Features
My 60-year long movie Madness
PLACES, PEOPLE & PASSIONS (3Ps)
Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
chandij@sympatico.ca
My involvement with ‘Gamperaliya’ from age nine (acting in 1962, release in 1963, winning the first Sarasaviya Best Film Award in 1964 and winning international awards from 1965) was memorable and enhanced my interest in the world of cinema. I continued to be a very active movie goer from the mid-1960s for many decades, mainly of Sinhala, Hindi, and English movies.
From its first issue of April 10, 1963, I read every issue of a Sinhala newspaper dedicated to movies – ‘Sarasaviya’, for 10 years. I was also a fan of movie reviews by Jayavilal Wilegoda in the Dinamina newspaper. He was the foremost film critic in the sixties and seventies making contributions to Sinhala cinema as a forceful critic. His reviews were well written and were very interesting to read. He influenced a generation of moviegoers in Ceylon.
Watching “the first day first show” of good movies was a common goal of my gang of teenage buddies at Bambalapitiya Flats. My friends and I did not have much pocket money at times. Therefore, sometimes we pilfered some money our mothers gave us for grocery shopping.
We usually bought the cheapest gallery tickets for 50 cents after lining up for over an hour. After the interval, when the lights dimmed, we jumped to better seats at the back of the cinema. A couple of times we got caught by the cinema management who threw us out of the hall threatened us that they would inform the police if we ever returned! We ignored such warnings.
As there was no television in Sri Lanka until 1979, I sought my main entertainment via cinema, theatre, art galleries, radio, and neighbourhood sports. The two years I was in AL classes (Grades 11 and 12) at Ananda College, I saw many matinee movies, cutting classes to do so.
When my father R. D. K. Jayawardena, a perfect example of a Renaissance Man, was appointed to the Film Censor Board of Ceylon, I with y family, was fortunate to see hundreds of movies free of charge with balcony and good seats in the evenings. During those two years I went to the cinema a record 295 times.
After watching my favourite movie at that time, ‘To Sir with Love’ 16 times during its 49-day run at the Regal Cinema in Colombo, I decided that I would become a teacher one day. After that movie, I included Sidney Poitier to my list of favourite Hollywood actors. That list included Yul Brynner, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness, Peter O’Tool, Omar Sharif, Richard Burton, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and John Wayne.
Seeing my list, my father asked me, “Chandana, how come you don’t have any actresses on your list?” After that I included Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Julie Christie, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Andrews, and Audrey Hepburn in my ‘favourite’ list of two dozen Hollywood movie stars. When I saw ‘The Graduate’ I fell in love with the seductive Mrs. Robinson, and immediately included Anne Bancroft to make my list complete with 25!
‘Hora shows’ (movies without parental permission) My mother believed in feeding her three children every four hours during the day time. That meant I was expected at home for tiffin (the old British custom of afternoon tea merged with the South Asian custom of a light afternoon meal), sharp at 4:00 pm every day. The movies at the nearby Savoy and Majestic Cinemas commenced at 3:30 pm with trailers of forthcoming movies, commercials, and news.
The timing was a problem for me to manage the tiffin with my mother. Therefore, our ‘hora show’ routine started at 2:30 pm joining the gallery line up; 3:30 pm watching the trailers; 3:45 pm sprinting from the cinema to our home at Bambalapitiya Flats to have a very quick tiffin with my mother; sprinting back to the cinema in time for the start of the movie around 4:15 pm; then back at flats to joint my friends who were in the middle of outdoor games, around 6:30 pm.
My mother always assumed that I was with my buddies playing sports from 4:00 pm. Since she saw me around 4:00 pm, she never suspected me of having been to the cinema for a 3:30 pm show. However, I faced one problem. As many people smoked inside the cinemas at that time, the tee shirt I wore to the movie would usually smell of cigarettes when I returned home.
One day my mother, suspecting that I was smoking (which I was not), scolded me: “Chandana, at age 13, why do you smell like cigarettes? I will tell your father the moment he comes home from work!” and she showed me a cane kept in the house for my father to punish me when I became incorrigible! After that warning, I got over that hurdle after each ‘hora show’ by quickly washing the tee shirt I had worn to the cinema, having a quick shower, and changing my shirt.
Around 8:00 pm, I sat like a saint next to my father who sat at the head of the dinner table. Over dinner my father usually asked: “Chandana, how was your day? Did you behave yourself today?” “Yes, Thaththa. I did” was my standard reply, which was most of the time a white lie. My father had been annoyed in the past when he was summoned to come to my school frequently to listen to complaints about me from the middle school Principal. I was on my last warning at Ananda College a few times. I survived my 13 years there without getting expelled or failing any grade promotion examination, but not without a few painful and humiliating public canings.
