Features
EXPLORING SOUTH EAST ENGLAND – Part 50
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
After returning from Scotland, I had two leisure days in London with my wife. Early morning on a Monday in late February, 1982, my United Nations (UN)/International Labour Organization (ILO) Fellowship Coordinator for the United Kingdom (UK), Larry Wilson, drove me to a small town, Cosham, in South East England. My one month stay there opened many doors for me to explore this beautiful region.
Today, the South East is the third largest region out of nine official regions of England (in 1982, known as the government office regions). The South East region consists of nine counties of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, and the Isle of Wight. I eventually visited 20 cities in this region.
Cosham
I lived in Cosham for a month while travelling across the region. Cosham is a northern suburb of Portsmouth lying within the city boundary but off Portsea Island. Its population in 1982 was around 10,000. I enjoyed going for long walks in a friendly neighbourhood. There were no significant tourist attractions there. However, I was happy to experience living with a local English family. All members of this young family were very friendly.
Every week day, they prepared a heavy English breakfast for me, and the family sat with me for supper around 6:00 pm. After that on most evenings, I played pranks on their two young children and their dog which amused the young parents. “Chandi, shall we watch some telly”, the parents usually invited me while switching to BBC Channel One to watch the TV news in the evening. Some other families in Cosham with a room or two to spare, also made a little extra income by accommodating international students from the nearby Highbury College of Technology.
Highbury College
The Highbury College’s new facility for Hotel & Catering programs was opened just before my arrival. At the College I was mentored by Freddy Watts, a Senior Lecturer in Food & Beverage Operations. I shadowed Freddy in all of his theory classes and practical sessions. He demonstrated to me how efficiently he ran the training bar while teaching his students to make over 60 most popular cocktails in the world, something I followed when I returned to Ceylon Hotel School to teach Bar Theory and Cocktail Making Practical Demonstrations.
Towards the end of my one month at Highbury College, I was invited to deliver a few guest lectures. I happily used that opportunity to practice my newly acquired teaching skills from the Turin Centre in Italy. When I asked Freddy one day, which were the best universities or colleges in UK to study hotel management, Freddy said, “The best is the University of Surrey. Then comes Ealing College, and the Westminster College, which is the oldest. Highbury College is now coming closer to those top three.”
Portsmouth
I became a regular evening visitor to the nearby historic city Portsmouth. It was one of the most densely populated cities in UK. Portsmouth is mostly located on Portsea Island. As one of the world’s best-known ports, Portsmouth’s history can be traced to Roman times and has been a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries. Portsmouth has the world’s oldest dry dock, ‘The Great Stone Dock’, originally built in 1698.
By the early-19th century, Portsmouth was the most heavily fortified city in the world, and was considered ‘the world’s greatest naval port’ at the height of the British Empire. By the mid-19th century, a ring of defensive land and sea forts, known as the Palmerston Forts had been built around Portsmouth in anticipation of an invasion from Continental Europe. I found the history of Portsmouth fascinating.
HMS Victory and Lord Nelson
I became interested in one of the greatest British heroes of all time – Admiral Horatio Nelson (Lord Nelson). It stemmed from my frequent visits in and around the Trafalgar Square by foot and London buses in 1979 and 1982. Looking up at the most impressive 169 feet tall Nelson’s Column fired my curiosity about this legendary hero, who had injured one eye and lost one arm in two different battles.
Lord Nelson supposedly had popularized the term: ‘turned a blind eye’ when wilfully disobeying a signal from a superior to withdraw his ship during a naval engagement. His inspirational leadership, visionary strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of significant British naval victories during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest naval commanders in history. The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was one of the most decisive naval battles in history, when a British fleet under the command of Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. Lord Nelson died on his flagship, HMS Victory at the end of the Battle of Trafalgar.
As the legend has it, fatally wounded Lord Nelson, asked, “Did Britain win?” According to the tour guide who took me to Lord Nelson’s cabin on HMS Victory, after hearing the good news, Lord Nelson gave his final order, “Bury me in England” and took his final breath. As the voyage back to Portsmouth would have taken a several days, naval officers arranged to have Lord Nelson’s body placed in a cask filled with brandy and rum.
Upon arrival at Portsmouth, however, the story goes that when the cask was opened it was empty of any liquor. The pickled body was then removed. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the a few liquor-addicted sailors had drilled a hole in the bottom of the cask and drunk all the brandy and rum. “Now you understand how the popular term – ‘Full Bodied Wine’ originated!” our guide joked.
