Features
THE EASTERN AIRLINES FLIGHT 401 ACCIDENT
The Lockheed TriStar L 1011 aircraft was well ahead of its time. It is said that the manufacturers, Lockheed built two automatic pilots first and then built an aircraft around them. It was a ‘wide body’ aircraft with two isles and a nose like a Dolphin. The Flight Deck was very spacious when compared to other airliners. It also had a lower galley (service area) which could be accessed by two lifts. It could carry out automatic landings far superior to any other airliners of that era. The airline pilots of the day would describe the automatic functions of the TriStar in three letters ‘P F M’ (Pure Magic). Some said that the only thing the computers couldn’t do was to play ‘Star Spangled Banner’ (the American National Anthem)
Some of the technology was far superior to even the fly by wire Airbus aircraft that arrived 10 to fifteen years later! It was a good match between man and machine. That was because Lockheed being a builder of Military aircraft benefited from the spinoff from space technology which in turn trickled down to Civil Aviation. 
Unfortunately, the Rolls Royce (RR) RB 211 Trent Engines that were chosen to power it had some teething problems which delayed the L 1011 project and almost made RR go ‘belly up’. As a result, the McDonald Douglas DC10, another three-engine aircraft, stole a march over them, commercially.
One of the launch customers for the L 1011 TriStar was Eastern Airlines of USA. On the night of 29 December 1972 a Lockheed 1011 TriStar, registration N310EA (See Picture) just four months old, took off from the John F Kennedy Airport, New York to Miami International Airport, Florida, under the Command of Capt. Robert Loft. The First Officer was flying this sector. From some of our ex Eastern Airlines colleagues who flew TriStars with us later in Air Lanka, we gathered that Capt Loft was a bit high-strung even at normal times. The rest of the crew that night were First Officer Alfred Stockstill and Flight Engineer Don Repo. There was also a ground engineer Angelo Danadio occupying the fourth seat in the Flight Deck.
The following is the reconstruction of the crash using the information from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which is recorded on a common timeline; it was done by the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) USA. The flight was uneventful until the landing approach at Miami. The crew, after they selected the undercarriage (wheels) down, observed that the nose gear down and locked indicator green light was not lit up. In the Flight Deck there were three green lights (one for each wheel unit) to indicate that all wheels were down and locked. Since there were only two green lights instead of three, the Captain decided to recycle the landing gear up and then down again hoping that the problem will sort itself out. There was no change in the number of green lights.
The next thing they did was to test the light system by pressing a button in the overhead panel to illuminate all the lights in the forward and overhead panel, just in case there was a bulb failure. The TriStar crews called the test system, the ‘Christmas Tree Lights’ as all the caution, advisory and warning lights that were supposed to flash intermittently did so like a Christmas tree.
The nose gear down and locked indication light didn’t come on during the light test.
See figures 2 ,3 ,4
It confirmed that both bulbs in the Nose
Light assembly were unserviceable. (In each Landing Gear light assembly there were two small light bulbs). Then again, how if there was a triple failure of the Nose wheel Lock and Bulbs? The crew had to know for sure, before they attempted to land. They had already lined up for the landing. So, to buy some time, the Captain Loft informed the Air Traffic Control Tower that they had a problem. The Control Tower instructed them to discontinue the landing, go around and climb to 2000ft and turn left towards the swamps called the Miami Everglades. It was a dark, moonless night.
After reaching 2000 feet the Captain instructed First Officer Stockstill to engage one of the two automatic pilots which was capable of holding the altitude.
See figure 5
In the TriStar L 1011 the only time, both autopilots (Autopilot A and B) are simultaneously engaged is when the Automatic Landing System is engaged. Each of the two autopilot switches have three positions Off, CWS and CMD. When the Autopilot is switched on, the First Officer Stockstill would have switched on the one 
allocated to him (Autopilot B) upwards from ‘OFF’ to ‘CMD’ through a ‘CWS’ position known as ‘Control Wheel Steering’ position. CWS is an intermediate position where the autopilot will be directly controlled through the Control Wheel and not through programming any switches in the automatic pilot control panel. In the CMD position Autopilot B would have maintained 2000ft as instructed, provided 2000ft is set on the altitude window and the ALT Hold button is on. If however some pressure was exerted on the control wheel (15 to 20 lbs.) the CMD selection switch would drop back to the intermediate position of CWS and the ALT Hold button would deselect with the ALT light will go off without any audio warning to the pilots. This was how the system was designed to work at the start.
