Features
PLAYING GAMES (“GEMA GAHANAWA”) WITH CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
by Prof. Savitri Goonesekere
The Sunday Island of May 29, 2022 has interesting articles reflecting the varied points of view of professionals and concerned citizens on our current and very grave economic and political crisis. Rajan Phillips and Keith Noyar reflect on the gap between what we know are the demands of street protests in the “Aragalaya”, and the responses of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government.
The Aragalaya protestors on the street are not convinced that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe joining a cabinet of mostly the same old Ministers whom they hold accountable with the President for the country’s crisis, has transformed it into the “new ” or “interim” government they are demanding. Gnana Moonesinghe approves of what she sees as the “new” governance, and the Ranil Wickremesinghe headed “new cabinet.” She has confidence in the leadership role that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe has assumed. She thinks he should be supported to accomplish this task.
These differing viewpoints reflect a deeper reality. And this is the polarized approaches to governance in our country. The Aragalaya demands embody a viewpoint that we as citizens have ignored for many decades- the importance of the accountability of those who hold public office to the nation for corruption, gross financial mismanagement and abuse of public and political office. They challenge the right of a government that has created what has been described as “the most man made and voluntary economic crisis” (Rajan Philips citing Mick Moore Asian Development Bank Consultant) to continue in office.
They are not willing to forgive and forget, as most of us have done for decades. The recent revelations in a Parliamentary review of the Central Bank’s work from 2020 reinforces the culpability of the President and his officials and the institutional failures that make our predicament a “man-made crisis”. The even more shocking report of the Inspector General of Police on the deeply politicized appointments to this vital institution in law enforcement support the strident cry from the street for what they describe as “systemic and institutional change”. They may not articulate how this can be done. But who can question the legitimacy of that strident demand for accountable governance for the well-being of the People who elected a government to office?
What we as citizens should ask ourselves is whether a country which has such polarized views on governance, can create the stable political environment that we need if we are to emerge from these dark times. Can we think of a country in which a government that has brought the nation to bankruptcy through gross financial mismanagement, created grave food insecurity in a country, where a papaw seed thrown in a home garden can bring an abundance of fruit, through deliberate and flawed agricultural policies, is permitted to continue to hold office? And this in a situation where the IGP the head of the Police Service, and his officers, failed to afford protection against injury to person and massive damage to property, entailing millions in insurance payments. This was explained by him as the impact of extensive regular political interference, which prevented him from building an effective law enforcement agency. The international financial agencies have given a clear message that stability must be a precondition for the kind of significant support we need to restructure our debt. Handouts from sympathetic donors into our begging bowl facilitated by what is referred to by faithful supporters of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as his “international connections,” will not suffice.
Can we address the issues of importance and find solutions to the current crisis without creating some consensus on linking with the aragalaya in their demand for systemic and institutional change, to address this rotten scenario? Can we not build consensus on the type of governance we want, to help us move forward, instead of being trapped in our now familiar toxic and adversarial politics?
But even that seems to be an impossibly difficult task, because of widely divergent understandings of what this country needs to initiate such changes in governance. Constitutional reform is considered the need of the hour.
“Systemic Institutional Change ” and Constitutional Reform
Minister GL Pieris is reported to have informed the diplomatic community that the street protests are not really an anti-government initiative, but a demand for “systemic and institutional change”. So the President himself and Mr. Wickremesinghe and the cabinet have come to the conclusion that a “sop” in the form of a Constitutional change that they say “will reduce the powers of the President” will give us the “magical” systemic and institutional changes that are being demanded in the “Aragalaya”. Key stake holders in civil society like the Bar Association, the Peoples Movement for Social Justice, led by Mr. Karu Jayasuriya and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce all have indicated approval for this change in public statements. They seem to believe that a Constitutional Amendment to reduce the powers of the Presidency will be the golden path to achieving stability and accountable governance.
Maybe President Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself has a vision that he will realize for the nation the “vistas of prosperity and splendour” he promised, in this exciting new and well packaged and media hyped transformation. The President has emerged from seclusion once again, to have televised meetings with his officials and his “new” Minister of Agriculture. Officials as usual appeared to “sit in solemn silence” around the table. The President instructed them with a grave expression to do the very opposite on fertilizer distribution, to what he demanded from them for the previous two years. Also, with Presidential aplomb he told them to distribute state land to the people to grow mung and cowpea instead of paddy, and encourage all citizens to cultivate food in their home gardens to avoid starvation. We can expect a gazette notification on this shortly.
