Features
Educational reforms Sri Lanka demands today for a brighter tomorrow
The 32nd Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara Memorial Lecture titled ‘For a country with a future’: Educational reforms Sri Lanka demands today’ delivered by Prof. Athula Sumathipala, Director, Institute for Research and Development, Sri Lanka and Chairman, National Institute of Fundemental Studies, Hanthana on Oct 13 at the National Institute of Education, Maharagama
Continued From Friday (21)
We believe the child who is ready to face the challenges of the 21st century is a child who meets all these requirements.”
They have identified six aims of general education as shown below. National aims of general education
1. An active contributor to national development
2. An effective and efficient employee or smart self-employee
3. An entrepreneur or person with an entrepreneurial mindset
4. A patriotic citizen
5. A good human
6. A member of a happy family
These six aims are divided into nine parts as follows.
1. Positive
2. Practical
3. Proactive
4. Pragmatic
5. Patriotic
6. Passionate
7. Peace loving
8. Preserving
9. Problem solver
The new educational reforms have identified the skills necessary to the child of the 21st century, as follows.
The twelve 21st century skills
Learning skills
1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. Creativity
3. Collaborations and teamwork
4. Communication knowledge
Literacy skills
5. Information literacy
6. Media literacy
7. Technology literacy
Life skills
8. Flexibility
9. Leadership
10. Initiative
11. Productivity
12. Social skills
We then discuss social skills under six different criteria.
1. Understanding oneself
2. Managing oneself
3. Understanding others
4. Building and managing positive relationships with others
5. Relationship with the environment
6. Responsible decision making
Main domains of national reforms:
It is evident that these reforms have been proposed after in-depth analysis and that they are conceptually excellent plans. They are also well in line with the vision of Dr. Kannangara. The challenge, however, is how to effect these reforms in this country, given the social, economic and political challenges we are facing.
On the one hand, it is becoming impossible to hold school on all five days due to the fuel crisis. On the other hand, the question is how technical difficulties and shortcomings of on-line teaching can impact these reforms. Furthermore, it is very likely that these reforms will be viewed within a political framework by both union leaders and student unions.
The level of understanding of the key stakeholders of these reforms when they are being introduced will obviously be at different levels. Communicating these reforms to the different stakeholders at a level that they can clearly understand it will be a significant challenge. There appears to be a significant shortfall in employing social and electronic media, as well as influencers, to effectively communicate about these reforms, and we have a social responsibility to warn about this shortfall.
It is human nature to resist change. It is critically important to clearly communicate to the public, why the current education system needs to change, how it should change, how the direction of change and its final objectives are decided, in such a way that it addresses their fears and concerns. No one should be offended if I remind you that failure to carry out effective communication could lead to the same end as that of the proposal to shift to organic fertilisers.
Furthermore, however great the reforms are, it is necessary to remember that opposition against highly sensitive matters such as the Grade 5 scholarship examination, may come from those whose livelihood depends on tuition classes. It is also necessary to keep in mind that even the elements of society who are demanding a ‘system change’ may well behave in a different way when it is something that will affect them personally. As psychology tells us, this is because that the way we think when it is our personal problem is different to how we think when it is someone else’s problem. Another important challenge is how teachers’ mentalities can be aligned with these reforms. This does not mean that we assume opposition from the majority of teachers. However, it is doubtful if we have sufficient research data to determine the reality of this issue.
I would like to reiterate that the authorities, intellectuals and politicians already possess the mechanisms and strategies to win this massive challenge of effectively communicating these changes to all relevant layers of society and to convert them to honoured stakeholders of this change. Such strategic communication needs to be positioned as one of the most important aspects of the implementation of these reforms.
Other segments within the big picture that merit attention apart from the reforms within the school system in years 1-13
i. Early childhood development and the first 1,000 days
ii. The role of pre-schools as part of the education system
iii. Inclusive education and children with special needs
iv. Contribution of distance learning to educational reforms and challenges
v. Relationship between education and health
vi. Private universities and educational institutions
vii. Students at universities abroad
viii. Life-long education, adult education, continuous education for education professionals
ix. Integrating research within the overall scheme of education
Since there isn’t sufficient time to discuss all these sections fully, I will discuss some of the sections I believe are the most important.
(i) Early childhood development and the first 1,000 days
The greatest importance and greatest weight when investing in a child should be attached to the first 1,000 days. This is because 80% of a child’s brain development is completed within the first three years. Therefore, significant investment in educational reforms should be allocated to early childhood development, i.e., the Golden 1,000 days. A strong foundation laid at this stage will help the child successfully complete his / her education. From a health perspective, the Health Department, particularly the Family Health Bureau, makes a meaningful contribution towards this objective, however, there is a lack of an active mechanism to enrol parents as honoured stakeholders within this process. This is important because responsive care giving, i.e., observing a child’s signals in a timely and accurate manner, understanding such signals and responding to them, is an important part of childhood development.
Early childhood protection cannot be achieved through pre-established rules and guidance. Parents need to understand the related scientific concepts and should incorporate these concepts into their day-to-day life. The relationship with children varies according to the parents, therefore parents need to analyse the existing interactions with their children and secondly, adapt these measures and develop them to suit their needs. However, there is no structured mechanism for parents to develop this skill set within the education system, nor within the health system.