Poster raids
My gang at the flats was also involved in other misbehaviour. At one time when we decided to collect movie posters to decorate our bedroom walls, we started going to cinemas during slow hours or early morning during our beach jogs, to remove posters from cinemas. One day around 5:30 am, while removing the posters of ‘For a few dollars more…’ from the Savoy Cinema, we got caught by the security guards, who locked us up in the basement until the manager came to work.
Luckily the Savoy Manager at the time was Mr. Gamage, who lived in flats. When he came to work, I told him, “Sorry Uncle Gamage. We promise not to do this type of thing again.” He was so angry with us and shouted at me: “Shut up! Don’t call me uncle! Wait until I call the police!” and kept us there for a few more hours. Finally, he released us after speaking with our fathers. That day I was seriously punished by my father, who used his belt.
Imtiaz Cader (later a fellow hotelier colleague and an organizational client of mine) whose father owned the Liberty Cinema dealt with me tactfully. “I say, Chandana. Why do you have to steal old posters from our cinema? Come and see me from time to time, and I will give you brand new movie posters.” After that deal. I proudly displayed new posters of ‘The Ten Commandments’ and ‘Nevada Smith’ etc. on the walls of my bedroom. My teenage neighbours who were also ardent fans of Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen were somewhat envious of me.
My younger cousins who were well-behaved, unlike me, as they were raised with lot of rules and discipline, loved visiting my bedroom. Just a few months ago, one of my younger cousins, Aruna Seneviratne told me, “Chandana Aiyya, one of the highlights in my young life was to visit your bedroom and look at all those movie posters, paintings, sculptures, and your collections, as we were not allowed to do any of that. You had freedom to do what you liked!”
Movie Nights during Hotel School years
When I joined Ceylon Hotel School (CHS) at age 17 in 1971, my movie going increased. The party mood at the CHS hostel continued throughout my three-year period there. When we had pocket money, we found any excuse to have a party and get drunk. In between these bigger parties, we used to get together in small groups of four to have an occasional drink.
All we needed for that was a contribution of Rs. 2.50 from four students to raise Rs. 10.00 (little more than US$ 2.00 at that time). This was enough for us to buy a bottle of arrack, a bottle of ginger ale, and a packet of Bristol cigarettes. After two hours all four of us were drunk.
When we could not afford to get drunk, we instead went to see movies at 9:30 pm and walked back to the hostel close to midnight. That entertainment cost each student only 50 cents (for the cheapest gallery seat right in front of the screen). Regularly, we upgraded ourselves to more comfortable seats at the back of the cinema during the interval without being noticed by the cinema employees.
I was a bad influence on my CHS batch mates. Usually, the other CHS hostelers who did not even have 50 cents to go to the movies had their entertainment by challenging those who are returning from cinemas for a midnight water fight. The attackers usually waited hiding behind trees in the hostel grounds with buckets of water and fully filled hose pipes. Often it was like a guerrilla ambush. On days we made too much noise after midnight, we made the poor CHS Warden, lose his sleep as well as his temper. If his wife and daughters too were awoken by our devilish screams, we got into deep trouble. When the angry warden came to the hostel to check, we pretended to be fast asleep, some in wet clothes.
A few more acting assignments
After ‘Gamperaliya’ I did two more acting jobs as a child actor. One was a commercial for the product ‘Robin Blue’ directed by Willie Blake, filmed over a weekend at St. Peter’s College in Colombo-4. In that commercial, I acted as the best dressed student of a class. My father acted as the class teacher and a group of St. Peter’s hostelers as extras. In 1968 I acted in another Sinhala movie ‘Abuddassa Kale,’ with the legendary actors Rukmani Devi, D. R. Nanayakkara, Eddie Jayamanne, and a few newcomers like Vijitha Mallika, and Malini Fonseka (her second movie). But after having acted in three movie projects and a play as a child actor in the 1960s, I gave up acting to focus on my career in hospitality from 1971.
In the 1980s, I managed to find a little free time to act in nine TV commercials directed by well-known directors such as D. B. Nihalsinghe, D. B. Suranimala and Shehan Wijeratne of Donald’s Studio. I also appeared on a couple of TV shows, a photo shoot, and a stage show. I then produced over a dozen; large stage music shows in Colombo. I also produced the first-ever ‘Fashion Model of the Year’ in 1988.
My first attempt in directing a music video (for Sohan Weerasinghe’s award winning song ‘Whispers in the Sand’) was nominated by Sunday Observer for the ‘Music Video of the Year’ Golden Clef Award in 1992. I did not win the award but the nomination was a big motivator. I then directed three more music videos for original songs (written/co-written by me). I finally came to the realization that one cannot be a Jack of all trades without being a master of none.
Passion is important, but one must also have the time and commitment. I gave up acting after appearing in the last video clip I directed: ‘Fitness Fever”, for the popular song I wrote in 1993, and performed by 20 top western musicians of Sri Lanka.
