Features
The Engine Room and Powerful Bureaucrats from JRJ years
Excerpted from volume two of Sarath Amunugama’s autobiography
While JRJ with his seniority and authority was skillfully overseeing his cabinet ministers, he also set up a coterie of officials and personal friends and relatives who became the real power behind the throne. What is significant is that this group were top class professionals who could interact freely but respectfully with the leader and his minsters. JRJ was comfortable with the popular appellation of Nayakathuma or ‘’The Leader’ in public, though it also had undertones of ‘Der Fuhrer’. Only close relatives or intimate friends could address him as ‘Dickie’. The exception were the long standing Marxists, NM, Colvin, Pieter and Bernard Soysa who got on well with him even though they were political opponents.
I remember some ministers grumbling that Bernard Soysa could get anything through the `Old Man’. The core triumvirate of officials was G.V.P. Samarasinghe, Menikdiwela and Sepala Attygalle. Associated with them were Colonel Dharmapala, Harry Jayewardene, Ranjan Wijeratne, Esmond Wickremesinghe, Roly Jayewardene and N.G.P. Panditaratne. This was a powerful clique which had the ear of the leader and together was more powerful than the Cabinet.
They had easy access to JRJ and their views often prevailed over that of ministers, though it never came to an open conflict. Ambitious young ministers sought to curry favour with these advisors as a way of getting into the good books of the leader. Samarasinghe and Menikdiwela’s influence was strong because they had immediate access to JRJ, having their offices close to that of the President. No public servant could see the President without Menik knowing about it.
GVP was the strategist while Menikdiwela was the enforcer. The latter was the President’s link to the public servants and the backbenchers. As Secretary to the President he managed his boss’s diary. In all Presidencies the diary keeper plays a crucial role as gate keeper, since he decides who will or will not meet the big man. Ministers, Diplomats, Permanent Secretaries and other high ups had to wait on him to get an appointment.
This was particularly so in JRJ’s case as he tended to interact with officials through Menikdiwela. He was a vintage political figure and had little personal contact with younger officials. JR was not a micro manager as many Presidents tend to be. As senior officials it was a pleasure to work with JRJ as he was precise, clear and willing to listen. Interviews with him on official matters were quite short. After listening to a narration of a problem he would invariably ask the official to indicate his solution.
On most occasions he would give his approval immediately endorsing the suggested solution and standing by it. He disliked officials who took a long time to explain a problem and was not ready with a solution. Most of his decisions were highly predictable because he had been advocating such measures over a long period of time. For instance he had spoken of changing the Constitution and introducing an executive Presidential system many years before he became President.
In power he carefully drafted a new republican constitution with the help of specialists like A.J. Wilson, Kingsley de Silva and lawyers J.A. Cooray and Harry Jayewardene. He had advocated the issue of free school books when he was in the State Council. As President he implemented it without counting the cost. He backed Ronnie to the hilt in liberalizing the economy, while strengthening the safety net for the poor. Both were not unreconstructed capitalists; they both had a streak of socialism and refused to follow the dictates of the multilateral organizations like the IMF and the World Bank. When the World Bank was imposing unacceptable conditions regarding the funding of the accelerated Mahaweli scheme, JRJ threatened its Vice President David Hopper that he would go to commercial banks.
Indeed, he undertook the building of all the Mahaweli dams on bilateral credit with friendly donors. Some were outright grants. This predictability may have had its drawbacks. He depended heavily on the US and the West, leading to disenchantment with him by India. This pained him because of all the local politicians he was the great ‘India lover’. In his own words he was “a lover of India and a follower of her greatest son.
The new economy became a liability when it came to managing ethnic relations in the country. India wielded the big stick and Sri Lanka got embroiled in an ethnic conflict which blighted JRJ’s achievements and spilt over to paralyze his successors. As I shall show later this was exacerbated by the inefficiency and lack of realism on the part of our Foreign Ministry which continuously gave him bad advice concerning India.
Hameed the Foreign Minister was not popular in India. De Silva and Wriggins refer to JRJ telling them that Morarji Desai asked him to have a Sinhalese as the Foreign Minister. Later on in this chapter there will be discussion on the role of the Foreign Ministry which exacerbated the Indo-Lanka conflict.