I liked watching famous movies about Lord Nelson such as ‘Bequest to the Nation/The Nelson Affair’ (with Peter Finch as Lord Nelson and Glenda Jackson as his mistress – Lady Hamilton). When I lived in the West Indies/the Caribbean for nearly a decade from the early 1990s, my museum visits sparked further interest about this legendary character. During Lord Nelson’s near-decade long early period of naval duty in the Caribbean, he left records and myths about both his professional life and personal life, including affairs and slave ownership.
After serving in and around Port Royal, Jamaica (which was my second home), Lord Nelson had been transferred to the islands of Antigua and Barbuda. In his late twenties he commanded this important (due to its close proximity to the islands of the French West Indies), naval base within the English Harbour. The base is named after its most famous resident, as ‘Nelson’s Dockyard’, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Currently, his former residence, is an expensive 10-bedroom boutique hotel with an amazing historical charm – Admiral’s Inn. In the year 2000, during an official trip for my then employer, the University of the West Indies, I did a special trip to the English Harbour and managed to stay for one night in the bedroom used by Lord Nelson. During my travels in 26 Caribbean countries, this stay was one of the most memorable.
South Downs
“Chandi, get ready to move from Cosham to South Downs for a few days. I have arranged a special management observer period for you at a Holiday Inn in that area”, Larry Wilson told me over the telephone. Arriving in South Downs in Larry’s car, I could not take my eyes off a range of chalk hills that extends over many counties with steep escarpment on one side. The South Downs are characterised by rolling chalk downland with close-cropped (by the sheep) turf and dry valleys, and are recognised as one of the most important chalk landscapes in England.
The South Downs are relatively less populated compared to South East England as a whole. There is a rich heritage of historical features and archaeological remains, including defensive sites, burial mounds and field boundaries. The downland is a highly popular recreational destination, particularly for walkers, horse riders and mountain bikers.
My observer period at the Holiday Inn focused mainly on training new food and beverage servers. Developed by their corporate offices, the on-the-job training sessions covered the very basics of customer service in a most effective manner. Having recently completed a training program at the ILO head office in Switzerland on ‘Modules of Employable Skills’, my role at the Holiday Inn quickly changed from a mere observer to a facilitator.
This new experience was helpful to me when, one year later, as a consultant, I developed a two-week food and beverage training session for hotel workers in Sri Lanka. This was on the invitation of my friend, Imtiaz Cader, the General Manager/Director of the Holiday Inn in Colombo.
Winchester
I was happy to receive an invitation from a family friend, Mary Anderson to spend a couple of days at her house in Winchester. In 1980, Mary travelled to Sri Lanka to attend our wedding. Mary came with her granddaughter Sarah to pick me up from the coach station and took me on a long tour covering many tourist spots of their historic city.
Winchester is a city on the edge of South Downs National Park. Mary took great pride in taking me to see the medieval Winchester Cathedral. The Great Hall of Winchester Castle houses the medieval round table linked to the mythological figure, King Arthur who was the head of the Kingdom Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table.
“I am too old to do the long Keats’ walk by the River Itchen. Sarah, you go with Chandi”. Mary sat down to rest with a cup of tea. After a beautiful walk passing the famous city mill and shop, Sarah took me along the Water Meadows Alms-houses (bede-houses) established from the 10th century to provide a place of residence for poor, old and distressed people. The oldest Alms-house still in existence is the Hospital of St. Cross in Winchester, built around 1,000 years ago.
Windsor
A friend of mine from London drove me to Windsor, which is a town on the River Thames, just west of London. It is the home to Windsor Castle, a residence of the British Royal Family. Built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, the castle was extensively remodelled by subsequent monarchs. We took part in a guided public tour.
St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It was built in the 14th century by King Edward III and extensively enlarged in the late 15th century. It is located in the Lower Ward of the castle. The chapel has been the scene of many royal services, weddings and burials, over the centuries.
Guildford
UN/ILO arranged for my final week in UK to be in Guildford. I found the medieval Guildford Castle, in the centre of town to be very impressive. The immaculately landscaped gardens and views from its square tower were beautiful. I enjoyed a visit to Loseley Park, a large a 16th-century Tudor manor house with a walled garden. As an artist, I was particularly interested in visiting the nearby Watts Gallery, and Artists’ Village, which displayed Victorian paintings and sculptures.
