Features
Pandemic pall over Christmas, Left Cheer in Chile, Going pro-Rogue in Sri Lanka
by Rajan Philips
For a second year in succession Christmas has come under the pall of a global pandemic. It is not just Christmas, for the festivals of all religions have fallen under the same pandemic pall. But Christmas is more global than other religions if only because it is also the most commercial. So being is really an affront to its namesake, the Man from Nazareth. One week before his crucifixion and death, Jesus demonstrated a rare instance of inspired anger when he whipped and chased away a motley crowd of merchants and traders in the great Temple of Jerusalem. “My house shall be a house of prayer,” he scolded, “but you are making it a den of thieves.” The symbolism of that anger against the forces of market in Jerusalem’s place of worship has not prevented the birth of Christ being commercialized two millennia later. Christianity may have rid itself of its colonial complicity, but it is still gift-wrapped in global consumerism in the celebration of Christmas.
But the heavy wrap this year, as it was last year, continues to be the pandemic. Many in the West, especially governments, were hoping that with full vaccination they would have seen the back of Covid-19. But Omicron has dashed all hopes for a winter of reprieve. Instead, it is another winter of despair and discontentment. Another new phase or wave in the relentless battle that the world’s medical professionals and scientists are waging against an almost mythically self-reproducing virus. Three factors, vaccine apartheid, vaccine hesitancy and public health hostility are making it difficult for medical professionals and scientists to subdue this pathogen. All three are sociopolitical, and none of them technical or unavoidable. Because of them, the world might end up having variants after every letter in the Greek Alphabet.
Vaccine Scrooges
The WHO estimates that the current global vaccine production capacity is 1.5 billion doses a month, and the total global production by mid-2022 is expected to reach 24 billion. Enough to double-doze every person in the world and leave a good balance for boosters. Yet, the disparity in vaccine administration between high-income and low-income countries is staggering. At the end of October, 133 doses have been administered to 100 people in wealthy countries, and a mere four doses per 100 in the poorer countries.
In South Africa, where Omicron was first detected on November 24, only 26 percent of the population have received full vaccination (two doses), whereas the rate of full vaccination in most Western countries is higher than 80%. More than a half of the world’s population has not received any dose at all. Only 58% have received a single dose and 52% none at all. WHO set a minimum target of 10% vaccination for every country to be reached by the end of September, but 56 countries (mostly in Africa and the Middle East) have failed to reach the target. The new wave of Omicron is a direct result of the global vaccine disparity, which really is vaccine apartheid.
The WHO, its Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – the Tigrayan from the now beleaguered Ethiopia, and medical scientists in almost every Western country have been pleading with Western governments to expand the global supply of vaccine and ensure a more uniform vaccine distribution between countries. They have been warning that no country can be protected until every country is vaccinated. But there is no change in the mindset of Western governments. They are now focused on rapid administration of booster shots in their own countries and there is hardly any indication of expanding vaccine supply in low-income countries. There are American medical experts who are questioning the wisdom of diverting resources to give booster shots to the vaccinated instead of vigorously targeting the unvaccinated to get their two-dose vaccines.
Israel is already starting the fourth dose for 60+ age groups. This should boost Pfizer and Moderna to get busy lobbying for and marketing a fourth dose in North America and Europe. The two companies have shown no urgency or even interest in sending anything to the vaccine-deprived countries. Moderna is already in a court battle with the US government for excluding US National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists in patent accreditations for its mRNA vaccine. Moderna’s vaccine is being valued at $18 billion for 2021 only. Not a small amount for Moderna not to fight its own government for monopoly over royalties. Never mind Moderna’s research was massively supported by the American taxpayers. It was a different age in the US in 1955 when Jonas Salk, the “miracle worker” who developed the polio vaccine, declined to patent the vaccine or profit from it.
Now, Pfizer and Moderna have become the new vaccine scrooges of pandemic Christmas. Not even Pope Francis would be able to redeem these scrooges to become globally generous with their vaccines. Nor can the Pope persuade Western governments to allow vaccine production in developing countries. With the surprising exception of the Biden Administration, every Western government is being pushed by corporate interests to oppose global production of vaccines. Nonetheless, Christmas pleas and Papal admonitions and should keep coming. And if prayers would work, God speed to them.
Vaccine apartheid is one side of the Covid-19 coin, the other side belongs to vaccine hesitancy and public health hostility. Vaccine hesitancy is no longer the benign domain of the cautious. It is now a malignant movement of anti-vaxxers. They are universal, and every society has an unfair share of them. The country that suffers them most is also the country that is awash in vaccines – the United of States America. Only 61.5% Americans are fully vaccinated and 76.5% of them have received only one dose. The culture of political correctness and the laxity of relativism might be partly blamed for the failure of Western governments to aggressively counter the false narratives of anti-vaxxers in the social media and check their activities for the greater good of society. It is easily said and done in authoritarian societies.
Left Cheer in Chile, Coup Fears in the US
For more than 30 years civil society organizations have been campaigning for transparency in government. Covid-19 has brought about transparency of the unexpected kind, the transparency of government incompetence. Quite a few governments have tried hard and tried sincerely to contain the virus, but no government has been conclusively successful. Not even New Zealand. China officially stands for zero-Covid, but what is unofficially predictable is zero-information. Most governments have been muddling through with transparent incompetence. Some of them are being made to pay the price by their electors.
