By Riza Yehiya
The country does not merely need better government. It needs a state that protects its citizens, commands public trust and unites a diverse people through equal citizenship. Sri Lanka has changed governments many times since independence. Yet the deeper challenge has remained largely unresolved: what kind of state do we want to build?
The economic and political upheaval of 2022 gave the country an uncomfortable answer. The crisis was not merely the consequence of fiscal mismanagement or policy mistakes. It exposed deeper weaknesses in the relationship between the state and its citizens – politicized institutions, patronage, corruption, weak accountability and declining public trust.
For too long, the state has been used primarily as an instrument of political power rather than as an institution for protecting and serving the people. Public institutions have too often been drawn into political competition, appointments influenced by loyalty rather than merit, and public resources treated as instruments of patronage. The result has been a widening distance between citizen and state.
The democratic transition of 2024 offers an important opportunity to begin closing that distance. A government that has received support across Sri Lanka’s principal communities has a rare political opening to attempt something more fundamental than another program of government. It can begin the difficult task of state-making. The objective should be nothing less than to create a state that protects rather than controls, serves rather than patronizes and unites rather than divides.
The state must belong to the people
From control to protection: The most important question is also the most basic: what is the state for? Its first responsibility is to protect its people. Protection means physical security from crime, violence and terrorism. But it also means economic and social protection – the opportunity to obtain a good education, access quality healthcare, earn a secure livelihood, live in safe communities and face the future with dignity. A police service should protect citizens, not political interests. Intelligence agencies should deal with genuine threats to national security, not political opponents. Courts should administer justice according to law, not political convenience. Public officials should serve the citizen rather than the political patron. A state that can exercise power but cannot protect its citizens is not a strong state. It is merely a powerful one. Sri Lanka needs a different conception of strength: a state whose strength is measured by the security, justice, opportunity and quality of life it provides.
Government is temporary; the state is permanent: There is another distinction that Sri Lanka urgently needs to restore: a government is not the state. Governments are elected to exercise political authority for a limited period. The state is the permanent institutional framework through which the country is governed. Its public administration, judiciary, police, security institutions and other public bodies must function across political transitions. When governments treat the state as their political property, institutions become vulnerable to capture. Appointments become rewards for loyalty. Resources become instruments of political influence. Professional standards weaken, and institutional memory disappears. The government should therefore be understood as the steward of the state, not its owner. Governments must have the authority to establish priorities and implement their mandates. But the permanent institutions of the state must remain professional, impartial and accountable to the law. The state belongs to the people.
Putting the citizen at the centre
Nation-centric, people-focused policymaking: State transformation will remain incomplete unless Sri Lanka also changes the way it makes public policy. Too often, policies are shaped by immediate political calculations: rewarding constituencies, satisfying pressure groups or preserving established interests. The essential question is frequently lost: Will this policy make the lives and future prospects of citizens better? That question should become the starting point of public policy. Nation-centric, people-focused policymaking means designing policy around the welfare, security, dignity and future potential of citizens. Agriculture should create productive and sustainable livelihoods rather than perpetuate economic vulnerability. Education should prepare young people for the jobs and technologies of tomorrow. Energy policy should strengthen national resilience and reduce unnecessary dependence on external shocks. Healthcare should deliver accessible and quality services. Infrastructure should serve both human needs and economic productivity. These policies must also work together. A country cannot prepare its young people for a modern economy while maintaining policies that discourage innovation. It cannot seek economic resilience while remaining excessively dependent on imported energy. It cannot build national prosperity while allowing regional inequality to persist indefinitely. Sri Lanka therefore needs policy coherence – a state capable of seeing the relationship between different sectors rather than governing through disconnected programs.
The quality of life is the real test: The ultimate test of the state is not the size of its bureaucracy or the number of policies it announces. It is what happens to ordinary people. Can a young person receive a quality education and find meaningful employment? Can a family obtain healthcare without financial distress? Can a farmer earn a viable income? Can a small entrepreneur operate without political connections? Can a citizen obtain a public service without paying a bribe? These are the real measures of governance. Citizens must cease to be treated as passive recipients of government largesse or as voters to be mobilized at election time. They must be recognized as partners in the national project.
Building a state fit for the future: No country can build a capable state without a professional civil service. Appointments must increasingly reflect competence, merit and integrity rather than political loyalty. Technical positions should require appropriate professional qualifications while institutions should operate with clear objectives and measurable standards. Performance matters. Public resources must be connected to results and public institutions must be accountable for the services they provide. Professionalizing the civil service is therefore not simply an administrative exercise. It is a means of rebuilding the public’s confidence in government. When citizens know that an official has been appointed because of competence rather than political connection, the relationship between citizen and state begins to change.
Policies cannot remain frozen in the past: Sri Lanka carries policies designed for circumstances that have long since changed. Some remain useful. Others no longer meet the country’s needs. Every major policy should therefore be subjected periodically to three tests: Is it relevant to the future? Is it effective? Is it sustainable? If it fails these tests, it should be reformed or replaced. Policy reform should become a permanent feature of governance rather than something undertaken only after a crisis has exposed a failure.