While the aircraft was flying with the Autopilot ‘B’ engaged at 2000ft, the crew proceeded to trouble shoot. F/O Stockstill had managed to remove the light assembly with great difficulty and tried to replace the two small peanut size light bulbs. This too was extremely difficult. Spare light bulbs of all types and sizes were carried at the Flight engineer’s station.
On Lofts’ remark, “To hell with it”
Stockstill gave up replacing the bulbs and when trying to reinstall the Nose wheel light assembly, it got stuck. And now he was struggling to put it back. Everyone in the flight deck were involved. It is believed that F/O Stockstill tried to replace it by erroneously turning it 90 degrees sideways into the recess (holder) and jammed the assembly. The lens did say ‘Nose’, when inserted in the correct way up but it could be seen only when it lit up and that did not happen as the bulbs were not replaced.
Capt Loft told F/O Sockstill, “Just leave it there”
Now that it was confirmed that the indicator bulbs had fused and the only sure way of positively checking whether wheel was down and locked was go down to the electronics bay below the Flight Deck.
Capt Loft tells F/E Repo impatiently “To hell with it …. Go down and see whether it is lined up on the red line …. That’s all we care.”
Then he laughed at himself and said “Screwing around with a 20 cent piece of light equipment … in this plane”
There through a ‘peep hole’ (facing backwards) one could see Red coloured marks that should be mechanically aligned. So accordingly, Flight Engineer Repo went down to the electronics bay (Popularly known at Eastern Airlines as the ‘Hell Hole’) to check. On his first visit Repo couldn’t see the alignment marks as the wheel well light wasn’t on. So he had to come up and ask Capt Loft to switch it on. When Repo asked for the wheel well light, which was on the overhead panel to be switched on, the positioning Ground Engineer Dinadio was still seated behind the captain and eager to help. Turning around, Capt Loft requested him to go and help F/E Repo to locate the mechanical indicators for the nose landing gear.
The NTSB investigators believed that when turning around in his seat, to speak to Ground Engineer Dinadio, Capt Loft may have accidently applied some forward pressure on the Control Wheel which made the Autopilot switch drop from CMD to CWS deactivating the ALT hold button and thereby initiating a gentle, unperceived, descent. Usually when there is a deviation of 250 feet from the selected altitude, in the autopilot altitude window, a ‘C cord’ chime is activated for a duration of half a second. This unfortunately was missed by the operating crew who were deeply engrossed in solving the nose landing gear indication problem. The chime occurs at the Flight Engineer’s Station and Don Repo was down in the ‘Hell Hole’
When the aircraft was at about 900ft above ground the Air Traffic Controller noticed it and casually asked,
“Eastern, ah, four oh one how are things comin’ along out there?”
However, he did not instruct Eastern 401 to get back to the assigned altitude of 2000 feet!
The L 1011 also had a radio altimeter which bounced radio signals off the ground and went off close to the ground. By the time Capt Loft and F/O Stockstill realised that they were very close to the ground, it was too late.
The aircraft impacted with the ground killing 5 of 13 crew and 96 of the 103 passengers. While Capt Loft and F/E Repo were badly injured, F/O Stockstill died on the spot. The Captain succumbed to his injuries before he was rescued while F/E Repo died in hospital. Ground Engineer Angelo Denadio’s injuries were less serious and he survived. The subsequent postmortem of Capt. Loft revealed that he had a brain tumour which may have affected his peripheral vision which also plays a part in night flying ability. It was later disregarded as past reports of other crew members didn’t indicate any obvious deficiencies in his ability.
