Features
BETWEEN ABSTRACTION & EMPATHY IN SARATH CHANDRAJEEWA’S VISUAL PARAPHRASES – PART III
by Dr. Santhushya Fernando, Dr. Laleen Jayamanne and Professor Sumathy Sivamohan
Unwritten I, II, III
In Sarath’s exhibition Visual Paraphrases there are three abstract paintings titled Unwritten I, II, III presenting an ‘open’ sequence with the Roman numerals. Why not the current Arabic numerals, we wonder. However, they were not hung together on the walls but arranged among the other more painterly abstract and semi-abstract expressionist work. Despite this, we will consider all three together as the artist himself has offered us a numerically abstract sequence rather than a spatially contiguous one and in so doing has stirred us conceptually to think their interrelationships even as we go deeper into the surface of these works. How shall we do this? Does a surface have depth? Might we slide laterally on it? As Sumathy might say, the ‘interstices’ or ‘gaps’ among the three paintings are significant in their quality of openness, a provocation for thought to take wing, one hopes.
The word ‘Unwritten’ is itself significant, different from the more familiar ‘Untitled’ as it makes one want to know the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of it? It seems significant that Unwritten I was painted on a ‘samara’ ground of the familiar and appealing orange colour and suggested by a wall at the Jaffna Railway Station that Sarath once saw. They appear to be graffiti like markings of fragments of letters, layers of them and also erasures, in black. The lines are ordered horizontally but the surface is disorderly, patches of scrubbings.
In this specific context any sign of erasure carries a hint of violence, memory of linguistic violence in Lankan political history and ethno-nationalism; the tarred Tamil Street signs of the 1950s. Sarath who was a child at the time, was told about the impact of the ethno-nationalist program of 1958 by his father who worked in Jaffna at that time as a multi-lingual policeman. He has visited Jaffna as a child while his father worked there, when he himself lived in Nuwara-Eliya with his grandparents.
Unwritten II evokes ancient history, rock and copper inscriptions and the ‘writing’ or motifs are highly ornamented, like calligraphy – ‘beautiful writing’ and suggests Shodo, ‘the way of the brush’ as in Japanese painting. The soft colours of the ornamental motifs, often curved, are pastel against a reddish hue and the edges of the painting are frayed like an ancient parchment. Whereas, Unwritten I’s hard-edged clearly delineated border makes it self-contained. One wonders if Sarath painted these three works also in chronological progression with one painting leading to the other or if all three were first conceived prior to painting. But then how do we as academics know how an artist’s mind works, its subtle unconscious processes. One feels that these paintings open a portal to ‘pre-subjective’ or pre-personal sensations, intensities and affects. There is no narcissistic Ego in this zone, much less a Super-Ego of the artist in search of his (sic) marketable signature.
“Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves” Samson Agonistes, Milton (1671)
And Unwritten III is the Ur image (also privileged as the cover image of the catalogue), a tribute to the primordial genesis of the human ‘will to write’… It feels as if making the two previous paintings has propelled Sarath into this embryonic zone of emergence of mark making by hand. The marks in this painting appear to be letters in an embryonic state, appearing to make meaningful shapes or letters. But the plethora of lines are in a virtual state, not yet actualised into letters, words, alphabets, writing. There are no hard or torn edges to this painting which appears without a framing frame as though the movements which animates it can go on without limit, like language itself.
This painting creates a sensation of movement because of the large centred circles. On closer observation they appear not to be concentric circles but a spiral of sorts, which is a dynamic line in nature as in the most ancient nautilus shell or a whirl pool. The horizontal lines in the top half of the painting are fairly tightly arranged, stable, made up of small pieces of charcoal pasted on to the surface of the painting, one by one, creating a slight thickness, a 3D effect, whereas the linear pencil lines are faint and light. But the marks swept up in the spiral are looser, almost playful as it sweeps it all up.