And so our public discourse has shifted to a focus on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, that the Minister of Justice will bring to Parliament for the Gotabaya Rajapaksa/Ranil Wickremesinghe government.
The 21st Amendment to the Constitution
This Amendment is based on a Bill presented as a private member’s Bill, a short while ago, when Mr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was in the opposition. It was in one sense a response to the Samagi Jana Balavegaya private member’s Bill presented by the leader of the Opposition Mr. Sajith Premedasa, as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. The 21A of the Samagi Bill (21A S) seeks to ABOLISH the Executive Presidency, while Mr. Rajapakshe’s Bill (21A (MoJ)) RETAINS the institution, and aims to REDUCE the powers of the President on the lines of the 19th Amendment enacted during the Maithripla Sirisena/Ranil Wickremesinghe Yahapalanaya government. Both seek to repeal the 20th Amendment brought by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government that has been constantly criticized for expanding the powers of the President, even beyond those given to President JR Jayewardene in the 1978 Constitution that continues to be the basic law of the country. Mr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in his recent new avatar as Minister of Justice has withdrawn his private member’s Bill and has the support of the Rajapaksa/Wickremesinghe government to present it with some modifications in Parliament as the government’s initiative on Constitutional reform.
Critiques ask why the government is bringing the 21A (MoJ) to merely REDUCE Presidential powers when the aragalaya as well as the Opposition support a Bill to ABOLISH the Presidency. They point out that the Samagi Bill (21A (S), has provisions (some derived from the 19th Amendment itself) to strengthen the institutions of government with the independent Commissions on matters like the public service and human rights, and also to provide stronger provisions for monitoring financial management by the President and Executive branch of government, to help ensure accountability to Parliament. Mr. Rajapakshe’s government Bill (21A MoJ) also has various provisions to strengthen the accountability of the Executive and the President to Parliament. We are told that these will be further strengthened to incorporate changes suggested by civil society and professional groups. So the central difference is in regard to the approach to the Executive President’s role in governance.
Minister Rajapakshe has said in public that it is dangerous to abolish the Executive Presidency in light of the electoral system of proportional representation. The non-articulated concern of the Minister and some of those who support his Bill, from within and outside Parliament, is that an Executive Presidency is necessary to prevent the 13th Amendment which devolves powers to Provinces being used to create a separate state for the Tamils of the country. This argument on strong national security and risks of separatism seem to have influenced some civil society organizations as well, to support Mr. Rajapakshe’s government Bill.
The concern that we need a Presidency to prevent a separatist agenda, that seeks to divide our country, is ill founded. Article 2 of the Constitution recognizes that Sri Lanka is a “unitary state”. The 13th Amendment has been enacted within the framework of that concept. There are many countries with Parliamentary democracies including India, Canada and UK where a Prime Minister in Parliament has to do the same job regarding national security and unity as are envisaged in the Presidential governance system of Sri Lanka.
There is also a perception that without an Executive President national security will suffer. Yet in Commonwealth countries, the Prime Minister and the cabinet are responsible for national security. Winston Churchill whose experience PM Ranil Wickremesinghe compares with his own gave leadership in a war cabinet.
The tragic Easter Sunday terrorist attacks demonstrates how PM Wickremesinghe, the empowered Prime Minister of the 19th Amendment and the Executive President were incapable of responding effectively to national security.
Mr. Rajapakshe presented another rather novel argument in support of the government Bill when he met the Mahanayake of Asgiriya and other monks of the Sangha Sabha in Kandy. He said that if President Rajapaksa resigns there will be no guarantee in regard to his successor, since the Pohottuwa Party which has a majority may elect in his place, a person even less qualified than the present incumbent!! This seems a somewhat damaging assessment of the person in whose cabinet he has taken office. Besides, Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe must know that under Article 40 of our Constitution when a President ceases to hold office, the Prime Minister becomes acting President until Parliament elects a new President.
So we can assume that the Pohottuwa Party government which he and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have joined will confer the mantle on Mr. Wickramasinghe. If that happens one would expect him to fulfill previous promises made on the need to abolish the Executive Presidency, and for an all party interim government that the Aragalaya, which he says he supports, is demanding. If that does not happen the Pohottuwa government may continue without Mr. Wickremesinghe and Mr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. Besides, if Parliament by consensus decides to abolish the Executive Presidency, there is no reason for Minister Rajapakshe or anyone else to anguish about his successor.