There was a guy named Bob Marquis in an Air Boat hunting for Sulphur belly frogs in the swamp. He saw the aircraft flying low overhead and hit the ground and rushed to the spot. The first rescue helicopter pilot to arrive couldn’t initially find the wreck, till he saw the flickering light of Marquis, the frog catcher’s battery powered light on his headband. He then switched on his powerful ‘Night Sun’ helicopter spot light. Because of the debris being picked up by the rotor, the pilot couldn’t land close to the wreck, but had to land about 200 yards away and depend on Marquis’ Air Boat to ferry the survivors. Other helicopters arrived later. The rescue operations went on till morning. The helicopter pilots could see all three wheel marks on the ground before the L-1011 disintegrated on impact.
The aircraft automatic systems assumed that it was doing a normal landing with the leading edge and trailing edge devices of the wings out and wheels down. That is why the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS), another safety device on board did not trigger off. The GPWS has a series of voice warning call outs such as “Terrain, Terrain”, “Too Low Gear”, “Too Low Flaps” , “Sink Rate” and “Woop woop pull up” when not in the ‘Landing Configuration.’ In this instance Eastern 401 was in the Landing Configuration.
See figure 6
The NTSB Investigators declared that
· The three flight crew members were preoccupied in an attempt to ascertain the position of the nose landing gear.
· The flight crew did not hear the aural altitude alert which sounded as the aircraft descended through 1,750 feet mean sea level
· There were several manual thrust reductions during the final descent.
· The flight crew did not monitor the flight instruments, during the final descent until seconds before impact.
· The captain failed to assure that a pilot was monitoring the progress of the aircraft at all times.
The NTSB determined that “The probable cause of the accident was the failure of the crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final 4 minutes of the flight and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent an impact with the ground. Preoccupation with the malfunction of, the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew’s attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.”
In short “No one was minding the shop” and as a result they lost ‘Situational Awareness’ or what is going on around them.
The NTSB Investigators had the benefit of using the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) which had been mandated.
As a direct result of this accident and another DC 8 accident in 1978 at Portland, Oregon, USA, airlines realised that pilots need to be taught ‘soft skills’ known as Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) using actual accidents and studies of ‘Human Factors’. A pioneer on these studies was WWII veteran, author and BOAC Capt. David Beaty who was born in Hatton, Ceylon, a son of a Methodist Minister and an old boy of Kingswood College, Kandy.
All airlines have built in ‘Human Factors’ to their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s). For example, now there is a designated ‘Flying Pilot’ and a ‘Monitoring Pilot’. The Flying pilot must ‘mind the shop’ and get the other crew members to carry out necessary tasks at his behest.
The priorities being to Fly, Navigate and Communicate, in that order. Once in two years it is now mandatory that all crew undergo CRM training and now known as Crew Resource Management, because it is not only the Cockpit Crew but all the associated team members inside and outside the Flight Deck, play a part in safe operations. For instance Behavioural Scientists wondered as to why in the Eastern 401 accident the Air Traffic Controller didn’t mention to the pilots that they were supposed to be at 2000 ft. Their studies showed that there was a great pay and conditions gap and hence a status gap between the Air Traffic Controllers and Airline Captains and therefore there was a natural hesitancy to admonish or at least volunteer information which may have saved the day!
There were also a few modifications done to the L-1011 too. Lockheed installed a loud ‘wailer’ to indicate that the autopilot switch had dropped off from the CMD position. The half a second altitude deviation chime was increased to one second duration. The square lens of the green landing lights had the word ‘TOP’ etched on it, so that no mistake could be made when fitting the assembly back. Another wheel well light switch was fitted in parallel in the hat rack close to the trap door to the ‘Hell hole’.
Postscript: Some of the parts like the galleys from the almost new N310EA, Eastern 401 Flight, that survived crash were re-used on other newly delivered Eastern Airline L-1011’s. Subsequently there were documented reports that the ghost of F/E Don Repo was spotted in those aircraft. Eastern tried to supress information of these sightings by replacing the log books with new ones! This was confirmed by of our ex- Eastern Airlines colleagues that worked with us in Air Lanka in the early days. But that’s another story!
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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