Features
Paris and some of its habitues and JRJ, Cyril Mathew and their storm troops
Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography
(Continued from last week)
As a member of the Sri Lankan delegation I began to attend the meetings of the Communications sector of UNESCO. International meetings of this group were held in Paris while regional meetings were held in Bangkok and New Delhi. As mentioned earlier the Paris meetings were the main driver of the global debate. Special attention was focused on the African countries which were lacking in both manpower and technical resources.
Increasingly what was highlighted was the imbalance in news flows between the developed and developing countries. The answer was to transfer technology and training opportunities to the developing countries through funding from multilateral and bilateral sources, basically coming from the industrialized countries. From this stance came the call for setting up a new institution in UNESCO for the promotion of Communication Development. It was to be called the International Programme for the Development of Communication [IPDC] with its own Governing Council, Director and Secretariat.
Our annual visits to Paris for UNESCO meetings which usually lasted about a week with a weekend in between was a good opportunity to savour the life of that beautiful city which has been called the ‘City of Light’. We were lodged in a hotel close to UNESCO in Place de Fontenot’ in Paris 16, which was the elite district or arondissement. It was close to the Eiffel Tower and Ecole Militaire which is the major military school for the elite officers of the French Army.
A stroll after meetings took us to the most ‘posh’ areas of the city including the Invalides – the Military Museum -mostly devoted to Napoleon. We could also walk in the numerous immaculately maintained parks close to the tower and the Invalides. A longer walk would take us to the famous `Pont de Paris’ or Paris bridges which spanned the river Seine and linked the right Bank with Left Bank [Rive Gauche].
One day while the meeting was going on we received news of the death of Jean Paul Satre and his funeral the following day at the cemetery at Montparnasse which was not too far from Place de Fontenot’. That afternoon I excused myself and with Navaz of our tourist office in Paris joined the thousands of mourners who assembled near the entrance to the cemetery to bid farewell to France’s best known intellectual.
Many who flocked to the cemetery were the young people of the sixties, now close to middle age, who had been inurrectionists against the De Gaulle regime. They came to pay homage to an older man who had taken their side and marched with them in the Quartier Latin. Though Satre was a thorn in his flesh, De Gaulle, in a typical Gallic gesture, had ordered the police not to touch the philosopher-hero. He remembered that Satre had encouraged ‘the resistance’ when France was under Hitler’s jackboot and Frenchmen looked to De Gaulle as their savior.
We had to push through the teeming crowds to follow the black hearse carrying Satre’s remains to his final resting place. At the last minute there was a hush and a famous film star Simone Signoret, came to place a bowl of roses on the coffin which was then slowly lowered into the open grave. Whenever I visit Paris I go to the Montparnasse cemetery to pay my respects and also rekindle my memories of a city I knew so well a long time ago.
At that time the Sri Lanka Embassy in Rue D’Astorg was our home away from home. The Ambassador was Vernon Mendis who was a very senior Foreign Service officer who had managed the administrative side of the Non-Aligned meeting in Colombo. But as soon as he reached retirement age he was hired by UNESCO to be their representative in Cairo. The Director-General of UNESCO M’Bow was well known for his patronage of Ambassadors who were loyal to him.
Mendis was succeeded by Balasubramanium who too was a senior in the service. But Bala too was at the end of his career and was ill with a terminal disease. Most of the relations with the French public was handled by Manu Ginige who was a fluent French speaker and a Francophile. Manu who became my very close friend was a legendary character among the Sri Lankans abroad. A graduate of Peradeniya he followed up on his fascination with international politics by joining Air Ceylon as their representative in Paris.
An ardent Trotskyite in Peradeniya he had a wide circle of leftist friends. Among them was Ratnasiri Wickremanayake who was a law student in London at that time. Ratnasiri had cut short his stay in the UK because he was summoned to contest the Horana seat in the 1960 General Election. His elder brother Munidasa, who had been Philip Gunawardene’s MEP candidate, had been killed a few months before the election. Ratnasiri won the seat, crossed over to the SLFP and later became the Prime Minister.
