Features
Kalkudah to Arugam Bay and some canny decision making by JRJ
Excerpted from volume ii of Sarath Amunugama autobiography
I was lucky both as Permanent Secretary and a researcher in the field of family planning to spend time in the east coast which is one of the loveliest parts of Sri Lanka, with its pristine beaches and a large swath of blue sea. The Information department was a partner of the Ministry of Planning under Wickreme Weerasooria in undertaking a communications campaign to promote family health.
The UNFPA provided a well-known communications scholar, Flora Rosario Braid, of the Philippines as an expert for the project. Anura Goonesekere, Director of Information, and I were the local experts representing the Government. We decided to undertake a baseline survey of attitudes to family planning among the different communities in the country. One group to be tested were the Muslims of the Eastern Province with Kattankudy in Batticoloa district as the main focus of our interest. This was because Kattankudy was recognized as one of the most densely populated villages in the world.
This was before travel to the Middle East made this area a main provider of housemaids to Arab countries. This was followed by the Wahabisation of the East when Kattankudy was re-imaged as an Arabian village with date palms lining the roadways and men and women adopting the Arab dress which was quite unsuitable for our climate.
At the time we studied it, Kattankudy was a poor village subsisting on primitive agriculture and manufacturing of handloom sarongs. Its males were traders who fanned out to all parts of the country and established a communal network which was later exploited by the ISIS trained Muslim terrorists. It is amusing that when I was a member of the National Security Council as a Minister the only participant who had actually visited this ‘hot spot’ was me.
That spoke volumes about the lack of preparedness of the intelligence services under the Sirisena–Ranil dispensation. They were totally unprepared to respond to the intelligence provided by the Indian authorities regarding an impending attack by Muslim fanatics hailing from Kattankudy on that Easter Sunday which is now part of the sad history of that time.
The old Kalkudah Rest House was our meeting place during the survey. We would spend our weekends there by the sea and enjoy the sea food that was a specialty of the well-appointed Rest House. Close by was the large coconut estate belonging to the church which was managed by Father Miller, a legendary American Missionary. Unfortunately the Tsunami hit the East coast hard and the Kalkudah Rest House was obliterated.
The demographic projections we made clearly showed the lack of interest of the Muslim community vis-a-vis the other communities in the island, to family planning. On one hand it showed a demographic spurt in their numbers. On the other it showed the increase of poverty and paucity of health measures in the Muslim community which was later seen in their vulnerability to pandemics like Corona 19 in which their deaths were far above the average of other communities.
This was in contrast to the other samples from nearby Panama which had a mixed population. Sinhalese from Uva had fled there during the British repression following the failure of the rebellion of 1818. Panama is famous for its Pattini Temple and its procession in which the goddess’ anklets are paraded along the boundary of the village. From Kalkudah and Panama we went further south to Arugam Bay. This village and its nearby Whiskey Point with its fearsome sea waves, is one of the loveliest spots in the country’s shoreline.
Unfortunately it too was hit hard by the Tsunami. It has been rebuilt now. I am glad that the Tourist Board during my time managed to put the East coast on the map. After the Tsunami and the long civil war during which these spots were devastated, the East coast has now got a new lease of life. The future of adventure tourism lies in this beautiful area with its long sea line, pristine beaches and wild life without parallel in other parts of the country.
Government Printer
With the reshuffle when Anandatissa became our Minister, the President transferred more powers to the Ministry of State. In addition to tourism the subject of printing – the Department of Printing and the State Printing Corporation, was also allocated to us. This was mainly because those subjects were allocated to JRJ during the Dudley regime and Ananda was its Permanent Secretary at that time. The employees of these two institutions were happy at this change as they were coming back to familiar territory.
Both Ananda and I were personally interested in printing technology. To mark the assumption of the Presidency by JRJ, I started for the Sinhala reader a fortnightly news magazine called ‘Desathiya’ which was modeled on English news magazines like Time and Newsweek. I recruited the best talent among off beat Sinhala journalists like Cyril B. Perera, D.B. Warnasiri and Gamini Wijetunga and ‘Desathiya’ became a popular publication in the country.
It has now survived, indeed flourished, for 43 years and is still going strong having attracted a Sinhala middle class readership. Work on the magazine required regular interaction with the Printing Department and I acquired the rudiments of printing technology which became useful when I started my own newspaper as I shall describe later.
This was a time when we were moving from hot metal technology to digital printing and I was able to persuade the Treasury to make a considerable investment in the latest digitalized printing machinery. We became the pioneers in this field as it was an expensive outlay at that time. It was much later that newspaper moghuls turned to digitalization. Here too Upali newspapers led the pack.
When we took over the Department of Government Printing there were hundreds of workers who had not been confirmed even though they had served for more than ten years as temporary hands. They had been kept in limbo because their unions were supporters of the LSSP and the CP. It was their massive presence on Baseline road that made Borella a leftist stronghold. NM Perera’s municipal constituency was Borella.
However, in spite of being the Mayor, NM was defeated by the SLFP which fielded Dr. WD ‘Dadi Bidi’ Silva who was a popular private medical practitioner who belonged to the Salagama caste. A part of Borella, Wanathamulla, had a strong Salagama community and the SLFP, in their hatred of NM, had no hesitation in playing the caste card.
In 1977 however MH Mohamed managed to secure this seat and JRJ cannily made him Minster of Transport because private bus transport in the western province was mostly owned by Salagama capitalists of whom Sir Cyril de Zoysa was the outstanding example. Later Premadasa appointed Wijepala Mendis, the son of another Salagama bus Mogul, as the Minister of Transport. One could not understand the ups and downs of our leftists without reckoning the caste factor and the willingness of their ‘democratic’ opponents to use every trick in the book to defeat them.
