Features
Going off to a new life in Singapore
Sold my appliances and pyrex to Abans to pay my bond
by Sumi Moonesinghe narrated to Savithri Rodrigo
Our romance flourished. We kept seeking ways to be together, keeping our meetings under wraps and very secretive. Most often, our rendezvous was at the hotel where it all began, Hotel Suisse in Kandy. We always booked adjoining rooms – 91 and 92 — and met over the weekends. We would leave on Friday evening and return on Sunday, but deliberately traveled separately.
I was under the impression that our relationship was top-secret, but Susil’s friends had by now deduced the story and would rib him whenever they met him about the young lady he had fallen in love with. This included Susil’s good friend Upali Wijewardene, probably one of the country’s earliest successful entrepreneurs and founder of the Upali Group. He took to teasing Susil incessantly with the coined phrase, “91-92”.
I had been invited to the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) meeting in Manila. The ABU is a collective of over 260 members from 70 countries and a member of the World Broadcasters’ Union with the mandate to develop broadcasting in the region. Being a broadcast engineer, I was very excited to be among other similar-minded professionals. After my training at the BBC, this would be first time I would be having a dialogue and participating in discussions in not just broadcast engineering, but standards, systems and frequencies pertaining to radio and television. And another reason for me to be excited; as the head of CBC, Susil too had been invited to the ABU meeting.
When we returned to Sri Lanka after the meeting, Susil took my passport, saying it was for safekeeping. By this time, I was totally in love with him and never asked questions. He also told me he had decided to leave his wife. Throughout this time, I had well-meaning friends who would advise me about my actions. They would constantly tell me how wrong I was in engaging in an affair with a married man, that I was breaking up a family and as a last resort, that I deserved better, in an attempt to tap into my self-worth and dignity.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know right from wrong. I understood that my friends were right and what I was doing was wrong. But the attraction was just too strong and there was also that stubborn recklessness in me that must have liked taking things to the edge – living on the brink. I just carried on regardless.
It was understood now that we were together.
When I underwent a minor surgical procedure, it was Susil who visited me in hospital every day, feeding me meals prepared by his mother. He came from a family where sons could do no wrong especially in a mother’s eyes and hence, when he did tell his mother about me, she seemed to approve. It was not that I didn’t have my bouts of good sense kicking in. There were times when I would feel a semblance of guilt and cut off all communication with Susil. Then it was his mother who would call me and plead on her son’s behalf.
Since Susil had told me he was leaving his wife, it was more or less understood that the next step was marriage although he never articulated it until many months later. While returning from Kandy one day, he said, “You must say ‘Yes’ to getting married.” Susil had this way of asking me things and I could never say “No” because I was deeply in love with him. But this time, I stood my ground. “No way,” I said quite adamantly. “I’m going back to England. I want my passport back!” But of course that never happened.
As luck would have it, Susil was going on an official trip and we decided that I would join him. I took a month’s leave from the station. To avoid any unnecessary gossip, he left earlier and I joined him later in Karachi. From there, we first went to Paris so he could attend to some work pertaining to CBC. As a businessman, Susil had acquired a wide network of contacts and we were wined and dined quite extravagantly; although when it was just the two of us, we spent some idyllic moments – cruising on the River Seine and walking the streets of Paris.
From Paris, we flew to London. Susil had obtained special [permission from Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to visit London and Paris, citing a need to meet the people he had met in broadcasting circles. In London, he called Mrs. Bandaranaike and asked if he could go to Washington DC as well. Again she agreed, but asked him to meet the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London and the Ambassador in Washington DC.
Susil would never let me leave his side. He took me wherever he went, which also meant I was with him at every one of his official meetings, lunches and dinners. So, I accompanied him to dinner at High Commissioner Tilak Goonaratne’s official residence in London and then, when we got to Washington, to Ambassador Dr. Neville Kanakaratna’s residence as well. While in DC, Susil took me to a play at the Kennedy Center and I laughingly reminded him of the play we went to in Colombo, when he couldn’t take his eyes off me.
We traveled from Washington to Hong Kong and stayed at the Mandarin Hotel. From there, it was onto Singapore. Somewhere along this trip, we had decided that we would definitely get married. But that decision also meant many feathers would be ruffled in Sri Lanka. We realized that given Susil’s status both in politics and in society, we couldn’t continue living in Sri Lanka after we married.
Having thought long and hard about what we could do, when we landed in Singapore, I made contact with the Chairman of Singapore Television whom I had met at the ABU Conference in Manila. I asked him if he could find me a job and he unhesitatingly said “Yes” because my training in colour television at the BBC was a rare commodity. At very short notice, he organized an interview for me with the Head of the Singapore Institute of Research Dr. Lee Kum Tat, who offered me the post of lecturer at the Singapore Polytechnic, the first and oldest polytechnic in Singapore. My new appointment would give me the status of an expatriate lecturer plus a very attractive salary and a lovely apartment to top the deal off.
With this job in hand and knowing we had a route out of the country, Susil and I took the flight back to Colombo. With my job confirmed at the Singapore Polytechnic, my next task was to resign from my post at CBC. I quickly wrote my resignation letter and handed it to the Director General of CBC. The resignation was readily accepted. We could never have predicted however, that the acceptance of that letter was to be his last official duty as Director General of CBC.
As we landed in Colombo, the news hit us that Susil had been dismissed from his post at CBC. Neither of us could understand the reason but Susil surmised that it was the powerful Minister of Public Administration Felix Dias Bandaranaike who was instrumental in the dismissal. It was well known that since the attempted coup d’etat in January 1962 when a group of officers from the military and police planned to topple Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Government, Felix was responsible for aborting that coup and the investigations that followed and had thus become a very influential member of her cabinet.
