Notes on the drought

Like farmer suicides the news every year about droughts, increasing summer temperatures and water scarcities is worrying and scary. One would not want one’s countrymen to be exposed to such trauma.  And yet, there is precious little in terms of a organised, meaningful, at-scale response. 

This is a nasty problem in that working on it is thankless - involves being out in the pitiless sun. The better a job you want to do, or the more you want to engage with the problem, the more time you spend in the sun. In that respect its like my old haunt of sanitation and it probably contributes to why the problem doesn’t get addressed effectively. 

It seems to me, we need a good national monitoring system that can tell us the scale of the problem and whether it is getting better or worse. Beyond the media articles, which paint a pretty scary picture, I don't know quantitatively how bad the problem is and whether it is getting worse. 

It seems to me, the basic approach to a solution should be a multi-year plan by each state with clear measurable outcomes. The outcomes would include things like a ‘drought-proofed’ condition, and the ability of the state to respond in a rapid, proportionate and effective way to a drought. However, Governments in India think too short-term and too political - its hard for them to have the patience to set up and follow through on  a multi-year response. Perhaps the solution then is a ‘policy entrepreneur’  who can sell long-term and sustainable drought proofing to the government. 

Another source of the problem is the lack of voice of those most affected, like small-farmers. The solution might be for people with the required knowledge and policy experience to work with farmers organisations and labour unions of landless labourers to raise the demand for real solutions. 

What can ‘common people’ like you and me do ? Donate to a good organisation working on the problem. Visit a drought-affected area to educate yourself. Realise that the challenges of national development are so large that insulating yourself from them is not an option if you want to live in a decent humane society

And, plant trees. 

Some recent articles in the media:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/massive-effort-to-be-launched-for-water-conservation-pm-narendra-modi/articleshow/51895015.cms

https://kicsforum.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/a-drought-of-reporting/

http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/the-peculiar-dilemma-of-accepting-a-lunch-invitation-in-unyielding-marathwada/

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/extraordinary-heat-wave-sweeps-southeast-asia-and-points-beyond#t9BG1yQBPCbPGleA.01

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/330000000-People-Drought-Hit-in-India/2016/04/20/article3389262.ece

On transparency in Singapore

Singapore’s lack of transparency in governance is almost legendary. Researchers, for example, have extraordinary trouble getting data. A couple of examples from personal experience:

-In a class with a guest lecturer from the Public Utilities Board, he cautioned us against taking photographs of some of the slides (“You do not want to be arrested later for this”). 

-In talking to people about the immigration rules and systems, I find that people don’t know how or why the decisions are taken on work permits, guest passes etc. There is amazing amount of discretion and lack of transparency. 

It would be interesting to understand the historical origins of this phenomenon. In reading extensively of the writings of Lee Kuan Yew, I did not see anything about why he did not feel transparency important. 

In the ongoing project of revisioning Singapore, I am pretty sure that transparency will help Singapore in finding a way forward.  There have been memorable debates about Asian values and Singapore-style democracy. I don’t think these addressed the role of transparency and whether lack of transparency is a part of Asian culture :-)  

 Lack of transparency is simply incompatible with a modern society. You cannot have a educated, well-to-do population that is creative and free-thinking and a society that aims to be globalised and at par with the best of them, and at the same time, hide your governance behind a veil of secrecy. 

Prof Lam Chuan Leong, a retired bureaucrat whom I respect, pooh-poohed transparency in one of his classes. I wish I had taken it up with him then!  The bureaucracy will of course protest mightily that it is simply not possible to function efficiently if you have to be able to explain everything that you do. While there can be more discussion about the pros and cons, enough developed countries have implemented Freedom of Information acts and none have reconsidered its value. Even India has one, and you don’t hear anyone complaining about it.  Certainly it could make life more difficult for bureaucrats, but making bureaucrats' life easy is not the purpose of governance! In any case, the system will re-adjust and find new ”SOPs” that are compatible with the new laws. 

Singapore continues to be a restricted society with little space for questioning the government. Transparency would be one way to open up the space for questioning. Asking an innocent question cannot be grounds for harassment or taking someone to court.

It is surprising that the PAP, which has gone so far as to consider splitting itself in order to provide a more robust political system, has not considered the importance of transparency and implemented substantive measures in this direction. Its quite likely that 50 years of obscurity will have concealed a fair number of governance boo-boos. Whether there are more serious discrepancies between the facade and what went on behind the scenes, I do not know enough to speculate about (nor do I want to attract attention of the government by doing that!). 

Two talks

When I left for Singapore from India, Rohini N, Arghyam Chairperson mentioned that she had a pending invitation from Kishore Mahbubani to give a talk at the LKY School. That caught my fancy and I followed up with her quite a bit. So she did come and talk, and separately Nandan also did.  Nandan's talk caught the attention of the Indian diaspora - with very little outreach we had a good crowd of a 100-odd people. Rohini's was in the afternoon and on a more specialised topic of groundwater so less of a crowd but very enthu participation. Overall, went well ! I'm glad to have contributed to the intellectual life at School, beyond the courses.

With Indian classmates at the School