With Anandatissas support I managed to confirm all the temporary workers because in fact it did not require new funds as they were already being paid monthly. This decision was welcomed by all the Unions, including the UNP and SLFP, and our stock was very high. The LSSP union led by Wimalasena was especially supportive and helped considerably in the book printing program which I will describe presently.
The State Printing Corporation which was founded by JRJ when he was Minister of State, had a strong UNP representation. JRJ had appointed one of his cronies, lawyer R.R. Nalliah, as the Chairman who worked closely with the Ministry and probably gave favourable reports about us to the Godfather. Nalliah frequently invited JRJ for functions of the SPC and JRJ often obliged because he knew many of the staff personally and was happy in their company.
With my minister’s blessings I arranged a comprehensive scholarship programme for our young printing executives with the London School of Printing on one of my visits there. Accordingly four young chemistry graduates were sent to London for training. They were taught the latest digital printing technology. On returning they were attached to the Department of Printing here and were asked to establish the Sri Lanka College of Printing with the resources of the Government Printer.
One of the returning graduates was Neville Nanayakkara whom I appointed the Government Printer though he was in his early thirties. He revolutionized printing in the country and brought it in line with the latest developments in technology and management. The other graduates joined the SPC and the private sector and helped in modernizing the printing trade here.
Text Book Printing
At a Cabinet meeting JRJ pulled out another rabbit from his hat. As a young State Councilor he had proposed that all school children should be provided text books free of charge. His proposal had been ignored at that time. Now he wanted his proposal implemented. It could have been argued that education in the State Council days was very different and at that time children had to be lured to schools with many incentives in order to promote education.
The free education scheme had brought almost all our children to school. Secondary education in Sri Lanka was being cited as a model by the UN, in its millennium development goal of education for all. But no Minister dared to argue with JRJ when it came to recycling his early fantasies. All solemnly agreed that it was a good idea and requested our Ministry to print the text books in consultation with the Education Ministry.
What followed is a classic example of decisive decision making by JRJ. The Minister of Education Nissanka Wijeratne was asked to provide a paper on the number of text books to be printed. He consulted his officials and said that the number was 20 and it was so entered into the Cabinet minutes. When I called my printers to discuss the printing schedule we were already in the month of September and had only three months to complete our task before schools reopened in January the following year.
We then discovered to our horror that the actual number of books to be printed were 60 and not 20. That was because there were three languages of instruction – Sinhala, Tamil and English – and text books were required for all three streams. Realizing the enormity of the problem I went to see the President with a graph showing the text books actually required class by class. JRJ immediately realized the dimensions of the blunder and called to his office the Minister and his Secretary, senior CCS officer DMPB Dassanayake.
The Minister had no explanation for his blunder and began to berate his Secretary. JRJ cut the meeting short and asked me to come back to his office by three o clock that afternoon. When I went to his office Menikdiwela and the Deputy Education Minister Lionel Jayatilleke were there. JRJ then gave letters of appointment to Jaytailleke and me.
In that brief period of time he had created a new Ministry called the Ministry of Education Supplies, by detaching several functions and budgetary provisions from the Education Minister. I was appointed the Permanent Secretary of the new Ministry in addition to my post in the Ministry of State. Lionel Jayatilleke was sworn in as the new Minister of Education Supplies. All this was done in the space of a few hours.
As we were leaving JRJ called me and said, “I can see you know your job” which was high praise indeed. Lionel and I found new premises for the Ministry near the Turf Club grounds and we got to work. Fortunately we had the goodwill of the workmen in the Government Press and the Printing Corporation. To their credit they all agreed to work round the clock without asking for overtime.
As the LSSP Trade Union leader Wimalasena, who was normally a hard nut to crack told me “We are doing this for our children”. Tragically many years later, after the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord Wimalasena was shot dead by the JVP. Then another problem arose. Sepala Gunasena owner of the Davasa group called me with his dilemma. MD Gunasenas traditionally printed the texts for Buddhism classes in schools from Grade one to ten. By the time of the Cabinet decision he had already completed printing these textbooks.
He was now facing a big loss if the Government also printed the same book. I saw the merit of his case and appraised JRJ about it. I told him that my solution was to buy the Gunasena stock and distribute it with our books. He immediately agreed and asked me to go ahead. When I gave the good news to Sepala Gunasena he was greatly appreciative as his company was in the throes of a financial crisis. He remained a good friend and I averted a crisis in the good relations that the Information Ministry had with newspaper publishers.
We worked hard on the text book project and even organized `shramadanas’ where Minister Lionel and I took part in the gathering of printed sheets and stapling them. With JRJ’s consent we gave part of the printing to the private sector and had to fend off recommendations of assorted politicians to give contracts to their favourite printing shops. Anyway we did our job in time and organized a ceremonial handing over of books in a school in the Minister’s electorate, Kuliyapiitya.
By a strange coincidence that school in Nakkawatta had a nostalgic message for me. Nakkawatta was my father’s first teaching assignment as a young man in the late 1930s. He had often told us about his experiences there and it had remained in my mind’s eye. Many years later as Minister of Education I revisited this school with the Education Secretary Tara de Mel and was happy to address the students about my father’s pleasant memories of their school.
Unfortunately at that time there was no one in the school who remembered him. But when I told my father about this ceremony he was delighted and told many visitors to his home of the good time he had in Nakkawatta as a rookie teacher.
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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