Features
Heavenly Bliss in Sri Lanka
Holidaying in Galle & Colombo, 24 July–4 August 2023
by Ron Slee
of Flinders University & Adelaide
My interest in visiting Sri Lanka has been building for decades, generated by my friendship with two Sri Lankan nationals with whom I play tennis, Michael Roberts and Justin La Brooy. Justin had written me a very helpful short history of the country and added his recommendations of where to see wildlife and scenic beauty and Michael had sent hundreds of photos and personal stories that helped me plan my visit.
Not only was I keen to see where he’d lived and grown up, but Galle Fort is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We hired a driver to take us the 120 kms from Colombo (15k rupees for the 2 hrs 15 min drive seemed reasonable) to see what is called the best-preserved colonial town in Sri Lanka. Its history as a fortress dates from 1589 when the Portuguese invaded and built a fort overlooking the harbour. When they were chased out in 1640 by the Dutch, major fortifications including ramparts and surrounding walls were constructed during a 156=year occupation to enclose and protect the peninsula from enemy cannonballs. When the British took over, these walls were retained and did a sterling job keeping the 2004 tsunami at bay (puns intended!).
The Fort is now home to boutique shops and hotels created from historic Dutch and British villas, churches and mansions. Indeed, its history has been well preserved and although it was humid meandering through the narrow colonial streets. I recommend scheduling walks for early morning and evening, making use of your hotel pool to cope with the middle of the day. We stayed at the Galle Fort Hotel, enjoying its colonial grace and charm for considerably less cost than the fashionably genteel Amangalla Hotel a little further along Church Street. Of course, we popped into the Amangalla to compare its atmosphere and to confirm that Leonard Woolf had, indeed, left the building!
Ambling along the hot and shade-less ramparts was a test of our fitness, but the Fort’s entire perimeter is only 3 kms so we were never far from a refreshing lager on a hotel verandah – and from where we could sit and contemplate in which house in Middle Street Michael Roberts had lived, at what age he started drinking tea, tasting cinnamon. We located the Library and the Barefoot Bookshop (unfortunately both were closed) but we wondered at which school he had learnt to read and write. We kept thinking of a young boy diving and swimming at Flag Rock, running laps of the ramparts, playing cricket on one of the ovals.[1] I didn’t see a tennis court, but felt sure we were near where he practised with his first racquet.[2]
The fascinating history of the Fort is on every corner of every street – Church, Lighthouse, Leyn Baan, Hospital, Pedlar, Middle, Queen’s, Rampart, Custom Road [names of streets]. Open to visitors was the oldest Protestant place of worship in Sri Lanka, the Dutch Reformed Church (now Methodist) with its garden of tombstones. Also, the All Saints Anglican Church and the Mosque.
We spent so many hours in the Maritime Museum we left insufficient time for the National Museum and the Historical Mansion Museum.
Our visit to Galle Fort occupied the middle weekend of my wife’s short work contract in Sri Lanka. The rest of the time we spent in Colombo, based at the Galle Face Hotel.
The Galle Face Hotel dates from 1864, “before Lincoln, Pasteur and Marx” (the plaque at its pool eccentrically noted, adding that it’s older than many other famous hotels including the Raffles in Singapore, and that it opened “before the USA purchased Alaska from Russia”).
The hotel proudly promotes itself as a resort, the pool being a conspicuous element. I took advantage of this, indulging almost every day. My routine became a leisurely 3-course buffet breakfast (local fruits – usually papaya and pineapple – followed by a hopper (pancake made of rice-flour, coconut and yeast topped with dahl, seeni sambal – a spicy sweet onion sauce – and a fried egg), followed by crusty bread with ham and cheese (my nod to the Dutch influence) – all washed down with mango juice, coffee and finally a cup of tea. This morning daily banquet was more than enough to tide me over until dinner.
Typically, after breakfast, I would return to our room, collect my bathers and book and repair to the pool which attracted a mix of beached whales, strutters and those of us somewhere along that continuum. I would read poolside with an occasional lap between chapters making sure I was back in the room for a rest before dinner!
I varied this daily routine with tuk-tuk excursions or a browse through the Hotel Museum or watching the 5th Ashes Test, conveniently televised live from 3.30pm local time.
I took 3 separate tuk-tuk tours to various sites in Pettah, the old market area of Colombo, each lasting between 3 and 4 hours. The drivers were experienced guides and showed me through the Buddhist Gangaramaya Temple, the oldest and largest Hindu Temple (Sri Kailawasanathan Swami Devasthanam Kovi), the Red Mosque, shrines (including St Anthony’s Catholic Church where a suicide bomber’s blast killed 93 people on Easter Sunday in 2019), tea stores, spice shops, produce markets and museums including the Independence Commemoration Hall housing their history of political struggles against colonial rule. The National Museum had less focus on political history, more on anthropology, religion, agriculture, migration, and the development of art and crafts, especially fabrics. It was poorly lit in some rooms, but its imposing Victorian exterior is well worth seeing as are its collections of Buddhist statues, kitchen utensils and antique puppets.
I learnt so much from my drivers as we rode and walked around listening to them talk about historic religious, economic and political conflicts, as well as current dilemmas faced by Sri Lanka as it suffers an exodus to other countries of many of its young people and as it becomes over-dependent on foreign investment and loans to save the country from bankruptcy. We got helpful advice from an Australian diplomat about how much we should expect to pay tuk-tuk drivers – for me, this advice came too late, after I’d already been on two quite expensive tours. 10k rupees an hour was too much, I was firmly told!