G.V.P. Samarasinghe
The lynch pin of JRJs ‘engine room’ was G.V.P. Samarasinghe, who was a top bureaucrat and a star of the CCS. He had joined the CCS in the halcyon days of that service and was proud of his achievements in it from the time of his cadetship in the forties. He was quite fond of me. It was probably because he too was a maverick official, who liked to work in the provinces and had a distinguished record as the Director of Rural Development when he was taken under the wing of DS Senanayake.
He was a supporter of the UNP because he liked its rural approaches under the Senanayakes. Though he graduated with a good degree in English he knew Pali and Sanskrit. His father had been a wellknown Ayurvedic physician in Colombo and was a member of the Vidyadhara Sabha which was the governing body of Vidyodaya Pirivena. Once when the seniormost priest at Maligakanda died, GVP asked me to accompany him and represent him on the funeral organizing committee.
He was a strong believer in the supremacy of the CCS and was contemptuous of the other services though he enjoyed the company of a few senior DROs like Stanley Maralande who had worked under him when he was GA Kegalle. He was proud of his role as the Chairman of the State Trading Corporation where he completely reorganized this commercial institution into a profit making national venture.
He told me that from his desk in Colombo he could instantly oversee all the operations of the STC. This was facilitated by his network of underlings from all over the country coming from the Rural Development field and the State Trading Corporation who would visit him in his Jawatte road home and provide him with information about what was going on in the countryside. He was fiercely loyal to these former employees and would help in getting their children into schools and into minor jobs in the Government service.
Once he explained his personnel policy to me in the following way. As a cadet in the CCS he had been trained in administration by Sir Velupillai Coomaraswamy, who was then Government Agent of a district which was of top priority to the British, Trincomalee. Coomaraswamy had told GVP, “Do not worry about a job; worry about the man you assign to do that job. If he is good he will do it. Even if he cannot, he will try his level best to succeed.”
GVP relished challenges and his political bosses came to depend heavily on him. He would invite a few of us to his house for a drink of his favourite ‘pol arrack’ and chain smoking “Three Rose” cigarettes reminisce about his days as a young civil servant in the provinces. While he had many friends among leftist leaders, he was a dedicated UNPer and a super-efficient implementer of the President’s decisions.
Another super-efficient administrator was my University friend Wickreme Weerasooria. He ran the Ministry of Plan Implementation and together with Planning Officers who adored him, took that Ministry to perform very efficiently in rural development much to the envy of the SLAS, which was losing its pre-eminent position due to the open market policies of the new government and the rise of a new phalanx of entrepreneurs who were supported by the Government and did not need to go behind bureaucrats.
Also large scale recruitment to the SLAS led to a rapid decline in quality which made it only one cut above the clerical service. While the new business elite was encouraged by JRJ they naturally were more comfortable with the younger Ministers like Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali much to the suspicion of Premadasa who thought, perhaps rightly, that he was a crucial factor in winning the 1977 election and deserved to be treated as a special favourite.
To this must be added JRJs personal preference for an upper class westernized life style which had marked both him and Dudley. Having being dowered with a fortune which made his living comfortable, JRJ was never a spendthrift or a show off. But he liked to spend evenings in his house, or President’s House, with his friends enjoying a brandy and a quality cigar after a western meal with wine.
Being very methodical and forthright, while being very democratic in the public arena – with no inhibitions about food and companionship – he was very choosy when it came to his personal life and associates. After he wrapped up his busy official duties during the day, in the evenings he was a private person and meetings were by invitation only. He was not a workaholic like Premadasa who was politicking day and night.
JRJ had time for his wife and family, especially his grandchildren to whom he was a tolerant ‘Seeya’ being both guardian and companion. Only a few favourites like Gamini, Wickreme, Esmond and Ranil Wickremesinghe, Upali Wijewardene, Ranjan Wijeratne, Menikdiwela and Bodinagoda could see him without prior appointment. This led to much heartburn among senior ministers like EL Senanayake and Hameed who felt that their activities were put under the scanner at these informal meetings.Ronnie and Lalith on the other hand were more relaxed about these cabals because the leader went out of his way to consult them on technical matters. All in all while there was a creative tension and Premadasa was surreptitiously building up his forces, the towering personality of JRJ and his proven success of delivering a five sixth majority in Parliament, held the party together.