The swirling spiral is lightly brushed with a touch of gold and silver which makes one focus on the ‘ground’ or ‘surface’ of the painting which also has a few dabs of pure white paint. But neither art historical terms feel quite right because the markings seem to emerge from it rather than being simply on it. Are we seeing an embryogenesis of the ‘will to write’, one wonders; a kind of cellular drama of the momentous human struggle to create writing.
As the abstract shapes jostle and play around, writing begins to emerge as a letter here and there or a line about to turn into a familiar letter, say, in Brahmi, Sanskrit, Sinhala or … The overall Black & White with many shades of greys in between, modulates the space. Its regular rhythmic repetitions are like those of nature (not mechanistically uniform) therefore they stimulate the mind’s potential to differentiate this shape from that, this impulse of the hand from that, this material from that. The impulses of the hand and mind, a feel for texture, are perhaps more palpable to ‘the beholder’ of the painting face to face. This is the heady zone of intuitive perceptual awareness or consciousness.
This unusual painting feels like a tribute to the impulse and struggle of language creation as writing, in the movement of the hand, eye and brain in mark making. It’s a play of forms before they solidify into this or that language. A play impulse is perceptible in the many movements (scribbling, doodling, erasing … patterns of lines). We see the struggle of the mind, hand, eye moving towards that profound form of human abstraction, language as such (a symbolic form) which differentiate the human from other animal species but with whom we do share profound feelings.
They say that we started talking way before we began to write. Talking also is a form of abstraction, giving meaning to sounds coming out of the mouth and into the ears. The feel of the painting, its opacity is such that it just might be imagined as a paleo-anthropological object dug up by Siran Deraniyagala (and others), awaiting decipherment.
Sarath wanted a delicate grid of Gauze for his ground/surface/background (which is it?), pasted on a hard board to paint Unwritten III on. What are the implications of this faintly visible choice of a non-geometric grid? It is a hand-made, loosely woven light material with replete cultural and political weight, during this war in West Asia which Israel is waging against the Palestinians in Gaza.
There, where in ancient times, named after the prosperous cosmopolitan port city, Gauze was woven in cotton and silk. But now in Gaza, gauze has become a rarity to dress wounds with because hospitals have been bombed. In the subtle texture of gauze in Unwritten III the mind’s eye feels the presence of a body and of wounds it suffers because the eye itself has acquired the qualities of a touch that heals. Alois Riegel names this mode of up-close perception ‘Haptic’, which is related to a sense of touch. Many, perhaps touched by this painting, had asked Sarath from where they could by the ‘Gauze Boards’.
It is no accident that Unwritten III was purchased by Mr H. D. Premasiri, Sponsor and Chairman of the famed book shop happily named, Sarasawiya (University). It is worth remembering here and informing the Anglophile reader who may not know this history that Sarasawiya also published one of the most significant cultural magazines or newspapers and also sponsored the very first film festival of Sinhala films raising its cultural prestige among the intelligentsia of the country.
The journalists who wrote for the paper were among the most astute commentators on the arts and culture at large. Unwritten III now hangs in the Sarasawi collection at the recently opened branch in Panadura. It’s a pity though that all 3 abstract works were not bought by one collector or by a mandated Contemporary Art Institution and hung together. But we can imagine that an imaginary ‘Museum without Walls’ (ha! Malraux,) might float them in the air, where the winged painting, Flying Doors and Windows of Sundarampuram-Jaffna will no doubt welcome them!
Critical Reception
It appears to be the case that the Colombo centred art world elite and University academics in the Sinhala medium (those invited), have failed to attend this small, modest and quietly engrossing exhibition.
As for the distinguished embassy folk with an interest in Lanka’s cultural life, Sarath’s title is probably too foreign. But unusually, Sarath was trained in Britain, Russia, Japan, with work experience in Florence due to generous scholarships from the governments of these nations. Sarath’s statement of intention (sans rhetoric), is brief and craftsman like in its pragmatism, as is the title, dry even. In the catalogue essay Rev Fr Theodore Fernando Warnakulasuriya S.J. (former professor of the Open University), cautions the viewer not to expect a common authorial signature in a repeatable style to be neatly subsumed under this or that avant-garde ‘ism’.