In the later years, I visited a few other cities in South East England, including Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Folkstone, Eastbourne, Brighton, Southampton, Bournemouth, Torque, Plymouth; for leisure, work or research.
University of Surrey
I then moved to Guildford for a week. My accommodation was in the student residence of the University of Surrey. It is a public research university which had received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions previously known as colleges of technology. Over the years, the university’s research output and global partnerships have led to it being regarded as one of UK’s leading research universities.
In March, 1982, I attended a week-long management development program there, designed for middle managers of the British hotel industry. Our program focused on hotel design, marketing, finance, and food and beverage controls. I was the only international attendee of this program.
During the management development program, we had our lunches and dinners at the training restaurant of the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management of the University of Surrey. Each table for dinner was hosted by one of the professors or a senior lecturer. Around mid-week, at the dinner table where I was seated, there was no host, but a vacant chair next to me. Just before the service began, a middle-aged gentleman sat at that chair and started a friendly conversation with me. That chat changed and influenced my professional life significantly, over many decades.
“I am Richard Kotas. Where do you come from?” the gentleman asked me soon after sitting at the head of the table. During the discussion over dinner, we learnt a lot about each other. I was very impressed about his life story. After leaving a labour camp in the Nazi Germany after World War II, Richard Kotas arrived in UK as a refugee. His whole family in Poland, was sadly displaced. “All I had was my father’s wristwatch, five British pounds and the ability to speak about five words in English,” he old me explaining his humble beginnings in a new country.
In 1982, Richard Kotas was a highly respected Senior Lecturer and author who had published over a dozen text books related to hotel finance and accounting. He then gave me a signed copy of a very popular textbook titled, ‘Food and Beverage Control’ which he had co-authored. “This is for you Chandi. I will discuss this book, cover to cover, over the next two days with your group”, he said with a friendly hand shake.
Twelve years after that dinner meeting, Richard Kotas and I co-authored a British text book which became popular in many universities in the Commonwealth. It was based on my master’s degree dissertation, which he supervised in 1984. I got into writing and editing text books, mainly due to the encouragement and coaching by Richard Kotas, over the years.
Over that dinner in March 1982, Richard Kotas informed me that, the world’s first master’s degree in International Hotel Management will commence at the University of Surrey in September 1983, with him as the Program Coordinator. “You would be a good candidate for this master’s degree”, he encouraged me, and I immediately said, “Yes!”. The very next day, he arranged an appointment for me to be interviewed by his Head of Department.
Unfortunately, I was rejected by Professor Philip Nailon, Head of the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, as I did not have the entry qualification of a four-year honour’s bachelor’s degree. Rejection always was a motivator for me, and I continued to pursue then possibilities. “Your credentials are impressive and we are happy to enrol you in the fourth year of our bachelor’s degree, before joining the master’s degree.”
After checking the program fees, I realised that I simply could not invest the money for two years of studies in UK. “There must be some other way for me to bridge the gap and join the first cohort of the master’s degree” I gently pushed towards achieving my objective. Professor Nailon then said, “OK. When you return to Sri Lanka, look for reputed university programs equivalent to the fourth-year level academic studies, and let me know if you find something good for me to re-consider your application to the MSc in International Hotel Management.” I was certainly determined to do so.
According to Professor Richard Kotas, I was his best student in 1983/84 during my master’s degree studies at the University of Surrey. He was my favourite teacher of all time. Later, he became my boss, co-author, co-presenter of seminars, business partner, fellow board member, lifelong mentor and more importantly; loyal friend. Over the years, we did joint-assignments in UK, Sri Lanka and Jamaica. In 1990, when he was the Director of the School of Hotel Management at Schiller International University in London, he hired me as his deputy.
Professor and Mrs. Kotas were like my parents and they also loved my wife, like the daughter they never had. Over 38 years, every time I was in West London, I visited Professor and Mrs. Kotas and had a home-cooked Polish meal in their home. The last time I did so was in January 2020, when I spent six hours with them, on my way from Toronto to Colombo.
During that meeting, we compared fruits of our new mutual hobby – poetry. He gave me signed copies of his two latest books, with his poems. I read some of my new poems and sought Professor Kotas’s input. “My dear Chandi, your poetry is beautiful. You must publish a book of poetry”, he planted a seed in my mind. He never saw my book of poetry, ‘Emotions’ which was published in 2022. Professor Kotas passed away a few months after my final meeting with him in London in 2020, when he had just turned 91. RIP, my dear friend! Thank you for everything! I love you.
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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