Mrs. Bandaranaike entered politics in 1960 following the assassination of her husband Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranaike by a Buddhist monk at their Rosmead Place home Tintagel. She was the first woman Prime Minister in he world. Her Government stayed in power until 1965 when she lost the election, but she remained in Parliament as the Leader of the Opposition. She regained power in 1970 with her United Front Coalition, a triad of the Communist Party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
This was 1970 and Mrs. Bandaranaike’s second stint as Prime Minister. Susil concluded in hindsight, that after a decade in politics, Mrs. Bandaranaike should be a mature politician and didn’t quite need to be influenced by her cousin Felix. But there was no point in pondering over questions we didn’t have answers to. Whatever the reasons and whoever directed it, Susil had been dismissed.
During our one month away, we had been blissfully unaware of the wheels which had begun turning in Sri Lanka in our absence. Susil’s wife Ganga had heard about us and visited my parents, of which again, I was unaware. Having no inclination of Ganga’s visit to Kegalle, I made my habitual visit to see my parents after we returned from our one month overseas. They never confronted me but kept repeating, quite vehemently, that I shouldn’t return to Colombo.
This insistence went on for hours, with my mother in tears and my sister very upset. Ignorant of what had transpired, this behaviour was quite baffling to me until my little niece spilled the beans. In all her innocence, she said, “A fair aunty came in a big car from Colombo to see Achchi and Seeya.” I deduced this was Ganga as being of Sindhi’ descent she was fair complexioned and the big car was the Moonesinghe car.
In the close-knit environment of my conservative village in Kegalle, gossip is rife. Everyone knows everything about everybody and news generally spreads like wildfire. So, if someone says, “Your daughter has eloped with a married man,” there would be absolute loss of face for my family. They were teachers who had always been held in high esteem in Kegalle and a black mark like this would be hard to bear. Susil’s family, on the other hand, were hardly affected because his mother already knew about us and these things were accepted as part of life. There was nothing scandalous.
Despite my family’s pleadings, I had to get back to Colombo. My sister’s husband drove me back. It was quite a silent drive as there was quite a dark cloud of unspoken questions that needed answers hanging over our heads.
Colombo was teeming with the news. I had never realized this would be the way it all panned out. It became unbearable and I just wanted to escape. To assuage some of the troubles that kept bubbling to the surface, Susil wisely got a seat for Ganga on the inaugural Air Lanka flight to London so she would be spared the gossip that was swirling the city.
However, Ganga wouldn’t let things slide by so easily. Once she got to London, she made contact with my boyfriend, who until this point was unaware of the series of events that had unfolded in Colombo. I hadn’t told him anything. On hearing the entire story from Ganga, he subsequently told me he was heartbroken beyond comprehension and even had bouts of disbelief. “I still believed we were going to get married,” he said. It transpired eventually that we would remain good friends, with our families intertwined in that strong friendship we nurtured decades ago.
The next step was paying my bond. Since I had resigned from my job at CBC, I was obligated to repay my bond which was quite sizable at that time. On my various trips abroad, I had stocked my home at Sulaiman Terrace with a range of duty free appliances. I put them up for sale. There was a Hoover polisher, Electrolux vacuum cleaner, Belling cooker, Necchi sewing machine and Pyrex dishes, all of which in the 1970s constituted a treasure trove.
The country was pursuing an economy shaped by socialist ideology, which in the simplest of terms, brought on a ban on imports and import substitution. My appliances therefore proved to be a boon for one innovative entrepreneur, Aban Pestonjee, who was just starting off her business. She would eventually found one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, the Abans Group of Companies, and be the first entrepreneur to introduce Korean technology to Sri Lanka. A remarkable woman indeed!
Susil’s uncle was the High Commissioner in Canberra, and a few years earlier, Susil had sent his daughter Tara to study in Canberra under his care. However, with all that was going on, Ganga brought Tara back to Sri Lanka, much against Susil’s wishes. This disrupted Tara’s education and added to the complications. Ganga left no stone unturned to get Susil back.
Susil finally did leave Ganga and came to stay with me at Sulaiman Terrace with just the clothes on his back, two pairs of trousers and a few shirts. I lost nearly all my friends during this period. I had Loretta who stood steadfastly by my side, allowing us to stay with her until we left for Singapore. I also remember my friend Nali’s husband, whom I had known from 1960, sitting with me for two hours and coaxing me to rethink what I was doing. I was treated like a pariah because everyone felt sorry for Tara, the child caught in the middle, a reaction that was understandable.
Just before we left for Singapore, I went with Susil to see my parents to tell them about my job offer and that I was leaving Sri Lanka for some time. My mother didn’t come out to see me and only my father spoke with me. I remember him telling me, “I have faith and trust in your ability to make decisions for yourself and I respect them. Be careful.”
While there were upheavals and lots of bad blood at the time, Ganga, Tara and I eventually became very close friends and it was a friendship that lasted throughout Ganga’s last years and through Tara and her children as well. I am grateful that as I grew and matured, I managed to resolve some of the issues I grappled with, even in a small way, by being there for both Ganga and Tara as part of my hybrid family.
As a Buddhist, the resolution of the hurts we cause is an important aspect of the concept of Karma. It is a blessing to carry no evil into the afterlife. I was young, foolish and in love. But the older and wiser I grew, I realized I too had my own punishment meted out when my marriage to Susil ended and the whole cycle of love, loss and pain in was completed in one lifetime. That is the karmic cycle.
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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