Echo
Discussion Forum, Switzerland
Presentation
by Mathew Kuzhippallil on our discussion about “VISION FOR KERALA”, held
on 13th December 2020
My Vision
for KERALA: Vision 2020.
Thomas
Edison, Joseph Swan and several others were involved in the discovery of the
electric bulb. The Wright Brothers were pioneers in aviation. The Lumiere
Brothers were the pioneers of film. Tractors, television sets and mobile phones
were the inventions of individuals and private enterprises, not the work of
governments.
Economic
and social development is not an activity of the government. Nowhere in the
world has a society developed solely because of government initiatives. It is
the responsibility of governments to provide the framework for developing the
creative and inventive potential of their people. Governments can also destroy
creativity, innovation, and private enterprise. (Sadly, this was the case in
Kerala for the last fifty years).
After Independence, India adopted a mixed economy. This really means that the government concerns itself with establishing major infrastructure projects and providing basic services (The Public Sector). It was left to the private sector to manufacture everything from safety pins to bicycles to buckets. Unfortunately, in Kerala, private enterprise was fought tooth and nail by certain political forces as they feared “capitalism”, which they never really understood. As a result, the ‘protectors’ of the working class have driven the working class out of the state of Kerala.
Kerala has
a population of 330 Lakh people. Of this approximately 5.5 Lakhs are state and
central government employees. Another 6.5 lakhs are employed in the poorly
organized private sector. In other words, of the 330 Lakh population, Kerala
has employment for only 12 Lakh people. 300Lakh people rely on small scale
agriculture, and hard manual labour which can never generate the wealth needed
to live a 21st century life.
This mass
unemployment of the people of Kerala generates poverty. Unemployment cannot
generate growth or development. It makes people dependent on the government. It
makes people victims of alcohol and drugs. It encourages people to seek low
paid employment anywhere in the world or commit suicide.
Some
politicians and writers have always glorified manual labour. The ferry man, the
hand rickshaw man, the coolie. But manual labour enslaves human beings and
reduces them to muscles.
Should a
society develop by protecting the boat man, or should it develop by building
bridges? Should a coolie continue to carry heavy head loads or should we use
forklift machines that can carry? Should the man pulling the rickshaw be
encouraged to pull rickshaws all his life? Or should he or she be empowered to
use an auto rickshaw? Why cannot he or she build a rickshaw run by electricity?
The fundamental
question before the people of Kerala and all enlightened individuals is, should
we use brains or just muscle?
Every
human being has talents and an urge to create. Every human being can discover.
Only by supporting the creativity and innovative power of the people can true
development take place. One person in the socialist system who recognized this
was the late Deng Xiaoping. ‘It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white,
as long as it catches mice it’s a good cat’. With this statement, he was able
to end socialism as an economic motor for the benefit of the Chinese people.
Without him China would have gone down the drains of poverty.
So how can
Kerala develop? It can only develop if we also take a leap forward. It can only
grow if private industry is encouraged and protected. We can only grow, If the
people can incorporate the gains of mechanization, technology, and
digitalization into daily lives.
The
educated youth of Kerala (and India) cannot continue to rely on manual labour
and traditional, labour intensive agriculture. A man and a woman (just two
people) using tractors, combined harvesters, computers, and drones can
cultivate ten thousand acres of land. With the use of science and technology,
they can produce ten times what a thousand manual labourers in Kerala can
produce. Kerala does not need 288 Lakhs unproductive farmers (India does not
need 8000 Lakhs farmers). Kerala only needs ten or twenty Lakhs productive
farmers.
What will
happen to all the rest? All the unemployed people? Very few of our politicians
have seriously considered this question. Their answer is simple but also
stupid: free food, free houses, free laptops or 6000 Rupees per person.
Borrowed money. Empty treasury. And more promises. In other words, they have no
idea and offer no hope.
India, it
is said, develops at the pace of an elephant. If so, Kerala develops at a
snail’s pace. Yes, we have four international airports. (But they do not have
the industrial or manufacturing or innovation activity to support their status
as major airports). We have some good schools. Better health care than most
other states. But we also have the highest or second highest unemployment. The
lowest skill development. And the highest suicide rate. India and Kerala
develop very slowly and by chance. Perhaps even by fate.
My vision
is a leap forward. And that leap is possible if we create smart cities and
smart villages. Cities where young people experiment, develop, and produce.
Villages where we encourage smart agriculture based on biodiversity. Where we
encourage short term specialized crops (spices, cardamom, ginger etc.) and
discourage monocultures like rubber, which destroy plant and animal life and do
not allow flexibility of cultivation. We need villages where collective larger
farms operate with the most modern technology available, where productivity is
increased, in quantity but also in quality.
The
planned cities of the future should be built around our four international
airports and linked by the proposed Silverline. Each city must have a protected
industrial and research area (like an IT park) and a separate well planned
residential area. Each city must be able to house five million (50 Lakh)
people. And each smart city should have technical and research institutions
which develop computers, drones, medicines, food processing units etc. The
Indian government has initiated the creation of one such smart city in DHOLERA.
(Please see what a smart city in India could like on Youtube: Dholera).
Where will
we take the money from? Kerala has about 30 Lakh expatriates who wish to see
their state develop. They will invest if their enterprises are offered
protection. Kerala has ornamental gold in every household. Above all, the
people of Kerala have the desire to excel. The concept of smart cities should
be studied and developed over the next 30 to 50 years. What is needed now is a
vision, a plan of action and the will to implement it. Development without a
vision will lead to chaos.
Many will
blindly oppose it. Every development will be met with resistance from people
who believe ‘yesterday was a lot better’. There will be narrow minded people,
who prefer ‘nokku coolie’ to lifting and carrying machines. There will be
people who prefer to help the poor and not empower them. There will be many, who
use the comfort of airplanes, computers and cars but will deny the same to
their fellow human beings. I am confident that intelligence will prevail over
their muscle, their ignorance and their violence, and the lack of self-respect
of those who support them.
In Kerala
smart cities will become a necessity. Rising sea levels will flood and destroy
cities like Alappuzha, Cochin, Calicut and Tellicherry. Climate change will
compel us to evacuate from vast areas of the Western Ghats. The living space
will be reduced drastically. It is therefore necessary that we create new green
digital cities. It is imperative that the four International airports become
major hubs of industrial activity.
We need to
think ‘out of the box’. Our airports and railway stations can also combine
malls, cultural and recreation centres. We need new inventions. Cycles that can
travel over water. Clothes using new natural fibres. New sources of energy. New
medicine derived from nature. Profitable agriculture that is digitally
organized and managed. We need products that combine economy and ecology. Above
all we must free human beings (and animals) from hard and exhausting manual
labour.
I strongly
oppose slavery to one party or to one government. A modern Kerala (a modern
India) which relies on human ingenuity, digital technology, protection of
nature and responsible freedom is my vision for the next 30 years.
Mathew
Kuzhippallil, Switzerland.
