Features
JRJ, The Leader of unmatched calibre
by Sarath Amunugama
Sri Lanka had not seen a leader of the calibre of JRJ. In public, he appeared to be aloof with “ice running in his veins”. But among his friends he was a hospitable and friendly person who invariably ended a conversation with a sophisticated joke. In public he was austere in a dress of his own design. At home he wore long trousers with a fashionable bush shirt. As a young minister representing his country abroad he had always dressed elegantly in Saville Row clothes. In public he was not easily accessible. But anyone visiting him at home was treated with great courtesy.
Once he told me how he dealt with wedding invitations which are the bane of politicians. Anyone who personally met him and invited him would get a cheque as a wedding gift. Anyone who sent him a mailed invitation would get a congratulatory letter. At home with his wife and grandchildren and the family dog he was relaxed and enjoyed a joke often at his expense from his near and dear.n public he invariably wore an immaculate white `national with his wife and grandchildren and the family dog he was relaxed and enjoyed a joke often at his expense, from his near and dear. He had what the French called with admiration ‘sang froid’, which means ‘cold blood’.
Nothing in the early days would faze him. When in Pasyala he was garlanded with cadjunuts, JRJ happily started eating his garland while the audience of cadjunut sellers cheered. Once when on the comeback trail his enemies garlanded him with flowers which had red ants hidden among them. JRJ endured all the ant bites without flinching till the meeting was over. He then had the bright guy who introduced the red ants thrashed. In Nawalapitiya, when he was heckled by an onlooker, who had been set up by an opponent, he told Chandra Karunaratne his electorate organizer, that unless he got rid of the nuisance in two minutes, he will appoint another organizer for Nawalapitiya in five minutes. The heckler disappeared.
In the celebrated attack on him and Anandatissa de Alwis when they were on a protest march to Kandy, JRJ had spies in Mrs. B’s camp who told him about her plans to stop him from coming to Attanagalla (The infamous Attanagalla Doctrine). He arrived incognito to a house in Attanagalla the night before and calmly held a puja in the Maha Vihara the following morning and called off the March, after getting maximum local and international publicity organized by media genius Ananda.
In the meanwhile ‘storm troopers’ from Kandy led by Anuruddha Ratwatte and Clarence Delwala had cut down trees to block the road and attack the ‘Satyagrahis’. They waited in vain because JRJ had called off the march and with his men were back in Colombo. He had achieved his objective of getting maximum publicity when the Non–aligned movement was thinking of holding its next sessions in Colombo.
JRJ was a media savvy president. Being a well read and well-informed person he knew that media would play an important role in the success of his administration. His mother’s family, the Wijewardenes, were the media Moguls of the country. As a first step he wanted to put his personal loyalists or henchmen as the bosses of the main media outlets. As Chairman of Lake House he appointed his former private secretary, the amiable Ranapala Bodinagoda, a low key operator and fanatical JRJ loyalist.
He was a personal acolyte of the President and Mrs. Jayewardene and would attend to their small tasks which were confidential and needed instant attention. He was a habitue of Braemar and would keep his boss informed of political, social, and especially personal gossip, that he picked up at embassy parties. If you fed Bodi with gossip, you could be sure that it would reach JRJ within 24 hours. It was well known that he was the conduit for JRJ’s views which would find articulation in the Lake House papers on a daily basis.
Having got his boss’s ideas printed Bodi would rush to Braemar every morning with the early editions of his papers for his approval. The rumour among the Colombo glitterati was that JRJ could not begin his morning ablutions without glancing at the Lake House papers brought to him at the crack of dawn by Bodinagoda.
When the Times group became insolvent and was acquired by Government, JRJ appointed another of his henchmen-Paul Perera who too would convey JRJ’s wishes to his journalists but in a harsher tone. When Paul was nominated to Parliament, he was succeeded by another henchman Nalliah who was a kind hearted but ineffectual gentleman. The binding thread was that the wives of Bodingoda, Paul Perera and Nalliah were all members of the inner circle of Madam Jayewardene’s friends who were constantly seated in the veranda of Braemar supplementing the gossip that was liberally passed on to Godfather JRJ.
Consequently he was in the know of everything that happened in the social, business and administrative circles in the country. Bodi was at his best recycling Embassy gossip as he and his wife attended every embassy party and were highly regarded by the diplomats who knew of his connections and wanted a quick introduction to the President.
JRJ then extended his connections to radio. During the transition he, at Menikdiwela’s urging, appointed a well-regarded civil servant and my friend from Peradeniya days, Dharmasiri Pieris, as the Chairman and CEO of the State Broadcasting Corporation. He managed to bring some order to the SLBC in a short time.
Ridgeway Tillakaratne’s departure had been followed by a period of indiscipline which became a hallmark of the transition of management in State corporations. But the newly appointed Minister of Trade and Shipping, Lalith Athulathmudali wanted Dharmasiri as his Permanent Secretary. Perhaps Dharmasiri himself preferred the less stressful assignment which showed the sagacity of the new minister who went on to be a star in the new cabinet.
When the name of Neville Jayaweera was suggested by me as Dharmasiri’s replacement at SLBC, JRJ shot down the idea on the somewhat curious grounds that Jayaweera ‘was too old’. The real reason may be that Jayaweera went around accusing JRJ of being involved in the military coup of 1962. Later it appeared that he had rushed to judgment. After interviewing Sir John Kotelawala in England on this incident Jayaweera recanted and wrote to the papers that it was Dudley who was culpable and not JRJ.
