Features
Lady Ridgeway Hospital: A haven for sick children in Sri Lanka
125 YEAR BIRTH ANNIVERSARY:
By Dr. B. J. C. Perera
Specialist Consultant Paediatrician
I wrote an article in The Island newspaper, under the aforesaid title, 12 years ago, on Monday 09th June 2008. I have retained that title but content of this article is different. It’s worth looking at this hospital from a more current perspective particularly since the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children (LRH) is celebrating its 125-year jubilee in October 2020.
The LRH had very humble beginnings. At the outset, 125 years ago, it was constructed from public donations; rupees 46,000/- to be exact, as a small 50 bedded hospital. Lo and behold, today, this magnificent edifice, with over 1,000 beds, is the largest children’s hospital in the world, I repeat, in the whole world. It has stood the test of time as the final port of call and a veritable haven for sick children of our homeland. It is the National Referral Centre for this entire nation. The hospital functions sans any and every mundane consideration such as ethnicity, caste, creed and wealth of children who are brought there. This glorious medical facility is one that is solely devoted to sick children. If there is anything fanciful that is needed to be done in Sri Lanka for a sick child, it could be done in this hospital. It now caters to every type of malady that affects children. You name any specialty for the care of a sick child; it is available here. Everything is provided entirely free-of-charge and it is the crowning glory and the feather in the cap of the paediatric component of our Free National Health Service, the pride of Sri Lanka.
To date, I have been a doctor for exactly 50 years and a Specialist Consultant Paediatrician for 42 years. Out of that long period of half a century of service to the nation, I have spent 16 years in the hospitals of Kandy, Badulla, Ratnapura, Kurunegala and Kalubowila. Compared to that, and in contrast, I have worked in the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, in different capacities, for a total of 17 years. My service at LRH culminated with my retirement from the Ministry of Health in 2007. In lighter vein, I have been properly ‘themparadufied’ in our health sector, both public and private. I have most definitely, seen it all.
Those really were the days, around half a century ago, when during my medical student apprenticeship and internship, I saw how Mother Nature used to take the lives of our children with all kinds of infectious diseases. The wards at LRH were full with cases of meningitis, pneumonia, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, measles, tetanus, tuberculosis, chicken pox, hepatitis, amoebiasis and even rabies. In fact, this is a list of just only a few of them. Add to it, the ravages of under-nutrition leading to marasmus and kwashiorkor, extensive vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies and major uncorrectible congenital heart abnormalities, and what did we have? A hospital bursting at its seams with sick children. It was practically a place that spelt out the real meaning of human susceptibility to disease and even mortality. During certain times it was indeed a bit of a hell on earth. The deaths were totalling up to some very significant numbers. By today’s standards, they had very few things they could do for intractable heart failure, liver failure and kidney failure. All types of paediatric malignancies and cancers were practically untreatable. The doctors and Specialist Consultants, as well as all other grades of staff of yore fought as hard as ever, tooth and nail, to save all those severely ill children who were brought to the LRH. However, most unfortunately and ever so very often, to no avail whatsoever. The dice was dreadfully loaded against those unfortunate children, as well as against the healthcare workers who had to look after them. In those halcyon days, each ward had a Consultant, a Senior House Officer and just two interns; a totally inadequate number of medical personnel to cater to the intense daily needs. Work was absolutely horrendous. It was not unusual to see many dead bodies of ill-fated children being wheeled out of the wards regularly, day in and day out. It was such a distressing and depressing landscape. There was hardly any light at the end of the tunnel. Yet for all that, the staff fought on bravely and relentlessly to save the precious lives of little children. To their eternal credit, they managed to save quite a few of the very seriously ill ones too.
Then, over many a decade, especially over the last few of them, the tide gradually turned. Successful vaccination almost totally removed some of the deaths and disabilities caused by a plethora of nasty infections. Many medical advances provided ways and means of dealing with former killer diseases. Improvements in heart surgery made it possible to treat at least a majority of congenital heart defects. When I finally reached the out-and-out hub of Paediatrics, which LRH was, in 1995, as a Specialist Consultant in charge of a unit, just about 25 years after my own internship at LRH, the scenery and settings had changed so much and well beyond belief that it was almost unrecognisable. In my ward I even had the absolute luxury of the services of a Senior Registrar, one who just needed two further years of training abroad before becoming a Consultant, four Postgraduate Registrars waiting to sit for the Final MD in Paediatrics Examination and four intern house physicians. The academic level of all those individuals who cared for my patients was absolutely top-class. They were right up-to-date in the sphere of scholarly paediatrics. They were all very fine and dedicated young doctors who would never ever allow a child to die without a steadfast and committed fight.