The Opposition was in tatters and the old left leaders were in the wilderness though everybody knew that JRJ would bend backwards to humor them. When they complained about some decisions regarding Mahaweli settlements on the instigation of Ernest Abeyratne, the Director of Agriculture, he sent NM and Colvin with Gamini Dissanayake by helicopter to visit the site and solve the problem. In the Information Ministry, Minister Wijetunga and I worked closely with Esmond Wickremesinghe who at that time had left Lake House management to his brother-in-law Ranjit Wijewardene, and was managing a News Agency called Lankapuwath. It was a pleasure to work with this legendary ‘backroom operator’ of the UNP who had pulled the strings of its leaders from the time of Sir John onwards, and had masterminded the defeat of the Bill to nationalize Lake House which led to the fall of the Sirimavo government in 1965.
GVP was instrumental in setting up the Development Secretaries Committee. He presided over a weekly meeting of selected Secretaries. To the best of my recollection it included Finance, Trade and Shipping, Food and Agriculture, Public Administration and Home Affairs, Plan Implementation, Industries and Tourism as well as Information that I represented. We would meet every Tuesday and go over the agenda for the Cabinet meeting which was scheduled to be held every Wednesday morning.
Observations sent by line ministries were studied and a common position was ironed out with the concurrence of the secretaries concerned. Once this meeting was concluded GVP and Menikdiwela would brief the President who would therefore be fully aware of the consensus of views of Secretaries and could add whatever he wanted to the proposals before him. Needless to say it gave GVP almost dictatorial powers and many a minister discussed their proposals with him before preparing their Cabinet papers. Since GVP was a workaholic and a master draftsman this system worked very well. I have participated in many Cabinet meetings but none have had the comprehensiveness and usefulness of GVP’s background briefings on the issues discussed.
Menikdiwela
Another important person in the new administration was W.M.P.B. Menikdiwela who kept the wheels of the administration moving. He was a DRO who had caught Dudley’s eye when he served in Dedigama. During the Dudley administration of 1965-70 he was assistan secretary to the PM and had been a fanatical Senanayake loyalist. In 1970 he had been transferred to the boondocks, but had managed to remain in Colombo as a Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition which then was an SLAS position.After Dudley’s death both he and GVP were recruited by JRJ to be his advisors. When Felix Bandaranaike tried to arrest JRJ on his return from Australia, on the eve of the 1977 election, Menikdiwela was able to mobilize his public service links to frustrate that effort. This made JRJ a great believer in his Secretary’s competence and made him his chief point man in interacting with Government officials.
These innovations made the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration DBIPS Siriwardhana somewhat redundant but he soldiered on unhappily. In effect this was the end of DBIPS’ career. Though much praised, I found him to be an eccentric and something of a showoff. Whenever he took a decision DBIPS made sure that his journalist sycophants were well briefed about it. He died a disappointed man a few years later.
Many senior ex- CCS officers like Balasuriya, Elkaduwe and Premawardene, who had no charges served on them, were discontinued from service in mid career and Siriwardene made no attempt to stand up for them. He never went out of his way even when he could help a fellow officer to get his entitlement. All these officials who were cut off in their mid-career from the Civil Service were unjustly treated by the Government but DBI would not lift a finger on their behalf. Since the UNP rule lasted for 17 years these victimized officers could not get redress from a successor Government. All three officers were liberal but not politically partisan. Their dismissal was a blot on the Ministry of Public Administration as well as the JRJ regime.
On the contrary Menik would help many public servants, particularly former DROs, by briefing JRJ who generally went along with his recommendations. During this period the public service was greatly improved by the rise of the Planning Service which came directly under the President and was managed by Wickreme Weerasooria as Permanent Secretary. Most of the rural development work was transferred to the Planning Service.
Radical changes came only in JRJ’s second term when the Provincial Council system was introduced and the monopoly of the central government was undermined. I found it very easy to work with Menik as I had known him as my neighbour in the Kynsey road housing complex during the Dudley era. Later when I was a minister under CBK, I made an effort to get him an appointment as an Ambassador. But many who had benefited from his kindness refused to support him and Menik died a disillusioned man.
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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