The Galle Face Museum within the hotel is fascinating, mostly pictures of and autographed messages from famous guests, old newspaper stories about the hotel as well as some odd artefacts. Famous guests included Ernesto Che Guevara who stayed there in 1959 just six years before being killed in Bolivia, Jawaharlal Nehru (’51), Indira Gandhi, Richard Nixon, Clement Attlee (‘40s), Pope John Paul 11 (’95), Yuri Gagarin (in 1961, the year he flew to outer space), Anton Chekhov (1890), Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Don Bradman (’48), Garfield Sobers (’80), Vivien Leigh, Ursula Andress, Scarlett Johansson and Sting. Plus, many tennis players (mostly Australian) and other cricketers.
My offer to add a signed endorsement of our stay in the hotel was politely declined.
A Museum centrepiece is the first car owned by Prince Phillip of Greece (as he was when he went to Colombo to work with Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1940). A 1935 Standard Nine for which he paid 12 Pounds, it’s so tiny I don’t know how he squeezed into it.
This nod to British colonialism was more than matched by the daily presence during breakfast of a staff member dressed in light-tan knee-length shorts and jacket, a peaked cap and carrying a slingshot. His job was to stop beach gulls flying into the open-air dining veranda to steal food. Each morning he patrolled the lawn between us and the beach while his colleague swept the lawn clean of any stray leaf from nearby palms. Inside, the food staff wore braces over starched white shirts to hold up sharply creased black trousers while the manager in the lobby dressed as if he was going to Royal Ascot. Of course, there is one ubiquitous reminder that some things have changed – they all carry a mobile phone, even the slingshot man!
Leonard Woolf
Evening meals at the hotel were delicious, especially the local, Indian and Cuban cuisines. The local staple (fish curry and rice) became my preferred dish and after I made an early discovery that a Guinness stout costs half as much as a Corona beer, my preferred beverage became Tiger Beer with Guinness chasers. Taxes make such a difference to the cost of booze.
An important piece of local knowledge I failed to identify early was that every full moon (Poya) is marked with a public holiday and throughout that day no alcohol can be purchased. Except, we discovered, with room service – one way around the obstacle.
We ventured onto the adjacent Galle Face Green to walk amongst the dozens of kite hawkers and food trucks that gather there each evening. The cool night breeze coming off the sea was so refreshing. We spent a memorable evening with Guttila (‘Jay’) Jayatilaka (formerly of the University of Adelaide, Monash University and the University of Sydney) who took us to dinner at the Cinnamon Grand, a short walk from our hotel. Their smorgasbord offered a magnificent range of delicious local cuisines – it was impossible to not overindulge!
Most nights, however, we ate at one of our hotel’s beach-side cafes dressed in summer attire watching the sun set and contemplating our good fortune to be avoiding a cold Adelaide winter.
Sadly, due to work commitments in Colombo we were not able to see Justin La Brooy’s recommendations for wildlife and scenic beauty in the cooler inland parts of the island. As Justin told me before I left “a trip of less than 2 weeks will inevitably leave you short-changed”. I hope to return and rectify that.
I’ll finish this little story of my first visit to Sri Lanka by recommending two books I read while lazing next to the Galle Face Hotel pool.
I took Victoria Glendinning’s biography of Leonard Woolf with me because after graduating from Cambridge, Woolf spent seven years employed by the Colonial Service in Ceylon (1904-11) and returned in 1960 for a brief visit when he was 80 years old. I didn’t get to visit the areas where he worked (Kandy and Hambantota Districts) and that’s one reason I’d like to go back to Sri Lanka – another is to see the state-run elephant orphanage at Pinnawela. My interest in Woolf is partly because my tennis comrade Michael Roberts had interviewed Leonard in 1965 about his time in Sri Lanka and given me the transcript.[3]
The second book, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is a novel set in India in the mid-1970s. It’s been on my list since it won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize (and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker) and while visiting South Asia seemed a good time and place to read it.
END NOTES added by Michael Roberts
[1] Courtesy of his partner Joanna’s work assignments in Sri Lanka,
[2] No one dived off Flag Rock then. But we certainly enjoyed the waters and the reef at what was known as the “Girls Bathing Place” about 100 yards away on the western wall where steps enable easy access.
[3] There were three ‘groups’ of tennis courts as one entered the Fort through its central gate: one ‘set’ of three belonging to the Galle Gymkhana Club immediately on the left; another two further to the left and two courts belonging to the Public Services on the immediate right. The Galle Gymkhana Club also had a well-appointed bar with space for two billiard tables and card playing tables, etc, etc. The decline of this club and disappearance of any traces of its imposing presence calls for an essay recording the tale and pondering over the socio-political implications of this set of events.
[4] Readers who wish to access the Leonard Woolf Interview on tape from the ROHP Collection can reach it via (A) the Barr Smith Library Adelaide University … or …. (B) The National Library Services Board off Torrington Road, Colombo 7. Both locations contain the whole stock of recorded interviews gathered by Michael Roberts in the period 1965 to 1969 in England and Ceylon when he was a Lecturer at Peradeniya University (with financial aid provided by the Asia Foundation and the wholesome encouragement of Professor KW Goonewardena and JFK Labrooy of the History Department at Peradeniya Campus.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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