Connections with movie stars
Throughout my career as a hotelier, I was fortunate to get opportunities to interact with and host various movie stars and film makers. Most memorable meetings were: Gamini Fonseka who I met, chatted with, and hosted a few times. After meeting him for the first time during the shooting of ‘Gamperaliya’ in 1962, my next interaction with him was in 1973, when I worked as a trainee at Barberyn Reef Hotel. One day, I was working at the front office when a short but extremely handsome man arrived at the hotel.
As I greeted him, he said, “Good Morning, could you please inform Mr. Sudana Rodrigo that Gamini Fonseka is here to meet him.” I was pleasantly surprised and excited to meet my idol again. After lunch I had the opportunity to talk with him.
Although Gamini’s unprecedented popularity stemmed mainly from movies which followed popular Indian movie ‘formulae’, he enjoyed working on artistic movies with complex characters. That was confirmed in my mind when Gamini told me, “Don’t call me a star! I am an actor not a star. Stars fade away.”
I met Vijaya Kumaratunga and Malini Fonseka one day when I was the Executive Chef at Hotel Ceysands in 1978. An excited boatman called to me from the land side of the river asking, “Chef, is the restaurant now closed?” I told him, “Yes. It is well past 3:00 pm and the lunch service has ended.”
He then told me that the matinée idols of Sinhala cinema, at that time, Vijaya and Malini, are on their way to the hotel. “They both are very hungry. Chef, can you please make something for them?” “No problem, for Vijaya and Malini, I will re-open the restaurant and personally cook anything they would like to have!” I told him.
In 2023 with Wijeratne Warakagoda, veteran actor, and an old friend and colleague of my father
I took their lunch order, and we looked after them well. After lunch I had a quick chat with them. Malini then told me, “I will be at Ceysands again next month. Some scenes for my new film ‘Bamba Ketu Heti’ are planned to be shot at Ceysands.” I was excited as this movie was based on a popular novel by my favourite Sinhala author at that time, Karunasena Jayalath.
I met Dharmasiri Bandaranayake during the shooting of some scenes for ‘Bamba Ketu Heti’ at Hotel Ceysands, I befriended the main actor of the film. Dharmasiri was in his late twenties and had an amazingly creative mind. He was a humble man despite his outstanding artistic talents. Later that year, we met a few times, watched a couple of artistic European movies at the Majestic Cinema in Colombo and chatted a lot about his plans for directing movies and stage plays.
When Dharmasiri told me about his desire to get state funding for his movie directorial debut ‘Hansa Vilak’ I immediately took him home to introduce my father to Dharmasiri. My father was on the board of the Film Corporation which decided on state funding for movies particularly by new directors. Dharmasiri was successful in getting this funding. Three years later he invited our whole family to the inaugural showing of ‘Hansa Vilak’, at the Savoy Cinema in Colombo. It was a remarkable creation by a young director. I was proud to call Dharmasiri, my friend.
My meeting with Swarna Mallawarachchi was in the early 1990s my elder son Marlon and Swarna’s daughter Nare studied in the same school and class. That led to a friendship between our two families. In 1993 to open my first group art exhibition (with my father and Marlon), we invited Lester as the chief guest. A year later when I organized my first solo art exhibition, I chose Swarna to open the exhibition as the chief guest.
Lester James Peries was the chief guest of my first group art exhibition, ‘Three Generations’ (with my father R. D. K. Jayawardena and elder son Marlon Jayawardena) at Mount Lavinia Hotel in 1993. Swarna Mallawarachchi was the chief guest of my first solo art exhibition ‘Contrasts’, at Galle Face Hotel in 1994.
After that I hosted many other movie stars at hotels I managed in Sri Lanka, South America, and the Caribbean. They include Amitabh Bachchan, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, and Angela Bassett.
Sixty years after the release of ‘Gamperaliya’, my movie madness continues. This year during one of my trips to Sri Lanka I rushed to watch the 49th movie of my favourite Sinhala movie actress – Swarna Mallawarachchi performing opposite Jackson Anthony in ‘Dada Ima’.
Last week I gave mixed reviews in my rating system for movies I saw recentlylike ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, the sixth part of ‘The Crown’, and ‘Sly’. None of these received five stars in my own star system, rating movies between one star and five stars, which I commenced over 60 years ago.
This week, after watching one of the most expensive movie productions of the year, ‘Napoleon,’ with my 20-year-old younger son Ché, he asked me, “Dad, how many stars?”. When I told him, “only three stars or 60%”, he agreed. Ché has already become a tough movie critic like his grandfather and father!I thank thousands of actors and movie makers for entertaining an ardent movie buff or ‘picture pissa’ over 60 long years.
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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