I do no intend to discuss this in detail, but wish to point out the critical importance of this concept; to reiterate that the greatest investment is necessary in the first 1,000 days, far more than in the Grade 5 scholarship exam, the Ordinary Level or Advanced Level examinations. Stimulating brain development is an investment with high returns; the best investment for the Sri Lankan nation. Research data indicates that for every Rs.200 invested on brain development, the return can be valued at Rs.1 800
(ii) The role of pre-schools as part of the education system
I shall quote from the article Mala. N. De Silva, retired Deputy Head, National Education Faculty, published in the 39th edition of Gaveshana, that explained our stance on the role of pre-schools in educational reforms. A pre-school has been recognised as the ‘Golden door that gives a person access to society’. De Silva writes quoting Koswatte Ariyawimala Thero that “The role of a preschool is not to give a child a large number of modern toys. Neither is it to teach a child to recite a poem in English. Those are secondary. A pre-school is not a tutory. It is the place where small children play; where they form social relations. That is what human education is.”
Furthermore, the UNESCO report on ‘Education for Life’ states that pre-school education is a prior necessity for any educational or cultural system, indicating the importance of pre-schools. At the World Children’s Summit in 1990 in New York, the world’s leaders signed the ‘World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children’, which had as its primary claim that early childhood should be a time of ‘joy and peace, of playing, learning and growing’.
The educational reforms of 1997 too had significant focus on early childhood education: it recommends increasing the number of pre-schools so that 3–5-year-olds can receive a better education. The National Census on early childhood education centres estimated that there are 19,668 pre-schools in Sri Lanka. The majority of these are, however, privately owned, and many parents cannot bear the cost of these schools. These pre-schools are frequently un-monitored and not standardised.
Under these conditions, I would like to reiterate that these pre-schools should be monitored and that the process of providing resource persons at these schools an adequate training needs to be expanded significantly.
(iii) Inclusive education and children with special needs
I would like to present a few points here based on the article written by Binoli Herath of the Institute for Research and Development on this topic.
‘All children have an equal right to education; however, it is not a secret that children with special needs face multiple challenges in accessing and receiving education’.
‘These children often are disregarded in society due to disabilities, poverty and the extreme nature of their problems. Most of them are unaware of the opportunities available to them. Similarly, most people are unaware of the abilities such children can possess’.
The Ayati Centre affiliated with the Kelaniya University provides health and education services for children with special needs with the mission to help such children reach their maximum potential through the use of modern scientific interventions and expertise. It also serves as a training centre for resource persons and as a research centre. There is great need to expand such services throughout the country.
I believe it is important to discuss alternative education for children with special needs.
1. Specialised schools: these are pre-schools, primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools for children with relatively severe disabilities. Children with severe visual, auditory, physical or cognitive disabilities receive education in such specialised schools using specifically adapted curricula.
2. Special education units within mainstream schools: children with special needs can be educated in units specifically established for them.
3. Special resource centres attached to mainstream schools: children with special needs enter regular classes and work within them for the majority of the time whilst seeking special services necessary from the resource centres a few times a week. Such schemes provide necessary support to children with speech difficulties, autism, emotional disorders, auditory or visual difficulties, learning difficulties, attention disorders and ADHD, for example.
4. Inclusive mainstream schools: provide education to children with special needs in the mainstream schools. This is feasible for children with mild disorders who can enter mainstream schools.
These facilities are available to some level within the education system; however, educational reforms should include mechanisms to elevate the entire society to one that acts positively towards children with special needs and does not discriminate against them. Education systems for children with special needs usually follow the curricula in the mainstream schools, however, these systems need to be modernised, along with making modern equipment and trained teachers available.
(iv) Distance learning as a tool for educational reforms and challenges faced
We discussed this issue with Neil Gunadasa, Additional Secretary, State Ministry for Educational Reforms, Open Universities and Development of Distance Education. He explained that certain sections of distance education functioned to a limited extent within the general education system. Recently, a separate Distance Education Unit was established to make distance education an integral part of general education.
“With the increased use of modern technology such as computers, tablets, internet and smart phones, the stage had already been set for the expansion of distance learning. The advent of Covid 19 and the resultant issues helped further popularise distance learning.
The Information Technology Division of the Ministry of Education initiated e-Thaksalawa, a structured distance learning system which contained a limited amount of learning media for children. They have developed it further now so that it can be used for educational reforms. This system is similar to a virtual classroom, carrying out the process that usually happens in a classroom on a virtual basis, using technologies such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
All 10,165 schools in Sri Lanka have been added to the system and it is expected to facilitate any student pre-booking and accessing the lectures of any teacher. The e-Thaksalawa content is prepared to match the new educational reforms which offer lessons in a module system. For example, a student completing a ten-hour module receives one credit. Learning the module content may well be done at school, but e-Thaksalawa offers the student the possibility of expanding his knowledge of the subject matter further using extension material.
Content creation has been done in all three languages, using both teachers and external subject matter experts. For example, for a topic such as agriculture, experts on agriculture are invited to contribute to content creation. Steps are being taken to provide students knowledge of more subject-related matter using the internet and distance learning methods. The 107 computer centres covering every educational division in the country are to be developed further to use as local resource centres for the new reforms.
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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