Right-wing zealots and charlatans who came to power with big acclaims have been cut to size or sent packing. Donald Trump lasted only one term, but nobody is writing him off. 2024 could be another Biden-Trump runoff. May be, Trump deserves a more lasting punishment with an even more disastrous second term as his permanent legacy. Narendra Modi, who tried hard to be peas in the same Indo-American pod with Trump, is now being forced to try even harder to protect his political bases in India. The most spectacular falling from grace is the lot of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. His buffoonery and incompetence are costing Britain dearly.
Governing Tory MPs in the British parliament are voting against their own government’s Covid-19 measures. The Johnson cabinet needed the support of opposition Labour to pass new public health regulations. And the people have had it with Johnson two years after giving him a thumping majority. In a recent by-election the Tories lost a seat (North Shropshire) for the first time in 200 years. They blew a majority of 23,000 in the general election and lost to Liberal Democrats by 6,000 votes. A turnaround of nearly 30,000 votes. As Lib-Dem’s winning candidate Helen Morgan declared, the “party is over” for Prime Minister Johnson.
While the UK and much of Europe are in convulsions, Germany, the villain of 20th century Europe, is emerging as the new example of political maturity and stability. To wit, the very consociational transition from Chancellor Angela Merkel and Christian Democratic Union after 16 years to new a coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party and including Germany’s Green Party and the new pro-business Free Democratic Party. Stranger things might be happening across the (Atlantic) pond in the Americas.
At one end, really in the southwestern corner of the continent, in Chile, a leftist millennial was elected last Sunday as its new President handsomely defeating a free-market buccaneer 56% to 44% in the binary vote. Gabriel Boric is a 35 year old Chilean political activist and unfinished law graduate of Croatian-Spanish origin.
He became prominent during the 2019 civil disobedience protests in Chile against inequality. Mr. Boric ran on an anti-Pinochet platform, pledging to end Chile’s vaunted neoliberal economic model. “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave,” he has vowed. But there is nothing grave about the transition of power, however. Both the defeated candidate, Antonio Kast, and outgoing President Sebastian Pinera (a conservative billionaire) have pledged their support to the new President. And the President elect has promised, “I am going to be the president of all Chileans.” For a country once notorious for its coups, Chile has become a “model of civility.”
It is quite a different story in the United States of America, once the fomenter of coups in Latin America. An old running joke among Latin American diplomats was the question: “Why are there are no coups in the US?” And the answer, “because, there is no American Embassy in Washington.” Well, there might be one now. While the Chileans were celebrating democracy, Washington Post ran an op-ed by three retired US military generals, warning the imminence of a coup attempt in the US by disgruntled sections of the military if Donald Trump or a candidate like him were to lose the next presidential election in 2024. Such a prospect is not “outlandish” according to the generals, with the “military hobbled and divided” after its politicization under Trump. A coup may not come to pass in the US, but the historical irony in the political transposition between Chile and the US should not be missed.
Pre-Christmas Prorogue
When General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Dr. Salvador Allende in Chile, on 11 September 1973, Sri Lanka was under a popularly elected socialist government (of the United Front Parties). The island had survived the insurrection of 1971 and had become a Republic in 1972. Soon after the coup in Chile, the Left leaders of the United Front government organized a massive political rally in Colombo, and warned of the threat of American imperialism facing the island. No such threat materialized then or later. And nearly 50 years later, as Chile celebrates rediscovery of democracy, there are many rumblings in Sri Lanka about its political future. There is no threat from the military to the government, but the fear is whether the government will use the military against the people. Or a self-coup or autocoup staged by the government, withdrawing its own legal legitimacy.
My contention has been that the Sri Lankan military is far too socialized and is tied up in myriads of kinship knots, and any attempt by the government to pit the military against the people will only backfire against the government. Another saving grace is in the proven incompetence of the government in an area of action, and a military action will be no exception. That does not mean, the government will not try something stupid. Right now, the government seems to be running scared, out of ideas, and out of money, most importantly foreign exchange money.
It can barely muster $1.6 billion in foreign exchange to buy a month of imports. The loquacious Governor of the Central Bank is promising to up the reserve to $3 billion by year end. He had better, given the double dipping salary and pension benefits he has helped himself to after his re-appointment. But his assured sources for foreign funding are pathetic – SWAP facilities from Middle Eastern countries and South Asian neighbours. China is not in any mood to give, but only to demand. Foreign exchange is only one of the government’s many worries. There are too many of them.
So much so, the President seems to have taken the advice of whomsoever and prorogued parliament until 18 January in the New Year. Parliament was going to be on vacation till January 11, and extending it by one more week by proroguing it did not make much sense to many people. Except for the government to bury its head in sand, ostrich wise. Speculations are that the government will use the interval to dissolve its bothersome parliamentary committees and get rid of their out-of-control Chairs. In addition, there could be a cabinet shuffle and some of the current Ministers are apparently not sure if they will be shuffled around or sacked altogether.
There is no Pieter Keuneman around in parliament to offer the old wisecrack that there is no point in shuffling a pack of jokers without any aces. The latest joke to come out of the current parliament is the purported action plan of the Ministry of the Environment to convert Sri Lanka’s parliament into a “Paperless Parliament.” Why not a speechless parliament? Should people be thankful that government leaders are unlimited in their resources to make them laugh? That might be the only positive Christmas note in the midst of misfiring cooking gas cylinders, soaring prices, and universal cuts of power, water and fertilizer.
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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