All these developments indicate how we are once again trapped in diverse political agenda which plays out as an urgent need for Constitutional reform in the name of and for “the People.” Mr. MA Sumanthiran the only Member of Parliament with experience and expertise on Constitutional and Public law has described the 21A (MoJ) exercise in constitutional reform of the government as minus even the 19th Amendment, and a futile exercise to effect systemic and institutional changes for accountable governance.
Yet the 21A (MoJ) exercise in constitutional reform has attracted media attention as a constructive and first step towards good governance and responding to our desperate political crisis and economic collapse. Government itself has warned us that there is a threat of food insecurity and starvation by October 2022, and a cost of living impossible to bear. As a further panacea for these ills, Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa assure us that within the time frame of this government (which they fully expect to take towards completion of their term of office) a NEW Constitution will be drafted and adopted.
This assurance in particular requires us as citizens to peruse the history of Constitutional reform. For that history gives us a sense of how much we can trust these politicians promises and their credibility.
Constitutional Reform 1972 to 1994
These changes are linked with my own lived experience as a citizen of this country in this long period of fifty years.
The Constitution of 1972 was hailed as a “homegrown” autochthonous Constitution that broke the link with our colonial past. It was drafted by a specially created Constituent Assembly with leadership of a great lawyer, Dr. Colvin R de Silva. This incorporated for the first time the concept of the Sovereignty of the People. Unfortunately the Peoples’ Sovereignty was conceptualized as the status of the elected National State Assembly (NSA) or Parliament, as the “the supreme instrument of State power,” exercising the Sovereignty of the People. Even more dangerously, all the powers connected with governance in a democracy, i.e. the law making power, the executive power including defence handled by the President and cabinet, and the judicial power exercised through courts except in the case of privileges of Parliament were vested in the NSA. (Article 3, 4 and 5). Fundamental rights were stated as aspirational norms and they could not be enforced in the courts.
The impact of these changes on institutions of governance and individual lives is recorded in many publications of the period. Political interference with the independence of the public service, the judiciary, and the administration of justice, has been recorded. The manner in which Chief Justice Victor Tennakoon struggled to safeguard the judiciary is recorded in published research. The state monopoly of the press and restrictions on overseas travel were also institutionalized in this period. A highly regulated economy and nationalization of private plantations had significant economic impact.
My own personal life was affected when a personal vendetta against my husband, Raja Goonesekere, then Principal of the Law College and Chair of the Civil Rights Movement, for daring to publish a statement critical of Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike’s response to criminal justice after the JVP uprising, led to legislation eroding the autonomy of the Council of Legal Education. My husband lost his job as Principal of the Law College on false and trumped up allegations of being a CIA agent, because he was engaged in a research project on the legal profession supported by an American institution. Fellow researchers in the project were the late Neelan Tiruchelvam and the late Justice ARB Amerasinghe!
The state control of media meant we could not challenge the fake news being published. We survived and coped with this difficult period because we had enormous family support, and access to the best legal advice, from our friends Suriya Wickremesinghe and late Desmond Fernando, Chula de Silva and Mr. Satyendra PC. As I reflected on the trauma suffered later by others because of State abuse of power, I realized how fortunate we were not to confront the arbitrary exercise of State power that placed individual lives at risk. We left the country despite my husband’s deep conviction: “one man and one woman and one country”. By the time we returned in 1982, JR Jayewardene had won a landslide victory with a commitment to introduce a new constitution that would bring for the People Dharmishta governance based on respect for the Rule of law and democratic values.
The Jayewardene era introduced in this country the concept of an all powerful Executive President who would dominate all aspects of governance. The immediate negative impact on several aspects of governance is recorded in publications on the period which examine the searing experience of ethnic and other forms of both State and individual acts of violence, especially in the period of armed conflict. However, fundamental rights were justiciable in the courts and judges like late Mark Fernando and ARB Amerasinghe supported by human rights and Constitutional lawyers like my husband and late HL de Silva created a body of jurisprudence that helped to make rights meaningful for people who suffered state violence and abuse of power.
I was in university administration during the years of the UNP governments of Presidents Jayawardene and Premadasa and never experienced the political interference of the 1972 government. Excellent leadership by UGC Chairman Arjuna Aluvihare, and Professor Dayantha Wijesekere of the Open University helped us survive the violence and cope with the stresses. University Teachers for Human Right s (UTHR) was established in this period with the full support of Prof. Aluvihare and Vice Chancellors like Prof Wijesekere. One great act of courage by Arjuna was when he as Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, saved a student tied to a post on campus from being set on fire. Such acts of brutality but institutions and the legal profession functioned, with responsible leadership. Freedom of speech and expression had some space in universities though there was State violence against journalists even in these times.
(To be continued next week)
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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