The advances in surgery were almost unbelievable. To top it all, around the time that I finally reached LRH as a Specialist Consultant, we had the services of several very fine Paediatric Surgeons whose handiwork in the Operating Theatres were almost too good to be true. Some of the recoveries from incredible surgical tragedies were really like those from the pages of volume of fiction. They were the work of gifted artists who wielded the scalpel with telling effect. One little anecdote that comes to mind is the surgical prowess of one particular general surgeon in lung operations. He was, and still is, quite a maestro at it. In those days that I was in charge of a unit, because of my personal interest in childhood respiratory disorders, we used to get quite a number of children with major lung problems which sometimes needed expert surgery. The usual practice was to send them off to the Colombo General Hospital Thoracic Unit for surgery. Lung surgery in children is a very tricky business. Things could go wrong at the drop of a hat. I somehow got to know that this particular young surgeon at LRH was so very good at it and I used to plead with him to get the surgery done at LRH itself. I used to say “Aney, please, please, PLEASE.., do it for me as a personal favour”. The very fine man that he was, and still is for that matter, he never ever refused. He has surgically taken off lobes of lungs and even the whole lung sometimes of my ill patients. True to life, those children recovered without any problems in about a week to 10 days. We never had even a single death after extensive lung surgery. They went home to a normal fruitful life and an entirely normal life-span. Just for the record, one could remove a major portion of the two lungs and still be able to lead a normal life with even a well-functioning half a lung. When I used to thank the surgeon profusely for doing it for me, he used to just smile and even feel a bit embarrassed.
It was all in a day’s work for him but for us, it was an absolute life-saver for our patients. In fact, that surgeon is still in active service at LRH. That is the quality of the Paediatric Surgeons that we have even today, with no exceptions whatsoever. Their commitment is truly wonderful. They will not let an unfortunate child suffer unnecessarily. They will fight on with every available means, daytime as well as well into the middle of the night, to save the lives of children to whom they had practically committed their professional lives. I have seen with my own eyes, these surgical colleagues leaving their families and their own little children at home to come to LRH in the middle of the night to perform life-saving surgical operations on our little patients.
Now, fast forward to 2020!!!! After my retirement in 2007, I now work only in the Private Sector and there are several instances where I have had to send patients to LRH for further investigation and treatment. One particular little tale comes to mind rather forcefully. A frantic mother of one of my regular patients telephoned me around mid-day, just about a couple of weeks ago because her little pre-schooler had taken an overdose of some medicines. My immediate advice over the phone was “please do not take the child anywhere other than to LRH. Do not go to any other place but rush him to LRH. Do not even bring him to me. I am just asking you to take the child to the very best place in the whole island”. They rushed him there and the staff attended to him pronto. He had what we call a stomach-wash performed on him, then they instilled some activated charcoal into the stomach, did some baseline blood tests and kept him in the ward. He did not turn even a hair and recovered within a couple of days. Incidentally, I think the mother threw my name around a bit and when the Consultant of the ward got to know, he had said “I trained under Dr BJC and we have done exactly what he would have done in the circumstances”. He was one of my Postgraduate Registrars and it was extremely nice of him to say those things. Of course, the mother and the relatives of the child were ever so pleased.
There were many other patients whom I had sent to LRH over several years and I have always asked them how it was at LRH when they came to me again. Every single time the mothers have said “It was a bit inconvenient for us but the child got star-class treatment and that really is what matters” or something basically to that effect. It has always warmed the cockles of my heart to hear such complimentary statements. My heart and soul have always been with LRH and anything unsavoury and disparaging said about that hospital would really hurt me to the core. We did care so much for the little children admitted under us and it is so good to see that those who have come after us do care as much, and are dedicated to the cause of providing the very best possible care for the patients as well.
Well, the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, the mother of all hospitals in our resplendent isle, is 125 years old. If walls could talk, the walls of LRH would have all kinds of stories to tell. She would say how she had seen the worst of many diseases that affected children and also how things have changed over a century and a quarter of her existence. She would have a perpetual smile on her face in view of the progress achieved in caring for sick children, especially over the last few decades.
The lady needs to be feted and acclaimed on her 125th Birth Anniversary. The administrative staff, the doctors and all other grades of workers of LRH have planned a fitting celebration for her on the 01st of October 2020. In a glittering ceremony due to be graced by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Minister of Health of Sri Lanka Pavithra Wanniarachchi MP; they will acknowledge the priceless role played by LRH towards the healthcare of Sri Lankan Children. The ceremony will include the laying of the foundation stone for a new nine-storey building, opening of the new bone marrow transplant unit, opening of the new Operation Theatre Complex, official issuing of the hospital logo, formal release of the hospital song written by Dr. Rathnasri Wijesinghe with music compiled by Dr. Rohana Weerasinghe, and the commissioning of the new website for the hospital. These latest developments would help to make an excellent place for sick children, even a little bit of a better place for them.
All these would be a fitting and splendid accolade to an illustrious medical facility that is absolutely like no other. May she go from strength to strength and continue to be a dazzling beacon of excellence in healthcare for our children in this Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
Viva Lady Ridgeway Hospital, please do take a bow on your 125-year Birth Anniversary. It is the very least you so richly deserve, for the commitment that you have shown for the sick children of our beautiful Motherland. You are indeed a majestic haven of excellence for them.
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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