Features
Stanley Tambiah and my time at Harvard
(Excerpted from volume ii of Sarath Amunugama autobiograph
With the ascent of Premadasa who together with Ranjan Wijeratne made a determined effort to negotiate with the JVP and LTTE, I got back to my work with the Worldview International Foundation (WIF) and academic institutions. WIF work took me to parts of Asia and Europe where we had links with donors as well as social and media institutions like the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), International Program for Development Communication (IPDC), Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) and the International Broadcasting Union [IBU].
Many of these institutions were feeling the pinch of reduced funding particularly from the US government. This meant that we had to plan joint operations in order to cut costs. I had a head start as the former Director of IPDC who had interacted with them during my UNESCO days. But we could not make much headway with the local Ministry of Media as it was now in the charge of A.J. Ranasinghe who was a Premadasa loyalist.
Ranasinghe had been recruited by me in the early seventies to be the manager of the national exhibition of the Department of Information. Thanks to Premadasa he had entered a select circle of cronies and was placed in charge of the media. By now he was all powerful and had even banned his minister Loku Bandara from entering the TV studios which were in his charge. In this context I thought of moving back to my main sphere of interest academia and sociological research.
I had told my teacher Stanley Tambiah of this wish and he arranged for me to be awarded a visiting fellowship at Harvard University where he was a Professor of Social Anthropology. Another close friend on the faculty of the Anthropology department of Harvard was Nur Yalman who as a young scholar, tutored by Edmund Leach, had done field work in Teripahe in the Kandyan highlands. With such strong support I obtained a good position in the Centre for Comparative Religions in Harvard, with plenty of time for research and writing in return for which I had to deliver a few lectures on modern Buddhism in several departments in the University.
Harvard
Nothing could be more peaceful than this beautiful university and town for me, coming from a war torn country with my name on the ‘hit list’ of the military wing of the JVP. It was a cold day when I flew into Logan airport in Boston from Paris. Tambi was there to meet me and take me to his home in a salubrious part of Cambridge. I had met his wife and children back in Sri Lanka when Tambi had brought his family to meet his relatives and friends.
I had arranged a visit to Yala where his two young children were fascinated by the elephant which appeared daily close to our circuit bungalow. We also visited George Keyt in Kandy and some local paintings that they bought on that tour adorned his house. He had also arranged for a room in the anthropology department building adjoining his and we would go out for lunch to the department canteen and occasionally to the well-appointed senior common room or Faculty club.
I was free to use the Widener Library facing the Harvard yard. The Widener was a revelation. It was perhaps the best University library in the country and had fabulous collections of books, diaries, papers and photographs on every type of culture and society. Naturally I was interested in the Sri Lankan collections which included photos and papers on the Theosophists and the Buddhist revival. The US had established a consulate in Galle around the 1880s, because trade and travel by schooner and sailing ship had Galle harbour as their port of call. Diaries and other writings of the Americans and their visitors were in the Widener and I spent much time studying those papers and also the photographs which have not been published before. The Peabody Museum in which Nur Yalman’s office was located also had a collection of photographs, some of which were published to illustrate Tambi’s books on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
At that time Galle was famous for its gem trade and there were many photographs of gems and Muslim merchants. Ananda Guruge and I have used some of these photos in our books on Anagarika Dharmapala. Ian Goonetileke has published some of this information in his book ‘Sri Lanka through American eyes’, marking the American bi-centennial.
After I found my bearings in Cambridge I moved to a spacious room in Porter Square which was rented to me by a kind patrician lady on a ‘bed and breakfast’ basis. This room was overlooking Radcliffe, the residences of the young female undergraduates of Harvard. There was a constant flow of their young swains to our square and parties would go on in their dorms late into the night. This was the time of the permissive society and the young students, mostly from the super-rich of the US, worked and played hard with equal enthusiasm.
A useful aspect of Harvard for me was the galaxy of top flight intellectuals who taught there. At any given time there were dozens of Nobel Prize laureates, especially in scientific research. In the social sciences too teachers won many prizes and awards and there were regular announcements on our bulletin boards of their achievements. Tambi was outstanding in that respect. He was the recipient of virtually all the awards made to anthropologists including one with a big cash prize given by a Japanese academic institution.
In addition there were many distinguished scholars who gave invitation lectures which were open to the public. I remember Ernest Gellner, Diana Eck, Clifford Geertz, Marshall Sahlins and many others speaking on their latest research. In addition there were young scholars like John Rogers, Alan Trewithick and Norbert Peabody who gravitated round Tambi who had a fatherly relationship with them.
Tambi had been commissioned by the editorial board of the Journal of Asian Studies (JAS) to look out for suitable articles for publication. Accordingly a special symposium on the 1915 riots was published in the JAS about this time, as were several essays on Theravada Buddhism. Tambi was at the height of his fame as an anthropologist of religion, particularly of Thai Buddhism, and his office in Harvard was a hive of activity.
I observed the diligence with which he worked every day in a consistent manner, which was the secret of his impressive list of publications. He would write in long hand and pass over the draft to his secretary who would type it for correction the following day. He was meticulous in checking out references and would consult other scholars, in writing or over the phone.
