Features
Rejected From Romania, back to Bulgaria, Yugoslavia & Austria
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
My wife and I faced a few unexpected challenges during our winter adventure in 1985. However, without knowing that the worst was yet to come, we were generally
optimistic. We were keen to create a series of unique memories by visiting over 16 countries within a period of six weeks in middle of the winter.
During a memorable visit to Austria in 1982, I was fascinated to listen to our good family friends from Austria, Biggi and Wolfgang Fernau, talk about their heritage and the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They told us that they were true Viennese, Biggi with an Austrian and Czechoslovakian blend and Wolf with an Austrian and Hungarian blend. They were proud of their heritage and the history of their country.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a dual monarchy and a constitutional monarchy. It was a great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War. In 1878, Austria-Hungary unilaterally occupied the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Novi Pazar. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not as large as the Ottoman or Turkish Empire (which survived for 623 years) but expanded rapidly in five decades.
Being an imperial power doesn’t impress most people the way it used to during the colonial past. All empire building in history stemmed from human greed for power, often ending with unjustifiable death, shameful disruptions and human right violations. All empires have a life span. The length of the Austro-Hungarian Empire rule was particularly short. It existed for only 51 years when the empire was dissolved after its defeat during the First World War. Nevertheless, it was amazing that a young empire, within a short period of time, had controlled an area of 621,538 km2.
It was a multinational state and one of Europe’s major powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empires). The Austro-Hungarian Empire built up the fourth largest machine building industry in the world, after the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Although my wife was not overly motivated about an expanded tour, I was keen to visit many parts of this past empire, before we went to Vienna to meet our Austrian friends. “We are already in the middle of that former empire, so why not explore the key cities of it?” I asked my wife with an aim of convincing her by showing the following map. “The dotted lines show the balance we need to cover by train”, I made it appear easy to achieve.
We then planned to continue our travel by train with stops in Bucharest in Romania, Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava and Prague in Czechoslovakia and then end up in Vienna in Austria for a longer visit. As we had already visited some key parts of the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia), we decided to explore Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria next.
BULGARIA
Bulgaria is a small country situated in the east of the Balkans. Its diverse terrain encompasses the Black Sea coastline, a mountainous interior and rivers, including the Danube. A cultural melting pot with Greek, Slavic, Ottoman, and Persian influences, it has a rich heritage of traditional dances, music, costumes and crafts. In 1946, Bulgaria came under the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc and became a socialist state. The country faced a demographic crisis with its population shrinking from nine million in 1985 to roughly 6.5 million in 2022.
The history of the capital city Sofia, dates to the 5th century BC. 1.2 million or 13% of Bulgaria’s population in 1985, lived in Sofia. When we reached Sofia around 2:00 am, we were very tired and needed a full night sleep before any more tours. Unfortunately, all of the smaller hotels were full and the only available room in the city was at Novotel Europa, which was too expensive for us.
The taxi driver who drove us to find an affordable hotel wasted our time by taking us around the city without finding one. When we realized that he was simply going round to keep his meter ticking, we insisted that he returns us to the railway station. He did so but overcharged us. We managed to get a few hours sleep in the heated but crowded rest room of the main railway station until armed guards arrived around 6:00 am to chase away all the those resting there, including the both of us.
We decided to stay around the station until the information counter opened and had the worst possible meal at the only nearby restaurant open at that time. Our standing breakfast at a high table included dry bread, salty gherkins, sliced sausages and black coffee. Their menu had no other choices. Finally, when the information counter was opened by a rude woman, we managed to book a room in a nearby hotel who charged us much more than the agreed rate. We felt that Bulgaria was certainly not ready for tourism in 1985.
Later I did a city taxi tour of Sofia with a guide and on foot. My wife did not join me as she preferred to catch up on her sleep. I was shown some TV towers, which the guide claimed to be the tallest in Europe. He also took me to museums, monuments, the national assembly and a Turkish fort. At the end of the tour, I was taken to St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which is an impressive landmark in Sofia. The church was built as a memorial to the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War (1877-1878).
When our train to Bucharest left around 10:00 pm, we decided that we would never return to Sofia again. That decision was short lived. As usual, the compartments were freezing cold and we were asked by the guard to pay US $4 extra for a warmer compartment which we did. Around 5:00 am we reached Rousse, a medium size Bulgarian city close to the border of Romania.
The Romanian custom officials were rude, rough and loud. They took our passports and tickets and ordered us to get out of the train. When we asked the reason for their aggressive behaviour in spite us of having valid visas for Romania issued by their embassy in London, they did the unthinkable. They threw our bags off the train and when we got off to pick up the bags, the train left without us.
We were left shivering on the platform for 30 minutes in -25 °C temperature. After that we were allowed to enter a heated rest room, where they returned our passports and tickets after announcing that we were not allowed to enter Romania. They refused to give any reasons.
