Features
More on having foreign mothers in then Ceylon
(Excerpted from Chosen Ground: The saga of Clara Motwani by Goolbai Gunesekera)
Having British and American mothers also meant that we were spared much of the meaningless ritual of the East. Our parents protected us from prejudice, since caste and creed were not matters of high priority to them. Their Theosophical backgrounds ensured that we grew up with eclectic beliefs, as far as religion was concerned. What was stressed was ethical behaviour.
We read about all the faiths, and they were discussed in our homes. Buddhism and Hinduism were our Father’s leanings, but as far as we remember there was no `must’ about religious observances. From Father I learnt Hinduism and Sikhism, from Mother, Christianity and Buddhism. I can say the prayers of all religions, and am quite happy in any place of religious worship.
At my Ooty convent in the Nilgiri Hills of India, I won the Catechism prize two years in a row, even though I was not a Christian at the time. Our parents encouraged us to mingle with everybody. It mattered little to them who our friends were, just so long as they came from educated and cultured backgrounds. I attended eight schools altogether, while Suriya easily topped my record by attending 11 – 13, if she counted repetition in the same school. She finished her secondary school career at Ladies’ College, and I at Bishop’s.
Unlike the normal run of Asian mothers, ours were not busy collecting jewelry for us to be worn when we ‘grew up’ – a euphemism for our first menstruation. Kumari received her first set of gold bangles from her future mother-in-law before she married. She promptly lost them all. My own mother-in-law left me a lot of good jewelry in her will.
I loved her and remember her daily, but not because of that jewelry. Mother would have rather spent the money on books, and it says much for us that we never felt deprived. Our classmates may have worn their gold bangles to school, but we simply did not notice. Our ears were not pierced till we were ready to marry, but then again, who cared ? No one, except gossipy, but good natured, family friends who worried about our futures in a traditional society.
On one never-to-be-forgotten day I had taken my Indian cousin (a boy) to the Women’s International Club for a game of tennis. Boys were tolerated there on a one-day-a-week basis, but we were not expected to know any young boys. Our mothers did the inviting if necessary.
Anyway, the ladies of the Club were treated to the sight of me cheerfully playing singles without a chaperone in sight. Unable to concentrate on so mundane a matter as bidding a hand, they hurried to the phone and collectively informed Mother of my goings-on on the tennis court. Such freedom, such laxity, such license boded no good for my matrimonial hopes, they told Mother.
And this brings me to marriage: such an important milestone in the lives of Asian girls. In point of fact, all four of us made ‘good’ marriages; which is to say, they were socially commendable, although here again, our parents only checked on whether the boy was ‘nice’… an adjective that covered a multitude of qualities to which traditional parents would not have given much thought.
Kumari married Lal Jayawardene, son of the Governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon. Naturally I wanted to know how romance had blossomed. Kumari had been studying at the London School of Economics while Lal was at Cambridge. Dining one night with an Indian friend at a restaurant in Russell’s Square, Kumari was introduced to a young man (Lal) who must have been smitten instantly, for they married a year later.
All four of us ‘sisters’ are much fairer of skin than our contemporaries. All of us are dark-haired, except for my sister who had hair that was almost golden at birth. Certainly, we do not display the conventional looks of the average Sinhalese or Tamil girl. What was amazing to us was that Lai had not noticed this far from usual Sinhalese colouring, and was surprised when Kumari mentioned later on in their relationship that she had an English mother.
Relating this story, Kumari told me in amused tones: “You might have thought that Lal should have realized something was wrong!” Blinded by love he did not. and, anyway, ‘wrong’ is not the word we would have used on ourselves.
Maya Kularatne
Suriya married Desmond Fernando, a distinguished lawyer, scion of a well known Sri Lankan family and at the time of my writing, President of the Sri Lanka Bar Association. Theirs was a typical ‘boy-next-door’ romance which blossomed in idyllic surroundings, since they lived on opposite sides of a tree-lined road in a beautifully quiet and shady residential area.
Maya married Stanley Senanayake, who ended his career as Inspector General of Police of Sri Lanka, and I married ‘Bunchy’ Jayampati Gunasekara, son of a Judge, Mr. P.R. Gunasekara who was subsequently Ambassador to England, France and Australia.
I met my husband when I was 15: it was a standard case of opposites attracting. My mother had made sure that I had imbibed her own stand-offish doctrine and attitudes vis-a-vis boys. Bunchy, on the other hand came from a gregarious, highly sophisticated Sinhalese family who entertained a great deal, and loved ballroom dancing. (I need hardly say here that I did not know how to dance at the time.)
At my classmate Malinee Samarakkody’s birthday party, my friends were twirling around happily while I just twiddled my thumbs on the sidelines. Bunchy asked me to dance. I often wondered why he came up to me and asked me to do the foxtrot but ask he did. “I don’t know how,” I told him forlornly.
Bunchy was all bright, breezy and confident. “Oh, that’s no problem, ” he said airily. “I’ll teach you.”
To this day I swear he added the words “I’m very good at it” but he denies this so vehemently that I’m getting confused myself. For the sake of family peace I shall go along with his story…..and it was never in any doubt that he was then, and still remains, a superlative dancer.As I said earlier, we met when I was just 15, and he 18. When I went away to University, Bunchy left for England to study the tea business. By all accounts, he had a marvelous time in London, and can still find his way from pub to pub if need be, while I had a pretty boring time in University being faithful to an absentee boyfriend.
The four of us found our own partners in spite of our parents’ attitudes, and not because of them. They were concerned with teaching us how to live our own lives as fulfillingly as possible, rather than telling us that such fulfillment for women lay only in marriage.