Future-proofing citizens: The next crisis may not look like the last one. Climate change, technological disruption, demographic change and geopolitical uncertainty will increasingly affect the economy and society. The state must learn to anticipate these pressures. Future-proofing means investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, developing skills for the emerging economy, strengthening energy security, diversifying economic relationships and protecting vulnerable citizens. The question should no longer be simply how Sri Lanka will recover after the next crisis. The more important question is: how can we make sure that the next crisis does not devastate our people in the first place? That is the difference between reactive administration and strategic statecraft.
Bringing the state closer to the citizen
Local government matters: State reform cannot be designed entirely from Colombo. For most citizens, the state is experienced locally through roads, waste collection, local infrastructure, permits, public spaces, community facilities and municipal services. Local government is therefore not a peripheral part of state reform. It is one of its foundations. The Integrated Planning and Reporting framework offers a useful model because it connects community priorities with strategic planning, budgeting, implementation and performance monitoring. Its underlying principle is simple: communities should have a meaningful voice in identifying their priorities while local authorities should be accountable for delivering results. A more capable local government system can make the state more responsive without weakening national direction.
The forgotten strength of the state: Sri Lanka should also recognize the importance of institutional memory. Political leaders change. Governments change. But many public officials remain within the system and carry valuable experience from one administration to another. The middle levels of public administration therefore deserve greater attention. Training officials in data analysis, facilitation, inclusive planning and performance management can create a professional core capable of sustaining reforms across political cycles. These officials can become the quiet custodians of institutional continuity.
Corruption is more than theft: Corruption is often discussed as a problem of money. It is much more serious than that. Corruption destroys the relationship between the citizen and the state. When people believe that a permit requires a bribe, a government contract requires political connections, or justice depends upon influence, the principle of equal citizenship begins to collapse. Sri Lanka’s 2025–2029 National Anti-Corruption Action Plan recognizes the scale of the challenge and the erosion of public confidence in institutions. But plans must produce results. Anti-corruption must become part of the normal architecture of government: transparent procurement, merit-based appointments, effective oversight, access to information, credible investigations and consistent enforcement. Citizens must see that corruption has consequences. A clean state is not produced by slogans or occasional campaigns. It is produced by institutions in which corruption becomes more difficult to commit, easier to detect and more certain to attract accountability.
One nation without erasing diversity
From ethnic nationalism to civic nationalism: Sri Lanka does not need to become culturally uniform to become one nation. Its Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and other communities have distinct histories, languages, traditions and identities. These differences are part of the country’s inheritance. The challenge is not to erase them but to create a political identity broad enough to embrace them. That identity should be civic rather than ethnic. Citizenship, not ethnicity, religion, language or political affiliation, must determine one’s relationship with the state. A Tamil citizen should be able to feel that Sri Lanka belongs to him or her as fully as it belongs to a Sinhala or Muslim citizen. Every citizen should be able to say: This is my country. This state protects me. I have an equal place in its future. That is the foundation of civic nationalism.
Homogenizing institutions, not cultures: The language of homogenizing the people can be misunderstood. Sri Lanka should not seek to homogenize its cultures. It should seek to create a common experience of citizenship. Citizens in every region should have equal access to justice, public services, education and opportunity. A child in the North should have the same claim to a quality education as a child in the South. A business owner in the East should receive the same treatment as one in Colombo. A citizen should not need political influence or ethnic connections to receive a fair service from the state. The objective is therefore institutional equality, not cultural uniformity. When citizens experience the state fairly, their confidence in common institutions grows. When they experience discrimination or neglect, they naturally retreat towards narrower identities. Equal treatment is therefore one of the most powerful instruments of national integration.
Asymmetrical synergy: Equality does not mean that every community or region requires exactly the same policy. Sri Lanka’s regions have different economic structures, histories and needs. A fisherman in the North may face different challenges from a farmer in the South or a trader in the East. What is required is asymmetrical synergy: recognizing differences while creating mechanisms through which communities can cooperate and generate mutual benefit. The state should provide a common framework of rights and responsibilities while remaining flexible enough to respond to local circumstances. Unity should therefore mean working together, not becoming identical.
Reconciliation is not optional: Sri Lanka cannot build a durable national identity by ignoring its past. The country’s history of conflict, political exclusion, constitutional shortcomings and uneven development has left grievances that continue to influence how different communities perceive the state. Truth, reconciliation, reparations and institutional reform are therefore not peripheral issues. They are part of state building. Communities that have experienced injustice need to know that their experiences have been acknowledged. Institutions must learn from past failures, and safeguards must be established to prevent their recurrence. Reconciliation should not be seen as a concession to one community or another. It is an investment in the legitimacy of the state itself. A citizen who believes that the state recognizes his or her dignity is more likely to trust that state.
From shared symbols to shared citizenship: Creating common civic spaces can contribute to this process. Initiatives such as Sri Lankan Day bringing together cultural traditions from all nine provinces can give citizens opportunities to celebrate both their distinctive identities and their common identity as Sri Lankans. But symbolism alone is not enough. A cultural festival cannot compensate for unequal public services, political discrimination or economic exclusion. Shared celebrations become meaningful only when supported by fair institutions and equal opportunity. The same is true of values such as unity, accountability, trust, transparency, equality and consensus. These values cannot simply be proclaimed. They must be practised. Citizens must see them reflected in the conduct of political leaders and public institutions. Unity becomes credible when people experience its benefits in their everyday lives.
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