opportunity to everybody. Institutions should be open and accessible to all sorts of ideas on a selected issue before they reach the decision-making level. Checks and balances have to be ensured. That is how we understand all sides of the problem and reduce the margin of error in our decision-making process in public policy.

People who establish systems should be able to see the broader picture and matters from a holistic approach. For example, from the perspective of prioritising healthcare, extending the lockdown for a few more weeks makes sense as it would help contain the virus to an extent. However, this would be at the expense of the growth of our already hampered economy. In a complex world, everything is interconnected and system changes need to take a look at an overall view, with a sound 360-degree understanding of the story.

As this author has been saying even before the Covid-19 pandemic, a system change is not going to make leaders popular. In fact, it will make them unpopular in the short run. However, over time, gradual successes will pave the path for them to become legends.

Setting up systems is an art like many other subjects. It is a rare art which requires knowledge in diverse fields and management skills to implement it. Sri Lanka is at a crossroads with an opportunity to revamp the “systems” and “set up a system” to “set up systems”. Only time will tell whether we capitalised on it, or in simpler terms, whether we placed a man behind the vending machine or whether we automated it.

The opinions expressed are the author’s own views. They may not necessarily reflect the views of the Advocata Institute or anyone affiliated with the institute.