He never went back to his studies and Europe but maintained his links with his London comrades. These friends formed a trio – Ratnasiri, Willa Wickremasinghe and Manu Ginige. After leaving Air Ceylon Manu joined UTA, the French airline that flew to Colombo, on the invitation of Minister Leslie Goonewardene of the LSSP who was the Cabinet Minister of Transport and Aviation.
Through Air Ceylon and UTA Manu became indispensable to any one with connections to Colombo and Paris because air travel was their lifeline. After the fall of the Bandaranaike regime in 1977 he left UTA and freelanced for a while and even spent some time in Cologne with his German wife and daughter. He came back to Paris as Hameed’s interpreter and confidante.
When our delegation comprising Esmond, Arthur Clarke and myself went to Paris for UNESCO meetings he was our liaison with the secretariat as he was fluent in French. He became indispensable to Esmond and with Hameed’s backing became a crucial member of our Embassy having lived in Paris for over 20 years. Chandrika Bandaranaike and her friends who had moved with him closely in Paris were angry with him for serving the UNP regime but Manu was a professional officer who gave his services to the country by working in the Embassy.
He maintained the friendships of his younger days and remained a close friend of Ratnasiri. Only a few close friends of Ratnasiri hailed him by his pet name ‘Danu’ and Manu was one of them. Very few know that when Dr. N.M. Perera visited Europe for the last time, after he was diagnosed with a cancer, he wished to make a sentimental visit to Paris with Dr. Dora Fonseka who was known to be his girlfriend.
It was Manu who arranged this visit and made his apartment available to them. To the last he retained his radical views. When I stayed in his apartment in Paris I requested him to arrange meetings with the Trotskyite leaders who were our icons in our University days. We met Michel Pablo. It was a secretive meeting which I will describe in the next volume of my autobiography.
Manu and I followed the cortege of Trotskyite ideologue Ernst Mandel in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in North Paris together with a dwindling gathering of old men of the Fourth International who soldiered on. Distancing themselves from these superannuated ideologues a new group of young Trotskyites emerged in the Universities and workplaces and one charismatic young leader even contested the Presidential election though he was only an ‘also ran’.
Violence
JRJ claimed to be a Gandhian who believed in ‘Non-Violence’. But as Clifford Geertz has written in his essay on Gandhi, ‘non-violence’ can only succeed if the Satyagrahi has the potential of unleashing violence as an alternative. Without that fear the opponent does not take the challenger seriously. Thus nonviolence becomes a part of the power game. As Geertz writes, “The argument that a sacred pledge to abstain from the use of force can have moral reality only with respect to people who have a genuine possibility of effectively using force is surely correct”.
JRJ was a Gandhian who always kept his ‘Powder dry’. Once in power he ceased to be a Satyagrahi. One highly disconcerting fact about the JRJ administration was its condoning of violence. When his plans met with organized resistance JRJ had no hesitation in bringing in his thuggish Trade Unionists under Mathew to attack his opponents. Though during the times of previous regimes there were incidents of violence directed at ethnic groups such as the 1958 riots, well described by Tarzie Vittachi, the state did not encourage it.
For instance the Government Agent of Polnnaruwa, Derrick Aluvihare, confronted the rioters, blocked their path with police and Army assistance and prevented a bloodbath. Lakshmi Naganathan, daughter of Federal Party leader E.M.V. Naganathan, told me that when her father and his comrades were bundled up from Galle Face green and incarcerated in Galle Face Hotel, Mrs. Bandaranaike on the PM’s instructions, had sent him food cooked in the Bandaranaike kitchen.
When Mrs. Bandaranaike lost the election only Lakshmi of all the Foreign Service officials went to her home to bid their former Minister and PM goodbye. I had personally seen Left firebrands like Philip and Colvin restraining their supporters from getting into fights. In fact it was the left that was set on by Goonesinha and Kotelawela’s goons. In fairness to the so-called LSSP and CP revolutionaries, not one of them encouraged workers to attack others in the workplace or outside.
