President RW: Do not confuse the public mind to implement your programmes

President Wickremesinghe wants to sell whatever assets he can that can bring in dollars with which he can enrich the Treasury. That such sales can permit his political supporters to plunder public funds is another benefit. Enterprises like SLT, Insurance and CPC are prime candidates for sale. Assets like Sri Lankan Airlines or the International Conference Hall in Hambantota, laden heavy with debt, will have to be sold with a heavy payment upfront to the buyer.

Making money on the deal is a bit more difficult, though not beyond the greed of the circle of thieves (chaura valalla). However, a case can be made before the public that those loss-making enterprises need to be sold out to get rid of open drains down which government revenue keeps flowing out after governing plunderers had siphoned off their share. With the catch phrase ‘restructuring’, some of the responsibility for the policy can be falsely shifted to the IMF.

The false philosophy that owning and running a business enterprise does not belong in the functions of government, is being presented as justification for the sale of profit-making enterprises. Governments own and run profitably large enterprises not only in China, North Korea and Russia but also in Japan, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia. That politicians and bureaucrats plunder the public purse and do not permit any enterprise owned by government to run at a profit ill-affects all government activities and cannot be cured by selling out all activities of government.

Catch the plunderers, make them incapable of criminal activity and put them in jail. The president’s policy of ‘let bygones be bygones’ is dangerous dictum here. While the elimination of plunder of public funds will not open wide open doors to economic growth, it will clear the sylvan darkness that now prohibits entrepreneurs from identifying any opportunities for investment in this blessed land.

It will be wise for the government to tell the public that the government will sell profit-making enterprises to get some dollars to run the government until the economy can earn them with exports. Government must also tell the public, at the same time, that there are other enterprises which the government will sell because they have run with such heavy losses that the public can no longer afford to pay taxes to meet the losses. These are different policy measures. Government’s policy of trying to confuse the public mind can only win enemies. Such policy of trying to confuse the public mind will cost the government much trust which is in such short supply in its stores.

Usvatte-aratchi