By then it was too late. No wonder then that JRJ was not enamored of his former protege who had crossed over to the Dudley camp as the Chairman SLBC in 1968. JR had a long memory of insults directed at him. As he said to Rajiv Gandhi he “can forgive but cannot forget”. For the post of Chairman of SLBC he insisted on the appointment of Eamon Kariyakarawana who was his lifelong henchman. While Lake House journalists were divided in their loyalties during the Dudley-JRJ dispute, Eamon led the JRJ faction. He was a committed UNPer, who was as the saying goes, ‘an eating, drinking man’ and a popular colleague who ranked among the best-known Lake House journalists. His brother DF, was a perennial President of the Press Association. This position gave DF much power especially in arranging freebies, including foreign trips for journalists, which were coveted by all and sundry.
Before long Eamon had charmed the distinguished Board of the Corporation which included M.J. Perera, D. Rajendra and Jezeema Ismail. He and his chief advisor Thevis Guruge maintained good relations with both JRJ and Prime Minister Premadasa. As a result we had no problems with the political authorities – a situation which was quite unusual regarding the media.
I had the closest of rapport with my Minister, Wijetunga, who was content to let me handle the affairs of the ministry as long as he did not have any issues with the President and the PM. He was not in the least insistent regarding perks such as staff, vehicles and foreign trips. In fact he abhorred foreign travel and preferred to send his deputy Chandra Karunaratne or me on those assignments. Media personnel loved him because he was accessible and ever ready to confer benefits on them.
The only privately owned newspapers at that time were of the Davasa group owned by the Gunasena family. The Managing Director of this group was our old friend from Kandy, WJ Fernando. WJ, Wijetunga and I had worked very closely during the Dudley regime. This proved to be a bonus because the Davasa group looked on our ministry as a friendly and helpful organization.
This relationship was best seen in the episode of the print supply for the Davasa newspaper. One day WJ called me in a panic saying that their shipment of newsprint was getting delayed and there was the real possibility of a shutdown. It would be a slur on the newly formed government which came to power on the slogan of freedom of the press. I immediately called my Minister and asked for his approval to mediate in this matter.
He was more than happy to oblige since WJ himself had asked for help. My solution was to ask Bodinagoda of Lake House to advance an emergency stock of their newsprint to the Davasa group till such time as they would get their own stocks and return the amount of newsprint borrowed. Though this appeared to be a horrific solution to some Lake House journalists who would have loved to see their rivals shortchanged, Chairman Bodi was willing and the transfer was made.
The Davasa and Sun newspapers in their editorials of the following day publicly praised the Minister and me saying they were publishing the .newspaper only because of our cooperation. There was an interesting sequel to these editorials. As soon as they were published, Minister Premadasa telephoned me in the early hours to thank me for my initiative. But the sting was in the tail. As an old friend he asked me to include him also as a contributor to good relations with the newspapers so that any future editorial would refer to his assistance as well.
Needless to say 1 was impressed by his dedication and attention to detail which was a hallmark of his ascent to power. The new regime also brought Esmond Wickremesinghe back to the media scene in a big way. There was early speculation that he would come to Parliament and assume the post of Foreign Minister. But JRJ had a different view. He brought in Esmond’s son Ranil to Parliament and made him the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under ACS Hameed who had taken his side during the Dudley–JRJ conflict in the party.
He wanted to be his own Foreign Minister relegating Hameed to activities dealing with the non-aligned movement and the Middle East. He thought correctly that the Middle East provided many opportunities and a Muslim minister would be an asset in counterbalancing of Indian interests. Since he himself had been a special envoy to the San Francisco conference in 1951 where he had won his spurs, JRJ also introduced the practice of adding roving Ambassadors and Special envoys to his foreign policy establishment. Leading these envoys were his brother Harry Jayewardene and Esmond Wickremesinghe.
On occasion he would also use Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali much to the chagrin of Hameed. However Hameed was much too cunning to enter into a turf battle with these heavyweights. He managed to secure his position by proposing that Harry Jayewardene be promoted as a candidate for the International Court of Justice. This naturally elated the Jayewardene brothers and Hameed was permitted to undertake more trips abroad which he enjoyed enormously, under the guise of canvassing for Harry. In order to strengthen his credibility with JRJ he managed to get Harry in to a high level UN fact finding committee on Iran which received much publicity in the local media.
The other high profile envoy who got Hameed’s goat was Esmond Wickremesinghe who had regular meetings with the President and advised him on international affairs, especially relations with India. Soon India became a ‘no go’ area for Hameed because Esmond had set up a back channel with Indira Gandhi through his friend Ralph Buultjens who was a Professor of Political Science in New York. Indira Gandhi had requested, through Esmond, that Hameed be kept out of India as her Customs officials had briefed her that our Foreign minister was bringing gems into their country. All this meddling and trickery led to confusion in our Foreign Ministry which contributed to the bad relations with the Gandhi regime which had catastrophic consequences for Sri Lanka leading to a thirty year ethnic conflict in the island.
(Next week The JRJ Persona)
(Excerpted from the recently published Volume 2 of Sarath Amunugama’s autobiography)
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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