NM was the quintessential patient and analytical trade union negotiator. Every year NM would spend a few months in the UK in the company of Dora Fonseka. Even Capitalist negotiators knew that he would skillfully wind up his bargaining just in time to catch his flight to London. Bandaranaike loved to give tongue lashings but except when he praised the ‘Imbulgoda Veeraya’ for obstructing JRJs march, was a peace-loving leader who tolerated the taunt of `Sevala Banda’ which was later adopted even by his murderers. In all his speeches he never accused the Tamil leaders of provoking the Sinhalese.
JRJ on the other hand, for all his lip service to non-violence used violence as a political weapon. As an admirer of Napoleon’s tactics he must have thought that controlled violence was a useful tool for governance. Having I 1977 won a five sixths majority fair and square, be sought to preserve it with unacceptable means. His ‘Major Domo’ was Cyril Mathew who was also the boss of the UNP trade unions.
Mathew proceeded to staff his numerous Boards with his violence prone unionists who in turn packed them with party working class stalwarts. The big state Corporations were seething with tension because of the opposition of leftist workers who had earlier ruled the roost. The Left also made a mistake which they later acknowledged, of forcing a showdown with JRJ early by calling a general strike, with a demand for all-round higher wages. With Thondaman on his side JRJ was spoiling for a fight. He wanted to teach the leftist workers a lesson they will not forget.
JRJ was supported to the hilt by Premadasa who wanted to stuff the Government offices with his own fanatical supporters from Colombo Central. The Marxist theory and practice of the general strike is clear. It should only be a struggle of the last resort because there is no possibility of further escalation. It is a question of win or die for a workers’ party. Indeed the call for a strike by the Left leaders was designed to play themselves back into the game after the disastrous results of the 1977 election where they could not win a single seat.
I was in my office on the day of the general strike. Mathew’s goons led by the UNPs trade Union the JSS launched a murderous attack on the strikers near the Lake House roundabout. They had come armed with clubs, knives and knuckle dusters. One worker was killed and the others ran helter skelter to escape the killers. Alavi Moulana and Sarath Muttetuwegama ran into my room in the ministry on Sir Baron Jayatilaka mawatha as they were being pursued by murderous thugs. I immediately shut the door and got my two friends to sit down and drink a cup of tea while their tormentors on the street rushed past us.
Alavi’s shirt was drenched in blood, and I got my driver Fonseka to bring him a new shirt. Then I smuggled Alavi and Sarath into my official car and had them driven safely home. The Lake House roundabout was like a war zone with placards, shoes, slippers and files strewn all over. I must say that both Alavi and Sarath did not forget this adventure and when much later in the Mahinda Cabinet there were disagreements with Mahinda, Alavi and Dinesh took my side and resolved controversial issues.
Cyril Mathew’s goons did not stop there. They launched an unprovoked attack on distinguished cultural personalities who were critical of the open economy. Popular culture, especially with the coming of TV, that was growing after 1977 was a threat to their sensibility as well as social position. They launched a well-supported opposition to the open economy and its cultural effects. Even their moderate and sensible arguments irritated JRJ and Mathew who knew only too well that the debacle of 1956 started similarly with cultural and religious opposition to the UNP.
There is no doubt that JRJ was behind these attacks. The meeting held at the Buddhist Congress Hall under the leadership of Maduluwawe Sobhita and Sarachchandra was attacked and the two leaders were hospitalized. What was more disconcerting was that ministers, save my minister Anandatissa, were gloating about the discomfiture of the cultural icons. Ananda and I went to see Sarcthchandra who was not seriously hurt. But this jubilation about use of violence which seemed a way of currying favour with JRJ had grave consequences, particularly on the ethnic issue.
There is no doubt that JRJ was behind these attacks. The meeting held at the Buddhist Congress Hall under the leadership of Maduluwawe Sobhita and Sarathchandra was attacked and the two leaders were hospitalized. What was more disconcerting was that ministers, save my minister Anandatissa, were gloating about the discomfiture of the cultural icons. Ananda and I went to see Sarathchandra who was not seriously hurt. But this jubilation about use of violence which seemed a way of currying favour with JRJ had grave consequences, particularly on the ethnic issue.
(To be continued)
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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