Fortunately for him Harvard had such a vast array of experts, that he could always talk to them over a cup of coffee. On occasion we would walk across to the Peabody Museum to meet Nur Yalman. I recall one such day when HL Seneviratne telephoned from Charlottesville to convey the sad news that Ralph Peiris had passed away in Colombo. Both Tambi and Nur who had had misunderstandings with Ralph many years earlier, were genuinely distressed by the news.
The three of us once went out to dinner in an old restaurant in Boston harbour overlooking the ship `Mayflower’ which had figured in the ‘Boston tea party’ an incident which played a significant role in modern American history. The Bostonians – ‘The Boston Brahmins’ – were considered the aristocracy of US society wherein ‘Cabots spoke to the Lodges and the Lodges spoke only to god’. However with the later arrival of the Irish to American shores after the ‘Potato famine,’ the poorer areas of Boston were populated by Irishmen who progressively dominated city politics and eventually took over the Democratic party machine, leaving the old patricians to find refuge in the Republican party.
The apotheosis of this development was the rise of the Kennedys whose ‘godfather’ was Joseph Kennedy, liquor baron and right hand man of President Franklin Roosevelt, who paid off his political debts by appointing Kennedy senior as his Ambassador to the UK. It was Joe Kennedy who plotted the rise of JFK to the US Presidency.
The Kennedy’s reveled in their Boston Irish heritage .Their control of the Democratic Party machine, won in the smoke filled bars and liquor dens in the seedier parts of the Irish catholic dominated Boston was the spring board for their ambitions. JFK’s favourite song, Bee Gee’s ‘Massachusetts’ was the most popular song in Boston at that time, and with its haunting lyrics “I will remember Massachusetts”, still remains as one of my favourite songs.
Tambi and I once drove over to Boston to spend a morning in the museum to see the Ananda Coomaraswamy collection of Indian art. The savant had spent his last years as a Curator of the Boston Museum and established a valuable collection of Asian memorabilia and relevant books and papers. His son Rama Coomaraswamy, by an Argentinian wife, lived in New England and we planned to pay him a visit. But he was ailing and our planned drive to the nearby beautiful State of Connecticut did not take place.
I enjoyed my stay at Harvard where I could resume my academic work in stimulating surroundings, after the hectic and dangerous adventures in Sri Lanka. While the food in Cambridge was excellent, particularly the fish, clam and lobster – with the signature clam chowder being irresistible – I hankered for rice and curry which was not available except at the weekly meal at Tambis. I found a Chinese restaurant which served fried rice, but it was not a substitute for the real thing.
However, I was in luck. One day by accident I met my Kandy and Peradeniya friend Gaya Gunawardene who was on scholarship to the Kennedy Centre for Public Administration. He was living in a flat in Cambridge with his wife Sushila and son Kosiya. Sushila – a girl from Kandy, was a great friend of my sister at Peradeniya University. Later when my brother-in-law Tennekoon was Government Agent of Kandy district, Gaya had been the Deputy Inspector General of Police there and the two Dharmarajans had formed a good team during the height of JVP violence.
So the Gunawardenes invited me often to their flat for lovely rice and curry dinners and I even became a regular invitee to their flat when Sri Lankans visiting Harvard were entertained by them. I particularly remember a visit by Carlo Fonseka who spent a few days with them. By a stroke of luck, the University bus which circulated through the campus at all hours began its journey from near Gaya’s apartment and had Porter Street (where I lodged) as a point of call. So, I could conveniently get back to my room even after a late night when the underground was not available.
We also visited Boston for sightseeing. The Gunawardenes were great travelers who arranged visits to nearby States on holidays. Unfortunately, I could not join them as much as I wished because I had travelled extensively in the US by then and had to save time for my academic work.
My time in Cambridge was very productive. With the facilities of the Widener library and the assistance of many academic colleagues I was able to complete several articles in the field of sociology. One was a study of the changes in the Sri Lankan Sangha, particularly after analyzing the responses of young monks to the siren call of the JVP. Much later in time the leader of the JVP in Parliament told me that one of the great contributions of Wijeweera was that he saw the potential of young Buddhist monks as the soldiers of their revolution.
Indeed several of the JVP front rankers were monks who had disrobed to follow party orders. Correspondingly many of them had been killed by the security forces. The editor of the journal ‘Religion’ published by University of California, whom I had met in Paris with Jean Claude Galay, was happy to immediately publish my article under the title `Buddhaputra and Bhumiputra; dilemmas of modern Sinhala Buddhist monks in relation to ethnic and political conflict’.
This article has drawn much attention in academic circles. I also used the Widener library material to write a long essay on the role of the Theosophists in the Sinhala Buddhist revival of the late 19th and 20th century. This was published in the Journal of Social Sciences of the EHESS of Paris. I also gave lectures on the Buddhist revival at many Harvard academic meetings.
Towards the end of 1990 1 came back to Colombo from Boston, after several days in Paris to arrange for my family to relocate in Sri Lanka. Ramanika had obtained a degree in business administration and was invited by N.U. Jayawardene who was my friend and mentor, to join the staff of his newly formed Sampath Bank. She was a pioneer staffer in Sampath Bank though she later joined the senior staff of other commercial Banks after the departure of NUJ. Varuni entered the law faculty of the University of Colombo. We were all back in familiar surroundings in Siripa Road to pick up the threads of Sri Lankan life, after a long sojourn abroad.
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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