In an interview with Sarath in English by Naveed Rozais (The Sunday Morning, Brunch), the focus was refreshingly not on ‘the angst of the artist-persona’, but rather on Fine Arts pedagogy and the need for a change in the school curriculum to include training in clay modelling (mati-vada) so as to study the third dimension of depth, to get a feel for it in childhood. It’s Sarath’s 6th solo exhibition and it’s been 18 years since his Path of Visual Arts, in 2005, which was a retrospective of his work (from its beginning in 1990), also at Barefoot Gallery, organised by his past pupils. There has been a flurry of enthusiastic pieces on the current exhibition in Sinhala, both in the press and in blogs, but no long review as yet.
We wonder how robust the theoretical literature on Lankan abstract art is in the three languages and what sort of history abstract art has had in the recent past, since, say, the pioneering work of H. A. Karunarathne in the late 50s. We hope our critical essay (backed up with research), with a principled theoretical-methodological framework will contribute to the existing discourse of Lankan abstract art and be translated into Tamil and Sinhala. Within this context it was heartening to learn that some of Sarath’s former students, now Art Teachers from Jaffna, did come all the way and stayed in a hotel overnight, spending the following day at the exhibition. And some folk had gone to see it several times.
Dominic Sansoni’s Barefoot Art Gallery
In this force field Dominic Sansoni continues to play a significant independent role (oblivious to the cut and thrust of polemics and the deep seated, decades long ferocious, unrelenting hostility to Sarath), at his Barefoot Gallery. As a photographer and the inheritor of Barbara Sansoni’s immense arts and crafts legacy, he has acted with principle, imagination and flare, in widening the public sphere for the arts. In this, he (as a gifted photographer himself), is in that brilliant lineage of Christian Burgher artists of Lanka such as Lionel Wendt, Geoffrey Beling, Aubrey Collette, David Paynter, Chris Greet (his nephew and stage and film actor), Arthur Van Langenburgh (gifted theatre director and known to Laleen as Uncle Arthur at St Bridget’s where he directed Gilbert and Sullivan Operas in the 60s), and Dominic’s mother Dr. Barbara Sansoni (Uncle Arthur’s niece), come immediately to mind.
As VC of the UVPA, Sarath nominated Barbara for an Honorary Ph.D., for her great contributions to Lankan culture, arts and crafts and the economy. It’s worth trying to trace this Christian cultural lineage (for Laleen, as a lapsed Roman Catholic), because she heard recently that a doctoral thesis on Christian Art in Sri Lanka was deemed, by at least one Sinhala examiner, to be not a category of Lankan art! She knows that there is much more of it (including Modernist Chapels in which she has once prayed, designed by Valentine Gunasekera, her brother-in-law), than Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalists would care to know. How can such academics continue to teach in our Universities? Sarath himself has made some significant Christian art in Bronze for the Basilica at Thewatte, though he himself is not a Christian he values the cultural contribution of all the religions of Lanka.
It is also Dominic who made the unusual suggestion, on his visit to Sarath’s Atelier, to include his six year-old granddaughter Ananya Ranmuthugala’s three paintings in his exhibition. Sarath writes his ‘Letter to my Grand-daughter with love’ in paint. It’s a series of neat little hearts in shades of pink and yellow, including flowers and a butterfly, very carefully painted-in without the spilling out.
A bit like the kind of ‘colouring in’ that children who start drawing are instructed to do in Kindy, and so get obsessed about neatness, staying within the contours. Sarath places the hearts within a few rectangles and Ananya responds with her own letters to her grand pa but with spirited expressionist type painterly gestures and bright colours, no doubt inspired by her grandfather’s bold strokes. There is no trace of ‘the art class’ here, though Ananya does take classes with Sarath, along with other children from 5-15. But she also has the rare gift of painting alongside her old grand-father. In writing this piece we also worked alongside each other because it appears to us as a respectful way to collaborate, to make tracks in unfamiliar zones. (Concluded)
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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