The lives of these eight people shaped and moulded the lives of young Sri Lankan children for years to come. While it is true that the medical doctor and politician fathers were busy with their patients and constituents, the others headed schools like Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo; Sri Sumangala in Panadura, Sujatha Vidyalaya in Matara, Musaeus College, Colombo, Ananda College in Colombo for boys, Ananda Balika in Colombo for girls, Hindu Ladies’ College, Jaffna, Buddhist Ladies’ College, Colombo, and Sujatha Vidyalaya in Colombo.
My own father went back to India as Professor of Sociology and was a visiting lecturer in countries all over the world. But Sri Lanka was his base and he frequently gave a series of lectures at the Colombo University campus when Sir Ivor Jennings was the Vice Chancellor.
Both Mother and Hilda Kularatne were Principals of their schools at the age of 23. Both began teaching their students to be Sri Lankans and not just good little British colonials. Accordingly, Hilda began teaching temple art and native art forms to her pupils. Mother began the teaching of Buddhism as a subject, and encouraged her Visakhians to look to their own culture for inspiration.
Chitra Malalasekera
All these ladies had been brought up with rather iconoclastic views by their own parents who had questioning and insightful minds. All four of them were pioneers of the Rotherfield Society – the first of its kind – founded by Dr. Ratnavale, the well-known psychiatrist. All four were members of the Theosophical Society and this is perhaps a good place to mention again that when India gained Independence, most of Nehru’s first Cabinet were likewise members of the Theosophical Society and had been influenced by that great Englishwoman, Annie Besant.
There was another aspect of this blend of East and West that is rarely highlighted. Much of their student life and some of the working life of these eight people had been spent abroad. Ergo, their contacts abroad were also many. Their personal friends are now regarded as being among the world’s greatest personalities.
Mahatma Gandhi, a friend of Doreen and her husband, gave Suriya a cotton sari that he had woven. The sage, Jiddu Krishnamurti, often had dinner in our home as we were one of the rare vegetarian families in Colombo. Krishna Menon, India’s great Foreign Minister, had been Doreen’s teacher and she kept up her ties with him. Harold Laski, the renowned political scientist, had been my father’s professor briefly at Yale.
Rukmani Arundale, the Minister of India’s Cultural Affairs and the founder of Kalashetra Dance School, was a family friend. Beautiful Rukmani taught me how to wear the sari when I was 11-years old ! J. B. Priestley was yet another literary acquaintance. The famous Indian dancer Uday Shankar was a guest in our home, as was Rabindranath Tagore in Suriya’s.
He visited Sri Lanka, and spoke at Ananda Balika when Doreen was its Principal. Doctors A.P de Zoysa and S.A. Wickremesinghe were members of the Buddhist Union in England, and were friends of Anagarika Dharmapala whom they worked with in London.
In the USA, Father had met Pearl Buck, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature. She autographed a set of her books for him, which he donated along with an entire library to the University of Colombo. They must be still there if anyone cares to trace them.
Through the Theosophical Society, Father was introduced to Henry Wallace, the Vice President of America during the Roosevelt administration. Wallace’s interest in Theosophy and Buddhism was well known, and the writer Gore Vidal makes mention of this incident in his book The Golden Years.
George Santayana, the philosopher, was yet another acquaintance with whom Father corresponded for much of his life, as was the famous author and co-Theosophist, Aldous Huxley.
Encouraged and supported by their husbands, the four ladies not only had significant roles to play in the emerging Sri Lanka but also left an indelible mark on the island. Writing an article titled “Heroes Day – Here are the Heroines” in 1977, the well-known journalist and Gratiaen Prize-winner, Vijitha Fernando, included Mother and Doreen in her round up of the island’s outstanding women.
Eleanor de Zoysa came from a family that had been socialist in their views for four generations. Small wonder, then, that Kumari followed suit. Suriya was Head of Amnesty International for five years (the only Sri Lankan to have had this honour) and during her tenure of office has had occasion to accept awards and citations in various countries for her work. Maya has just retired after leaving her mark on Sri Lanka’s Police Department, where as the wife of the IGP, she headed the Seva Vanitha.
She also founded and ran a handicraft village which was a showpiece for visitors who wanted a quick glimpse into the culture of the land. And I, trailing behind the headline-grabbing careers of my ‘sisters’ – I run the Asian International School in Colombo – the only one of the four of us to continue the educational careers of our mothers.
As could be expected, these four mothers had a very liberal outlook; an outlook that today would be positively dangerous. Kumari was allowed to explore Colombo freely, and she swept Suriya along in her wake as she wandered at will. The two girls would picnic (alone) on the beaches of Modera, cycle along unfrequented pathways and examine whatever took Kumari’s interest.
Assuming all was well, Doreen never asked where Suriya had been. She trusted that Kumari was doing her duty, and looking after the younger girl. In actual fact they were travelling by bus, and doing the sort of things girls from more traditional families rarely did. But our families were-not traditional, and Colombo was an unusually safe city. We were so lucky. This unorthodox upbringing has made us self reliant, independent and confident, and well able to handle our world.
To this day, Kumari and Suriya are generally regarded as the brains of the quartet. Kumari is now Dr. Kumari Jayawardena, former Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colombo and the author of a string of books on the role and position of women in this island. When her husband was appointed to a job in Helsinki, she had to retire as professor although she still keeps up lecturing engagements at the University on a freelance basis.
She has written in detail of the impact women, and especially Western women, have made on our society, and anything I might say here on the subject would be not only superfluous but rather banal.
And so Kumari, Suriya, Maya and I –sisters under the skin’ – the offspring of these wonderful parents, have remained friends all our lives. It has been one of the great plus points of our unorthodox heritage.
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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