A month later, when we returned to England, I wrote a detailed letter to the Romanian Embassy in London, asking for an explanation, a refund of visa fees and an apology. They never bothered to reply. Up until today, I am unaware of their reasons for such unwelcoming conduct at their border. That was the worse experience I ever had in travelling to nearly 100 countries.
After staying at the border train station for another four hours, we were finally escorted to a train going from Rousse back to Sofia. After returning to a city that we did not want to visit again, around 6:00 pm we had another standing meal at the railway station restaurant, of the same limited menu (dry bread, salty gherkins, sliced sausages and black coffee).
That was our worst day ever!
We managed to get a room at a nearby hotel around 10:00 pm and hoped for a good night’s sleep. In the early hours of the morning, there was a power failure and the hotel generator did not start. We kept warm by sitting around the wood fireplace in the hotel lobby.
We gratefully took the first morning train from Sofia to Belgrade. We were still thinking of what happened to us at the Romanian border. We were shocked, saddened and it felt like a lingering nightmare. In our compartment we managed to have a conversation with two Turkish brothers travelling to Austria in search of work.
They spoke a few English words and we spoke a few German words. They were not surprised about the rude behaviour of the Romanian custom officers. They said probably Romania is having a serious energy crisis due to the bad weather and therefore not allowing foreigners to enter their country.
Later during the train ride, we shared our lunch with the two brothers. They shared a snack – a crispy flat bread and some fermented turnip juice with us. That was spicy, and we liked it. Afterwards, we played some gin rummy with them. I taught them this card game and they became very good at it. As the train came closer to Belgrade we exchanged our addresses. They also gave us a gift, a small key tag from Turkey. We had nothing of significance to give, but when we gave them our pack of cards they thanked us sincerely and left.
Soon after reaching Belgrade after sunset, we hurried to the information counter. For once we had good luck. The lady working there was friendly, cheerful, helpful and even spoke a little English. We confirmed our seats for the next train ride and had a quick dinner. We also went to the central post office and managed to call our friends in Austria to tell them our arrival time in Vienna. The evening train was warmer than we expected, another bonus.
Ivan, a young Yugoslavian of Slovenian ethnic background was in our compartment; we became quite friendly. He was travelling to Zagreb to commence his compulsory, military service. He showed us a photograph of his beautiful, teenage girlfriend he was leaving in his village. We suspected that he was anxious, as he continuously drank a large quantity of Rakia, a popular locally-made fruit spirit. Yugoslavians, particularly Slovenians, are classified as heavy drinkers and statistics showed that they drink an average of 12 litres of pure alcohol per year. They were also, notably, the seventh biggest beer consumers in the world. Ivan offered us drinks and we just had one to keep him company.
Every time Ivan poured a new drink, he shouted “Na zdravje!” (Cheers!). As Ivan became more drunk his cheers became louder and happier. Finally in his drunkenness, Ivan lay down to sleep. He snored loudly and overslept. When the train stopped in Zagreb, we had a hard time to wake him up. Ivan thanked and hugged us to say goodbye before rushing to the platform.
A moment later we realized that he had forgotten to take one of his bags. I rushed with the bag to the platform and shouted, “Ivan!”. I could not find him and the train was starting to move. I had to run fast to get into the moving train. Fortunately, we saw him through a train window as the train moved away from the station. When he saw us, he waved back at us and yelled something in his language. An older Slovenian gentleman in the compartment told us, while laughing, “He said ‘goodbye, my good friends!’”. We hoped that he had heard our shouts, “Your other bag is left on the platform!”
Around 5:00 am we crossed over the Yugoslavia-Austria border. The Austrian officials were very professional and polite. We could not help but compare and contrast the Austrian welcome with our recent experiences, elsewhere. We passed a small border town in Austria, Spielfeld, and three hours later we reached a larger city, Graz.
I suggested to my wife that after a couple of days in Vienna, we do some day trips from Vienna to Budapest, Bratislava and Prague. She put her foot down and said firmly, “Chandi, I will never visit a socialist country again!” I tactfully postponed the negotiation for another day when we were not exhausted. I was still keen to experience most of the key cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The train took two and half hours to travel from Graz to Vienna. While enjoying the breath-takingly beautiful Austrian winter scene, I summarized our travels during the previous three weeks in my travel journal. We were in the middle of our winter travel adventure. My calculations indicated that we had travelled for over 240 hours including 12 nights in trains to cover 12 countries.
It was time for a well-earned rest in one of our favourite cities in the world. When we reached Vienna around 9:30 am, our friends Biggi and Wolf, and a few of their friends were at the station to give us a hero’s welcome.
Will continue in next week’s article: “Austria-Hungary-Czechoslovakia-Liechtenstein”
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 . )
US sports envoys to Lanka to champion youth development
Rahuman questions sudden cancellation of leave of CEB employees
